Somehow I missed agile going mainstream

On By James KingIn Agile fables, ObservationsLeave a comment

I recently stumbled on this article again – Original article talking scrum.

Actually someone posted it in LinkedIn .

The ideas seemed so clear and so right when I read the article. In fact it seemed like something “the old guard” had ignored in their ignorance.

This was fresh, free thinking that the old guard would ignore now to their peril, while we who understood it would usher in a new world.

But then I realised that it was written in the 1980’s and was already quite old when I read it the first time.

I had an epiphany.

I used to laugh at old guys who said things like “Cool Daddy o” and “Rock on.” They seemed to think that they were radical and a bit out of control, but to me their music was “what my parents used to listen to.”

It hit me that not long ago, “agile” was something we talked about in cafes as part of the anti-establishment fight against pointless bureaucracy.

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Would you prefer coaching or coaching?

On By James KingIn Agile development, Capability growthLeave a comment

I ran an agile coaching course recently and, naturally, we spoke a lot about coaching.

We ran through a lot of different techniques and approaches to coaching people in agile teams, but we discovered that both “coaching” and “agile” might mean different things to different people in different teams.

Then someone asked how they would know when to apply different approaches to coaching. The answer we came up with was:

“It depends who you are coaching and what they are hoping to achieve.”

That left people a little confused about how and when to apply different techniques. So we came up with the following diagram that might help (although I have added a couple of bits based on previous conversations with people).

coaching types

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Notes on story walls – longer term planning

On By James KingIn Agile development, ObservationsLeave a comment

I have been writing about story walls and how agile teams might use them to manage their work.  But some agile teams feel rushed because, although they can see what needs doing today, they don’t know what is coming next.

So in this article, I will extend the idea of using a story wall to look into the future.

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Notes on story walls – story or task?

On By James KingIn Agile development, Implementation, ObservationsLeave a comment

In my last article, I talked about “story walls” but in fact, I focused on task walls.  The difference is minor but choosing one over the other can help improve collaboration among the team.

Task walls, predictably, are about tasks – “today I will do task 1” while story walls focus on the thing being built – “today I am working on story 3.”

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Notes on story walls – simple task walls

On By James KingIn Agile development1 Comment

Most agile teams use story walls – either physical walls or online tools to store their stories.

But a lot of those teams see the wall as a burden rather than a tool that makes life easier for them.  This is a shame because the only reason you want to have a wall is because it makes it quicker and easier for the team to get their work done.

From the perspective of the TEAM, the story wall makes their work visible so that they can more easily collaborate and get things done

Since different teams work differently, they are likely to want different types of story walls. This is the first in a series of articles that run through different types of walls that might be useful to different teams. There is no best practice – just things that suit different teams.

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Quick and easy health checks for Agile teams

On By James KingIn Agile developmentLeave a comment

I often tell Agile coaches to start with a health check on the teams they are about to coach.

People think this a health check is a great idea and they often research complex algorithms and assessment tools.

But that is really hard work for you and the team. So at our coaching clinic we tried a lazier alternative – I put these conversation starter kits up on the wall.

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