Tag: Agile

  • Antifragility for Agilists

    Yesterday we hosted a talk at the Global Scrum Master Summit about antifragility for Scrum Masters (or any agilists, really!), and what Scrum Masters can learn and gain from antifragilty. We first guided participants through the concept of antifragility, starting with a story about chaikhanas (Afghan tea houses and how they’re antifragile), then we looked at an example from…

  • Applying Governance and Constraints to Jira to Increase the Potential for Agility

    Applying Governance and Constraints to Jira to Increase the Potential for Agility

    Customisable software is a double-edged sword. Whilst flexibility means that we can customise a piece of software to the unique needs of an organisation (and even to various unique needs within an organisation), the downside is that too much unaligned and unconstrained customisation, increases the risk that a chaotic system ensues. This is particularly problematic…

  • Burnout Trumps Agility

    Do you remember that odd tale of a how a Ladies Hairdresser from Bradford discovered a formula for heatproof paint (probably a mixture made with children’s PVA glue whilst he was attempting to make his own shampoo). The paint could withstand the heat of 1500C (the heat of a nuclear bomb). The product was demonstrated…

  • Jira Risk Workflow

    This is a basic workflow I’ve used with teams to capture risks and issues. I’ve used a issue type ‘Risk’ for things that might happen and ‘Issue’ which has already happened and that needs to be resolved. Suggested Fields (non-exhaustive) Risk titleDescription: what is current assessment and what is the riskMitigationImpact (scale 1 -5)Likelihood (scale…

  • Review of my personal kanban boards

    Review of my personal Kanban board. Over the course of just over one year: Completed 325 tasks Dismissed 55 tasks (i.e. ‘not aligned’) 33 tasks still in the backlog 6 Core Themes: Career, relationships, body & mind, hobbies, creativity, finance (usually prioritizing three for a longer period of time) Completed eight objectives related to those…

  • My Own Top Ten Agile Coaching Principles

    I’ve been working through the book, ‘Professional Coaching for Agilists’, for the second time round (that’s how good it is) and whilst reviewing Damon Poole’s and Gillian Lee’s principles, I figured I’d have a go at distilling them from 21 down to 10 and then refining them, in order to ‘make them my own’. After…

  • Update to our Miro PI Planning board design

    I’m quite pleased with the latest online Miro PI Planning board which took at least five or six attempts to get to this stage. It’s the closest we’ve got to in terms of Dual Track Agile, with UX working a sprint ahead (or often more than one, if there is some conceptual investigation to be…

  • Future proofing your Agile career

    Future proofing your Agile career

    Last week at the Agile Coaching Academy, we talked about future proofing your agile career. Were others doing this, and if so, what approach were people taking? This was initially prompted by reading Jeff Gothelf’s book ‘Forever employable’ as well as a keen interest from myself in the idea of antifragility. I also read somewhere…

  • Weekly Agile Coaching Reflection

    Weekly Agile Coaching Reflection

    This morning I loaded up my calendar after a few days off work, only to discover that I was late for my own ‘weekly review’ with myself! After quickly apologizing to myself and making up an excuse about connection problems, I started reflecting. In fact, I had completely forgotten that I had even committed myself…

  • The subtle power of coaching conversations

    A colleague at work was overstretched (fearing burn out) and the response from the business was inadequate to his predicament. In the past I would’ve gladly offered my opinion about the situation. Instead, this time, I offered a coaching session, and booked some time in the diary. In the end, my colleague didn’t need the…