Meetings as we commonly organize and execute them are dreadful. Use Meet protocol to create the meetings we want.
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
Meetings as we commonly organize and execute them are dreadful. They don’t make us feel productive. They encourage alienation by coercing us into a situation where we are not sure how we can contribute. No wonder we want to spend our time elsewhere to be more effective.
A few colleagues and me are currently exploring the Core Protocols, a set of communication practices known to be helpful to create great teams. I recently started to experiment with the Meet Protocol. Meet is one of the additional protocols, combining Check In and Alignment. It let’s us establish a clean ...
While I have always been a bit skeptical about certification, I am myself a certified CSP and PMI-ACP. After all there's no better way to know something than to experience it first hand :)
So let's focus on KCP.
I am lucky to know most of the bright and open people in the Kanban community. I had many chances to experience their steady experimenting, learning and sharing attitude. This implies questioning everything :)
So, there's been some debate when the KCP program has been announced by ...
Andrea Tomasini
I am one of those... which those? Those who built all this, including the wonderful tool Agilo for Scrum. What do you think about it?
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
It seems that even if more than a century passed by since the invention of the Corporate structure and the hierarchical management, they are still the most adopted form of structure used today. How can this be? Are Corporate and Management outlasting any other technology and organisational evolution happened over the last 100 years? Or are we just having to deal with very resilient structures, which are hard to dismantle? Or did we ever even thought about challenging them? This presentation is focusing in particular on those aspects which are related to transforming a corporate into an agile company, and ...
agile42’s agile and Scrum competence adds value for Atrada AG
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Atrada AG had some big expectations when they introduced agile methods in the organization: reduced reaction and development time, increased efficiency, and greater customer and employee satisfaction. In order to reach these goals the online marketplace specialists brought in the agile coaches from agile42.
Hello All, it's time again for the next Scrumtisch....
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
it's time again for the next Scrumtisch. I think it will be the last one this year ;-)
Date: 15. Novembet 2012
Time: 18:30
Place (new!): Cafe Restaurant Deseo, Boxhagener Str. 108, http://www.deseo-restaurant.de/
Looking forward to seeing you all! (If you would like to attend, please send an email to scrumtisch@agile42.com, or register at the scrum user group on Xing :-)
The survival of corporations in today’s competitive environment depends on new management thinking.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
“Skills shortage” is an awkward phrase, but the issue it describes is relevant for many companies. Finding the employees you need is hard. Next, you want to keep them. Money alone doesn’t make them happy. Knowledge workers expect more from a job than "just" being paid well. Attractive work environments allow their employees to work autonomously. The required responsibility needs to be encouraged by managers who change their own ways first. They have to go from classic "managing" to "agile leading".
The introduction of agile thinking and practice is a proven way to align autonomous work with your company ...
Effect Mapping is a facilitation technique popularised in the agile and lean community by Gojko Adzic. Use it to save lots of money, by deliberately discovering the scope you need. It helps you finding out which features you really want, and eases your decisions to drop features (projects, systems) you don’t really want.
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
Effect Mapping (or Impact Mapping) is a facilitation technique popularised in the agile and lean community by Gojko Adzic. Use it to save lots of money, by deliberately discovering the scope you need. It helps you finding out which features you really want, and eases your decisions to drop features (projects, systems) you don’t really want.
Scrumtisch - BerlinAugust 29, 2012 This time the Scrumtish was kindly hosted by Andrea Tomasini (follow @tumma72) Questions Collected 1) How to teach non-developers to formulate acceptance criteria 2) How to work with external developers in a Scrum environment 3) What are the characteristics of who can work in an ...
Thomas Bradford
Thom Bradford is a software developer, living and working in Berlin for the world-famous Agile42.
Andrea Tomasini
I am one of those... which those? Those who built all this, including the wonderful tool Agilo for Scrum. What do you think about it?
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
After significant downsizing, a traditional top-down org started to apply agile/lean to their product development. Starting there with Kanban for Portfolio Management, even other departments started to adopt Agile/Lean principles: all in a non-software context!
