I claim that an agile team is a self-organizing team, which means that everyone in the team is accountable for the successes of the team (and the shortcomings). But is this really true? (hint – yes). But the big book of Scrum says you must have specific accountabilities. In Scrum, there is a saying that the PO is responsible for what the team does and “the team” is responsible for how they do it. However, my opinion is different here to how some Scummers interpret that statement. I do NOT take it to mean that the team mindlessly accept work … Continue reading When everyone is accountable, who really is?

Many years ago I was sitting in the OBH hotel by Cottesloe Beach, relaxing and shooting the breeze while we waited for the sun to set. I found myself listening to someone talk about his experience teaching Kung Fu. I … Continue reading Applying the secret of Kung Fu

I have been told that I am a very logical, analytical person, but I would say that is only about 43% right. To demonstrate my grasp of sound logic, I want to present my argument that assessing an argument logically … Continue reading Why don’t logical people listen to logic?

I love learning new things and I love sharing my ideas. One of the best things in life is to go the pub or a BBQ and just debate the philosophy on nothing in particular. Another is to sit down … Continue reading I got quoted in a podcast by Bill Echlin

I was running projects when I first encountered agile techniques. I still remember the joy of reading the book “Agile Project Management” and seeing clearly how I could improve the way I ran projects. Even before that though, I had adopted improved ways of working that were really just common sense, even before I knew that they were agile). In particular I found agile approaches brought two very powerful things to project delivery: We leverage the community to deliver, rather than aligning resources to critical paths; and We continuously manage risk using a “sense and respond” approach rather than “Planning … Continue reading Perhaps product based thinking is holding agile back

I have been having a lot of online meetings lately and they obviously have their challenges. Rather strangely though, online meetings often seem more efficient than face to face meetings. There is no waiting for a meeting room and no trouble booking a room. Best of all, people are eager to get through the agenda and get out of the meeting. I was wonder if, when people are face to face, they might start to expect the same etiquette and efficiency that they expect online. But not all meetings are meant to be efficient, something I had forgotten that until … Continue reading Sunset on the pub based retro?