Five steps to bring developers and users closer
I started my career as a software developer a few decades ago as part of an enterprise IT function. I was blessed to work in new development projects using state-of-the-art technologies. While I loved the technology, I also absolutely enjoyed interacting with users. I could visit their offices where they took orders and created invoices; […]
CHOW #279 – When Customer doesn’t accept releases on Cadence ?
Last week, Eashwar called me and said he wanted to meet me urgently on a critical issue. He said on phone. “Everything we had planned as part of an Agile Transformation is crumbling fast and our customer is not accepting frequent releases. What should I do now?” I asked him to calm down. We set […]
Four lessons learnt while coaching leaders
I have been working with leaders in the last few years as an agile coach. When I say ‘leaders’, these are people in middle management roles in large corporates. Intent of this blog is to share some of the lessons I learnt in the process. In the agile world, it is commonly felt that middle […]
Rebus based Agile Crossword
All clues are given as rebuses. To solve each clue look at the rebus corresponding to the clue. The answer indicated by the rebus is the solution to the clue. Note that all solutions are words related to Agile. Happy Rebusing and Crosswording! (Note that Rebuses 6,7,8,9 and 11 are difficult. Their explanation is given […]
Agile and Cybersecurity – How to get started
Most of us would have read about the recent ransomware hit on Colonial pipeline, one of the largest oil pipelines in the US. They had to temporarily halt all the operations, it impacted some of the company’s IT system and suffered a huge loss. It took almost a week to bring back the services and […]
Is Dependency a real Challenge? Are we learning?
Scaling Agile discussions always revolve around dependencies. At some point, it even appears as if once the problem of dependencies is addressed, there is nothing more to do in Scaling Agile. To address the dependency, challenge some approaches recommend additional ceremonies – like Scrum of Scrums, some new co-ordination roles, etc. Is dependency a real […]
Is it time to change the Scrum Master?
There are many discussions going on in the industry on the appropriateness of the word Scrum Master: Why not Agile Master? Is Scrum = Agile? It’s not gender neutral. Would women playing the role be Scrum Mistress? If it’s about mastery, does just a certificate make someone a Master? If this role is Scrum Master, […]
Agile Transformation: Journey on Treadmill
In many Agile Transformation engagements, we notice that Leaders and Managers take a compliance-led approach – mostly due to the past baggage of traditional ways of management style. They try to push the change top-down on to the Teams. This gives a false perception of things moving fast. But they soon stagnate or go back […]
CHOW #233 – What’s in a name?
That which we call a rose By any other word would smell as sweet; — Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2, Lines 43-44 What lesson about Agile can we learn from these famous lines of Shakespeare’s Juliet? Suggested Solution The lesson we can learn is that we have to understand the main intent behind […]
CHOW # 229 – Should you re-size your stories or not?
Sharada is the Scrum Master for the team that delivers the Case Management module for NextGenPlatform Inc’s Digital Transformation platform. The team finished their release planning three weeks ago and completed the product increment for their first sprint last Friday. They are into their sprint planning session for sprint 2. The PO provides details on […]
