The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

Making One’s Self Redundant “The goal of a Scrum Master is to make themselves redundant” So I preached this mantra, and always managed to get a good deal of nods by those around me. Then came along one day when I was made redundant. Literally. I was hit by a wave of lay offs, and this made me reflect thoroughly on what I had been preaching for so long. In the time I was given to work in that organ...

10 Bridges... In the journey we call life, each of us will have bridges to cross. Each brdge will lend to our growth experience, and opportunity. Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss what to do when you discover a bridge and the tools you need to cross them. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram]  https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook]  https://...

What Tools Should We Use To Improve Our Meetings? I think it takes a team several steps to adapt to a new methodology and mindset. First, the team struggled to understand and apply the simplest events from the Scrum framework. Sometimes we had to repeat the reason for a single event over and over again. Why we are sitting together now and what is the goal of the event? In addition, the team strugg...

Should We Nuke The Backlog? Maybe... “My boss won’t stand for me deleting the backlog” I empathise. I know it happens. At the same time I wonder:  does your boss really care?  — I’m sure some of them do, I see many Product Owners who are really “Backlog administrators.” Their boss is certainly leaning over their shoulder checking on what being done. If this is your case then your boss is the real...

Is Rotating Team Members Ever a Good Idea? Misperception:  The rotation of team members mixes things up and keeps ideas fresh. Reality:  The longer a team stays together, the better they perform. In contrast to typical beliefs, keeping a team intact for a long time will increase the team’s performance. Furthermore, the team will continue to improve the longer they stay together. The common thinkin...

How Do We Do an Agile Maturity Assessment? Many organizations are trying to figure out how to measure Agile Maturity. In this episode we discuss the top 2 ways to do such a measurement: 1) The Agile Principles Assessment 2) The AgileDad Agile 12 Step Assessment. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram]  https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook] ...

8 Uncomfortable Truths About Life That Will Wake You Up “The people you attract (or don’t attract) reflect your vibes.” “No one cares about your opinion until you show results.” “It’s not lack of talent. It’s fear of making sacrifices.” “You truly appreciate life only after you almost die.” “You don’t know how important it is until you lose it.” “Most people don’t know you exist and don’t care abo...

3 Ways To Improve Teamwork Centralize Work to a Common Task Management System The first is basic and it is about centralizing work and the tasks associated with that work in a task management system open to all. Nothing drags down the ability to collaborate than having information spread out across many different tools and platforms. I found though that centralizing all of the work to be pursued b...

Enabling Conflict - An Essential ScrumMaster Skill? The scrum master as we know has a variety of responsibilities. Those towards the team, those towards the product owner and those towards the organisation as a whole. They are change agents and masters at systems thinking. I have once read a list of 42 tasks that a scrum master needs to do. Definitely not a part time role for a team member. I have...

Top 5 Mistakes That Block Teams From Delivering High Business Value Misunderstanding of Scrum : some teams forget Scrum is a means to an end, where the goal is to maximize the business value. Misunderstanding of value : until everyone doesn’t have a common understanding of what business value means, there will be confusion, which will prevent the teams from maximizing the business value. No Focus...

3 Things most Leaders Get Wrong About Culture Culture Is Unique The first assumption leaders get wrong about culture is that their culture is unique. Most leaders describe how unique and special their culture is and then proceed to tell you about how great the people are, or how supportive of each other the teams are, or how great the benefits are. See where this is going? Most positive company cu...

5 Principles That Transform Gifts Into Relationship Boosters 1. Make the Receiver Feel Seen — Truly Seen 2. Make It Mutual 3. Bring Out the Best in Them 4. Money, Time, or Energy: Choose Your Resources Wisely 5. Give It a Meaning How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook]  ⁠https://www.facebook.com/Rea...

Are ScrumMasters Shared or Dedicated? The Short Answer is YES! Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss when and how the ScrumMaster should be dedicated and when it is more important that they are shared. Both apply, it is a matter of understanding when and how. How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook]  ⁠htt...

3 Tips to Help You Understand Objective Story Points 1) NEVER associate points and time - Understand the container concept 2) Break things down so that each story is indeed consumable 3) Make certain you have the right people in the room when breaking down and refining stories How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coa...

3 Valuable Lessons on Agile Transformation Lesson 1: You can’t help everyone equally if you’re stretching yourself thin. Ask for help! Lesson 2: Hire early, and hire  right . Lesson 3: Say “No” so your team can say “Yes”. Learn to limit WIP and you will be successful! How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [f...

5 Words That Create Additional Psychological Safety at Work I’ve Never Done This Before. Simple, right? Five words. One sentence. Boom. That’s it. What I’ve realized is that over the last few years, these major deliveries, tiny successes, and teachable moments were lined up on the same set of starting blocks. We tried do something that hasn’t been done before. So much of the productivity and leade...

The Core of Motivation - Understanding What Drives You As you embark on the journey of self-awareness, understanding what motivates you and the mechanics behind your decisions becomes imperative. Whether you’re a leader aiming to inspire a team, an educator molding young minds, or simply someone keen on self-improvement, grasping the crux of motivation can be transformative. Today, let’s delve int...

Who Gets Blamed When Agile Goes Wrong? When something goes wrong with a project, who gets blamed? If you are the Product Owner, Scrum Master or Project Manager, you’re probably saying that the leader gets the blame. If you’re a Scrum Team or development team member, you’re probably saying, “We always get blamed.” What if the reality of the situation is it’s a bit of both, and both failures could b...

How You Define Success In Agile Matters! - Mike Cottmeyer There’s been a divide in the Agile community for a while now. On one side, you have the camp that’s all about team-based, iterative and incremental delivery. On the other side, you have the camp that sees Agile more of a social movement; this side is all about empowering the teams and building a culture or a mindset of Agility. Meanwhile, a...

4 Challenges A Leader May Face When Leaning In On Agile Principles Using Agile principles as a team leader can also pose some challenges or pitfalls that you need to be aware of and prepared for. Here are some of the possible challenges or pitfalls that you may encounter: Resistance to change : Some of your team members, customers, or stakeholders may be reluctant or resistant to adopt Agile princ...

6 Agile Principles to Help You Become a Better Leader Agile principles can help you become a better team leader by improving your leadership skills in various aspects, such as communication, collaboration, feedback, adaptation, empowerment, and delivery. Here are some examples of how you can apply Agile principles to your team leadership: Communication : You can use face-to-face conversations as t...

Dreams Really Do Come True - Richard Branson Those of you that know me well, I always call Richard Branson a role model and someone that I admire VERY much! He is a great man and does all he can to uplift others. Someone asked him what was the very first thing he thought of when he went into space? His answer may just surprise you! How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.c...

Demystifying The Definition of Ready Are you ready? Each time we hear these word, whether we are planning for a vacation, planning for a sprint, or about to receive BIG news, our minds go on auto-pilot and start running through the checklist to make certain everything is in order. My BIG ask is are we doing this too late in Agile? Let's talk about the definition of ready and how if it is not a...

3 Tips To Further Develop Your ScrumMaster - Mike Cohn I was chatting with my colleague the other day. He told me that even more than the first day of school, he’s always loved the feeling of the first day at a new job. Why? Because everything is new and everyone you meet has yet to form an opinion about you. You have a clean slate and the possibilities seem endless. But what about when it’s not a...

What Are Sprint Goals & Do They Work? Sprint goal represents what you as Scrum Team want to achieve during the sprint. It must be the focus of the iteration. Years ago, we were doing waterfall project management. We were spending a tremendous amount of time in requirements and trying to reach a state of the art product. The products were lasting longer. With the digital revolution, speed matte...