Gaetano Mazzanti gave a talk at Agile2012 in Dallas yesterday, where he told the interesting story of a successful transition.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
we hope you've had a nice sommer and still have! :) We would like to invite you to an end-of-summer Scrumtisch session in Berlin, which this time will take place at a new location:
Date: 29. August 2012
Time: 18:30
Place (new!): Cafe Restaurant Deseo, Boxhagener Str. 108, http://www.deseo-restaurant.de/
Looking forward to seeing you all! (If you would like to attend, please send an email to scrumtisch@agile42.com, or register at the scrum user group on Xing :-)
At the Agile2012 Conference in Dallas, Hendrik Esser of Ericsson and Andrea Tomasini of agile42 yesterday presented “Down The Pub—How did that transition you were working on go?”
While we're waiting for the video to be edited, we publish the slides and some information here.
Andrea Tomasini
I am one of those... which those? Those who built all this, including the wonderful tool Agilo for Scrum. What do you think about it?
At the Agile2012 Conference in Dallas, Hendrik Esser of Ericsson and Andrea Tomasini of agile42 yesterday presented “Down The Pub—How did that transition you were working on go?”
Slides
The session has been recorded, and while we're waiting for the video to be edited, download the slides:
In my career, I've seen enough managers to lose count. Many of them were not so good, some were OK, and a few were great. That’s enough data to draw conclusions: what makes a great boss great?
It's not charisma. I did meet a few charismatic leaders, and I met some who would have gone unnoticed at any party. Neither stage presence nor the lack of it are crucial.
It's not vision. I've met leaders who could see the big picture, and others who just asked the right people for the right answer. You don ...
Agile42 Having worked with a lot of amazing people at agile42 over the recent 5 years, I have fallen in love with the diversity of thoughts we share. We published our first paper "Agile Transition - What you need to know before starting" and we are looking forward for your feedback
Andrea Tomasini
I am one of those... which those? Those who built all this, including the wonderful tool Agilo for Scrum. What do you think about it?
Martin Kearns
I am an irish guy living in Australia with his wife and six children (a family of the size of a Scrum Team). How he can manage to be a Scrum Coach travelling all over the world and at the same time be part of such a huge family?
Having worked with a lot of amazing people at agile42 over the recent 5 years, I have fallen in love with the diversity of thoughts we share. The problem is that nobody else really got to appreciate such insights, as we fail to publish many of them. To address that issue we have been working throughout the year creating a series of internal initiatives which work on a common aim: to share knowledge with a broader community. You may notice more blogs at agile42.com.
The next step
From my perspective the blog posts are a great starting point ...
Visit us at the Agile2012 conference in Dallas, Texas!
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
agile42 will participate in this year's Agile2012 conference in Dallas, Texas, presented by the Agile Alliance! Make sure to visit us at "… the world’s largest conference for Agile teams, developers, managers, and executives. Experience the full array of Agile development methodologies, technologies and tools, leadership principles, and management philosophies and processes. Select from over 200 talks, tutorials, and workshops, then return home with transformative new skills, ideas and perspectives that you can put into practice immediately" (see http://agile2012.agilealliance.org/)!
Here's a list of what agile42 will present at the conference:
Planning is the art of predicting the future as accurately as possible by assuming that past events - which brought to a positive outcome - would happen again in the future if we are able to recreate the same conditions.
Franz Ivancsich
I am a true believer in agile, lean and yoga. Sometimes a prophet, sometimes a pirat.
Planning is the art of predicting the future as accurately as possible by assuming that past events - which brought to a positive outcome - would happen again in the future if we are able to recreate the same conditions. You could argue about the past being a good reference to make prediction about the future. I like to see it in a pragmatic way: as human beings, we base almost all our decisions about the future on what we have learned in the past. So far at least, the past has proven ...
