Observations1 Comment

Change the future to change the present

James King

One of the challenges of an agile coach, on the surface, is to get people to behave differently. But why? There are many reasons that getting people to change the way they behave is hard and there are many solutions. In fact one of the reasons I think that coaches like “Shu Ha Ri” is that is gets people to do what they are told and saves a lot of debate. However, getting people to change the way they behave is the wrong starting point. I have been coaching a couple of high performing teams recently and also working with … Continue reading Change the future to change the present

ObservationsLeave a comment

When everyone is accountable, who really is?

James King

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?

ObservationsLeave a comment

How do I know that is true?

James King

I help teams be “more agile.”

My favourite approach is to help them build a culture of self improvement. I figure that if we get that right, then the team will invent all the agile things that they need.

An extremely basic approach to getting better

This should work in theory, but it means the team will be limited to learning based on their own experience. So how will they know if they are learning the right skills?

Continue reading “How do I know that is true?”
ObservationsLeave a comment

Are my stakeholders logical?

James King

When I went to university, I learned a lot about decision making in a business context. I learned that decisions should be sound and logical, based on good analysis, which in turn depends on the collection of evidence that is relevant, reliable and free from bias. That is not exactly what I found when I starting working though. Instead, most decisions seemed to be instinctive, based on a spur of the moment assessment of whatever information was immediately at hand. At first I assumed that small decisions must be based on quick input and that large decisions should be based … Continue reading Are my stakeholders logical?

ObservationsLeave a comment

Technical excellence and a geek tragedy

James King

I had an idea for a story. A kind of “geek tragedy,” based on the idea that the very things that the team are most proud of, might also be the seeds of their DOOM. I thought I would play with an outline here and see if the story comes to anything. Idea one – a theoretical team of techies Let’s say we have an agile teams that wants to continually focus on technical excellence. In fact excelling technically is something that is very dear to them. They are a small team that works on a stand alone product. Things … Continue reading Technical excellence and a geek tragedy

ObservationsLeave a comment

Perhaps product based thinking is holding agile back

James King

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

ObservationsLeave a comment

Goal Setting (By a 9 year old)

James King

Goal setting is something I have to do, as we have to do it a lot during school. I think that goal setting is a great idea, but it is not always the easiest to do. Hopefully this article helps you with it. Types of goals Goals can be silly. Last week we had to make a goal in music and mine was to be able to carry my trombone in its case, as it is REALLY heavy. Though in other things, my goals are less silly. My maths goal isn’t silly. My maths goal is to be able to … Continue reading Goal Setting (By a 9 year old)