Category archives: Scrum & XP
23 April 2013
Author:
Ralf Kruse
Every environment is different. Is the practice you want to try going to be helpful in yours?
As agile coaches, we frequently observe and get involved in discussions around practices, methods and tools. Many of these start with someone suggesting "I think we should try …".
Many of these discussions focus directly on the advantages of the specific method. Often, they lack focus on fitness for purpose or context. There are so many things that we could do. Many methods that work amazingly well for others. Is that enough to start trying them too?
We need to decide which method or tool is important and potentially useful for us in our environment, for our specific, current challenges. Discussions ...
19 February 2013
Author:
Steve Holyer
Sometimes the most important thing I want to say to a manager or a Scrum master is, "Hey, calm down. Don't Panic!"
Sometimes the most important thing I want to say to a manager or a Scrum master is, "Hey, calm down. Don't Panic!"
Or as the Agile Manifesto folks said, "take some time to reflect."
I've watched Scrum masters and managers running around, and I picture them nervously clutching a clipboard crossing off items on a detailed plan to "do something." (To be fair I haven’t seen an actual clipboard since I was the nervous, novice Scrum master running around with one!)
I know you want to do something.
And, here’s what you can do. Trust the ...
18 September 2011
Author:
Olaf Lewitz
What is Feature Injection? And how and why should that be applied to service delivery?
Recently, I worked with a service delivery team in a company that is currently changing into an agile product development organisation. The company develops and runs one of Germany's biggest websites. Let's call them Awesome Online. After introducing Scrum and Kanban to all development teams over the past two years, executive and product management have started to introduce agile and lean thinking into the organisational structure and culture.
Motivation
A main motivational factor for the development teams was the definition of product visions for all products, and the application of Feature Injection as introduced by Liz Keogh to ...
1 August 2011
Author:
Olaf Lewitz
We honour Andreas Leidig as awesome coach of the week 31, 2011!
I first met Andreas @leiderleider Leidig at last year’s AgileCoachCamp. Since then, we met at a few other (un)conferences, collaborated in organising a new one, helped the ALE network grow… In short, we became much more than colleagues. Having met Andreas at the Deutsche Scrum in Stuttgart the week before my holidays, I was reminded of a compliment by Sebastian Schürmann that I wrote about before…
Will Disobey Anyone If Required
Andreas takes this mindset to another level. If there was a word for “dogmatic about being undogmatic”, I’d use it for him:–)
Let me give ...
4 July 2011
Author:
Marion Eickmann
Have you ever wondered how companies like Facebook or Google can develop new working features at such a crazy pace, while others take forever to release shaky software?Answer: they’re using an Agile approach that includes state-of-the-art technical practices. Here you can find the major agile practices in a short but ...
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.
- On
- 4 July 2011
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Scrum,
Scrum & XP,
agile
Have you ever wondered how companies like Facebook or Google can develop new working features at such a crazy pace, while others take forever to release shaky software?
Answer: they’re using an Agile approach that includes state-of-the-art technical practices. Here you can find the major agile practices in a short but detailed overview.
Agile Practices in a Nutshell
17 May 2011
Author:
Olaf Lewitz
We honour Ken Power as Awesome Coach of the Week 20, 2011!
Ken Power is a passionate agile coach from Ireland. We worked together in the ideation phase of the ALE network, played games at Play4Agile and met at the AgileCoachCamp Norway and two XP conferences.
Active Listening
This is Ken, with emphasis on the intensity of his eyes. Even in this picture where you see him intentionally diverting your attention from them his eyes still dominate the image.
I first met Ken in a world cafe about agile coaching at the XP2010 conference in Trondheim, Norway, and he impressed me with his listening skills. I hadn't heard of Active Listening ...
20 April 2011
Author:
Ralf Kruse
We honour Paolo “Nusco” Perrotta as Awesome Coach of the Week 16, 2011!
Paolo came to mind as the second coach who earns the Awesome Coach of the Week award by writing the awesome comment about our first laureate, Richard Lawrence.
Ruby
As with Richard, one contribution of Nusco is very obvious when you read his blog: He's a Ruby guy. I've read a bunch of books about programming, heard about many more, but I have to think hard to come up with any one title that I've seen recommended as often as
Metaprogramming Ruby. Thinking in Java comes to mind, but I think that's from another century... I ...
15 April 2011
Author:
Olaf Lewitz
We’ve known Richard Lawrence for years and worked with him on numerous occasions, mainly on one of the largest agile transition projects in Europe. Through this work, we came to value him as an Awesome Coach and chose to appreciate his contributions to the Agile Coaching community by honoring him with our first ever Awesome Coach of the Week award.
We’ve known Richard for years and worked with him on numerous occasions, mainly on one of the largest agile transition projects in Europe. Through this work, we came to value him as an Awesome Coach and chose to appreciate his contributions to the Agile Coaching community by honoring him with our first ever Awesome Coach of the Week award.
ATDD
Richard’s most obvious contribution to the Agile world has been to the methods and tools of ATDD. He contributed to Cucumber and is the creator of Cuke4Nuke.
An Agile Family
Richard and his wife use a lot of ...
2 April 2011
Author:
Olaf Lewitz
Last Thursday, I had a session on Agile Testing at the QualityConf in Munich. It was a first-time event, intended ...
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."
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- 2 April 2011
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Scrum,
Scrum & XP,
agile
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agile,
quality,
scrum,
tester,
testing
Last Thursday, I had a session on Agile Testing at the QualityConf in Munich.
It was a first-time event, intended for intensive exchange of the HP QualityCenter user community. My talk was a bit off-topic, as I was not talking about software tools, but about organisational change.
Not knowing what level of experience with Agile to expect from that audience was a bit of a challenge for my talk preparation. I chose to create a presentation with a strong focus on two topics:
Why is Agile a good solution for 21st century software projects?
How does “Agile Build Quality In ...
31 March 2011
Author:
Olaf Lewitz
The dwarves were working quite happily before snow white arrived. They had their mountain, the cave, their cosy little home... And each of them worked according to his role. They did not perceive any problem.
One day, coming back home, they found a guest in their house. Snow White had arrived—I guess you know that part of the tale—and had started to initiate some changes.
Snow white and the dwarves
The dwarves were working quite happily before snow white arrived. They had their mountain, the cave, their cosy little home... And each of them worked according to his role. They did not perceive any problem.
One day, coming back home, they found a guest in their house. Snow White had arrived—I guess you know that part of the tale—and had started to initiate some changes.
First, there were struggles. Snow White challenged the status quo. Some dwarves did not like that. But Snow White was insisting, treating them as impediments.
Things changed. Through ...
Ralf Kruse