Tips for the beginner Product Owner: How many PO? We are the many! How many Product Owners do you need? Basically, this article is about why it is a bad idea trying to counter a dysfunctional situation by adding more people to the job. A phenomenon that I encountered often ...
Franz Ivancsich
I am a true believer in agile, lean and yoga. Sometimes a prophet, sometimes a pirat.
We are the many! How many Product Owners do you need?
Basically, this article is about why it is a bad idea trying to counter a dysfunctional situation by adding more people to the job.
A phenomenon that I encountered often is that companies tend to hire more Product Owners when their setup with one does not seem to work. Can the reflex to just hire more people when the existing ones are not doing what is expected from them help?
Agile product development and agile project management bring about rapid realisation of objectives, whilst delivering exactly the result with the greatest possible commercial benefit. Ensuring a smooth switch to agile processes calls for professional support: coaches with extensive project experience and certified trainers are on hand to support teams and companies of all sizes through this change – worldwide, and with customised coaching.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Berlin, 11 June 2012 – Agile methods and agile development of software and hardware bring great flexibility, whilst being leaner than traditional models. Instead of defining the full details of a project in advance via sets of specifications, under the agile approach it is only the next key stage that is targeted. The individual stages (sprints) rarely last more than two weeks, meaning that it is easy to maintain an overview at all times. Adaptations – which are necessary on all major development projects as they progress – can be implemented more easily using this empirical approach than using ...
Be honest: is your daily standup meeting (or daily Scrum) highly valuable, or is it really just a status meeting where everyone goes through the motions, answering the standard three questions like zombie automatons?
A mature team must first understand the goal, follow the principles, and then skillfully apply the appropriate tools and techniques to achieve the goal for the daily standup. Here are a few techniques to add to your toolbox.
Brad Swanson
Brad Swanson started programming at age 10 on the Apple IIe, and was initiated into Agile development using XP in 1999. Brad is a Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) who is passionate about helping organizations achieve sustainable excellence.
Be honest: is your daily standup meeting (or daily Scrum) highly valuable, or is it really just a status meeting where everyone goes through the motions, answering the standard three questions like zombie automatons?
Why a Daily Standup?
Let’s start with why. What is the purpose of the daily stand up?
To agree as a team on how to deliver the most value in the next working day
To inspect and adapt the sprint plan if necessary, in order to deliver the most value in the sprint
We also have a set of lean & agile principles to guide us ...
Agility is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. To understand
what's behind agility, you need Agile Reading Glasses.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Agility is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. To understand
what's behind agility, you need Agile Reading Glasses.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Agility is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. To understand
what's behind agility, you need Agile Reading Glasses.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Agility is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. To understand
what's behind agility, you need Agile Reading Glasses.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
In April 2012 Andrea Tomasini had a Keynote at the Lifecycle Conference in Munich. He started his presentation with some information about Customer Capitalism.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
In April 2012 Andrea Tomasini had a Keynote at the Lifecycle Conference in Munich. He started his presentation with some information about Customer Capitalism and what are the changes in the business world over the past years?
A large number of economists, sociologists and even historians are dealing with this question. And certainly they have the proper qualification to analyze the various farreaching dimensions of the changes. Our point of view is far more pragmatic. We describe the changes from the perspectives of Managers and Entrepreneurs, trying to give a holistic picture of the “What” and “Why”. Let’s ...
Hello all,
I am happy to tell you, that Dave Snowden (Cynefin Framework) followed my invitation to speak at the Scrumtisch in June.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
I am happy to tell you, that Dave Snowden (Cynefin Framework) followed my invitation to speak at the Scrumtisch in June. We expect quite a lot of people, and therefor I am also happy, that Hypoport is hosting this Scrumtisch.
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Last week, I facilitated a StrategicPlay session at ScanAgile titled “Agile Community Building – Using StrategicPlay with Lego”. Participants co-created a vision of the perfect agile community. We captured the teams presenting their models on video. Enjoy the inspiration!
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
Last week, I facilitated a StrategicPlay session at Scan-Agile titled “Agile Community Building – Using StrategicPlay with Lego”. Participants co-created a vision of the perfect agile community. We captured the teams presenting their models on video. Enjoy the inspiration!
The Agile Elephant
The first presentation shows “Agile” on the back of an elephant (the similarity to Discworld was intentional, I heard later) confronting the established mindset... Note the reference to Brian Marick.
Ivory Tower of Knowledge
Valuable ideas are created and brought to the customer. Flowers, a disco ball, and a flag, of course.
Here are some notes from the Scrumtisch in Berlin on 28.02.2012!
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Following is the list of topics proposed for discussion and the number of votes for each.
Alignment between sprint goal and the Stories that are pulled into a sprint. What to do if the Product Owner is not providing stories that align with the goal (17 Votes)
Testers - Which problems they face when placed on a Scrum Team. What the problems are and how they contribute to the sprint and integrate with the Team (8 Votes)
How long can you survive with Scrum without a Product Owner (13 Votes)
What is the effect and balance of communication and coordination within ...
Hello All, here we go again. :-) Date: 28. February 2012 Time: 18:30 Place: Cafe Restaurant Hundertwasser, Simon Dach / Ecke Krossener Strasse I am looking forward to see you there Marion
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
We currently witness the beginning of a new era. It has been given various names, as nobody is yet able to predict its nature. It’s been called the conceptual age, information is not enough anymore. Relationships become more important, where “knowledge stacks are replaced by knowledge flows”. Abundance, connections and choice change the game: “Mass is dead. Here comes weird.”
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
“Classical strategic planning is based upon the assumption of a slowly changing future. This assumption is wrong.”
Noah Rahford
We currently witness the beginning of a new era. It has been given various names, as nobody is yet able to predict its nature. It’s been called the conceptual age, information is not enough anymore. Relationships become more important, where “knowledge stacks are replaced by knowledge flows”. Abundance, connections and choice change the game: “Mass is dead. Here comes weird.”
It’s a paradigm shift. We haven't yet figured out where it will lead our kind, as we can ...
It is quite interesting to note how little most software developers know about hardware development. Many of us take it for granted that hardware development cannot match the pace of software. While this might be true for the case of the best software teams, able to update a software system every few minutes using continuous integration, for the common pace of biweekly software delivery this is nothing more than a false assumption.
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
At today’s ScrumTisch, the first chosen topic by the crowd was how to do Agile with non-software teams. We started the discussion with a short list of questions:
What to show at the end of the timebox?
How to set the length of the timebox?
Interestingly, these questions, although raised by the audience, apparently were not hot enough to actually get discussed... (the topic Agile Beyond Software is much broader than this post, I’m just covering what was discussed tonight—a touch on the surface...)
Hardware
It turned out, that the person suggesting the topic actually had a ...
This article, published in the Financial Times Germany in December 2012, is about Landau Media, one of agile42s long time customer. Unfortunately the article is only available in German, but maybe google translate will help :-) Marion
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Agile might still be a small niche which apparently is not yet recognised by the “serious” business thinkers’ community. There seem to be people out there who are rethinking management and business for the 21st century, and we are not connected to them although collaboration between us could produce great results.
Olaf Lewitz
agile42 Coach.
Visiting Business Influencer and Linchpin.
My motto is that of NannyMcPhee: "When you need me, but do not want me, I must stay. When you want me, but no longer need me, then I have to go."
Stephen Parry (@leanvoices) said at the ALE2011 conference that he would like to see agile/lean practitioners joining forces, using their distributed open social network to amplify their knowledge of how Agile works and how it should not be used ("to do the wrong ...
Next Scrumtisch Berlin will happen in January 2012
Marion Eickmann
I am one of the founders of agile42. Even though I am not an engineer I
consider myself almost a "Techi" as I have been working in the field of
software development for 10 years now.
Olaf Lewitz
While I tell you the story of my session, I’ll highlight the impact you can achieve ...
