The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

What do you LOVE about Agile? Join us for this special Valentines Day episode where we get all mushy about what we love about Agile and why you should love these things too! 

What does it take to be a true champion? Join V. Lee Henson as we explore the journey of a female high school basketball team and what it took for them to win something much bigger than the State Championship. 

I was recently asked to review and article published in November 2021 titled 10 Commandments for PMOs Introducing Agile. I thought the article was amazing just as it was written. I did add a little color commentary to bring it to life, but here are the 10 commandments:  Practice What Thou Preach Thou Shalt Not Ask For Stuff That Thou Will Not Use Thou Shalt Not Govern Form Behind a Desk Thous...

I had a recent student ask me Why do we even need a roadmap? Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we explore what the purpose of good roadmaps are... 

I hear the question all of the time.. How do we know when it is appropriate to use Agile to execute projects instead of a more traditional method? You need to know the Seven Questions to ask:  1) What is your Appetite for Risk? 2) What is your Tolerance for upfront uncertainty? 3) How clear are the requirements from the stakeholders? 4) What is the urgency to deliver business value? 5) How ma...

A recent article titled An Open Letter to Scrum Masters by Rameez Kakodker really piqued my attention! It was written in PURE AgileDad Craftsmanship and is as snarky as you might imagine it to be. Join V. Lee Henson as we review the article and show it some LOVE!  

How many minutes do we have to exist? If you know the answer to this question please let me know so that I can plan accordingly. The truth is none of us know the answer, yet we waste so much time dong things that d NOT add value. The time to FOCUS is now! 

People and organizations are inherently risk averse and do not like the word change. If this is true, how do we get people to understand and accept changes? There are 5 areas we need to carefully consider: Communication Engagement Transparency Beliefs & Bias Outcome Driven

Much like a mystic unicorn, the definition of done is talked about nearly as much as the mythical creature. This is your chance to finally learn about the Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How behind a great definition of done. 

Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we have thoughtful discussion about the current state of Agile Leadership. 

To start, decide what absolutely does NOT need to be addressed! One of our subscribers asked us to review the article posted on Jan 13th by Janna Bastow titled How to Clean Up a Big Messy Product Backlog . In this article she discusses the steps needed to clean up and maintain your backlog including:  Gather ALL of the information Get the information organized Get the work all in one reposito...

How we spend our time is critical to our success both at home and at work. Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss the difference between good, better, and the best ways for us to spend our time. As we will learn, it is impossible to have all three. 

This may be the MOST controversial podcast episodes I have ever completed! I was asked by a subscriber to review and article that was published in Nov. of 2021 called Dialing In Your Agile Sprint Efficiency. (https://medium.com/@rylerhockenbury/dialing-in-your-agile-sprint-efficiency-cf4435ba09f9) While I do not think the listener was trying intentionally to get this type of reaction from me, I fo...

One of our subscribers reached out to us at LearnMore@AgileDad. Com with the following question: When is it okay to delegate in Agile? Is it a healthy practice? Where do I draw the line? Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we explore the three levels of delegation and when it is indeed safe to delegate. 

The Sound of Silence (Disturbed Version) may be one of my favorite songs. The truth is that silence in many cases can level the playing field and can even be deafening at times. Join V. Lee Henson as we learn more about how to leverage Questions, Problems, Actions, and Exploration to have better and more meaningful retrospectives. 

Did someone just use Kaizen and Toxic in the same sentence? Yes... I did! I feel like in many cases the concept of continuous improvement could be killing teams and organizations. Join V. Lee Henson President and Founder of AgileDad as we identify the top three secrets to avoid abusing Kaizen. 

Anyone who knows me will be quick to tell you that humility is not always my thing. I am not very good at many things, but the talents that I have perfected are some of the best in the industry. For 2022, I took some time to write down 10 lessons that I can learn from being more humble and I have decided to share those with you. 

Many ScrumMasters struggle each day in an attempt to do EVERYTHING that the job requires in addition to so much more! How can we focus on what we really should be doing and avoid burnout? Even ScrumMasters need a little self-love and some therapy! 

Join V. Lee Henson as we explore: 5 psychological effects that are important in Scrum and how you can support them: 1. chunking — divide the project into smaller chunks called sprints. 2. support the building of Confidence and create Commitment. — track the progress with the help of Kanban boards and burn down charts. 3. help the team to identify with the product vision and their work 4. make sure...

This question came in from one of our subscribers. They asked, why do you always publish the top 5 ways to do something? Or the three helpful tips to make a change. Although on the surface the answer may feel simple, (consumption of information in smaller consumable chunks), we dug a little deeper and discovered that there are much larger reasons why it is good to consume work and answer questions...

In this review of an article by Steven Deneir, we discuss the top 5 ways a ScrumMaster can support adaptation: Support your Scrum Team with Product Backlog management. Are the adaptations made in this area bringing the team closer to their goals? What else could the team do to make it even better? Support your Scrum Team with reaching their quality goals. Are the adaptations they are making in the...

It's a brand new year and a brand new opportunity to do a little self improvement. Here are 5 SIMPLE things you can do right NOW to improve your life!  5) Evaluate your inner circle 4) Accept advice and criticism 3) Spend wisely 2) Maximize relationships 1) Set clear and attainable goals 

Did you know that the level of understanding you have with regard to the Agile Roles directly correlates with your level of Agile Maturity? When you can easily breakdown each role and acknowledge what responsibilities lie with each, this will allow for greater Agile focus and execution. 

Join V. Lee Henson, President & Founder of AgileDad as we review a great article from David Burkus that tells us about the 3 elements of a great team culture which include: Common Understanding Psychological Safety Prosocial Purpose https://davidburkus.medium.com/3-elements-of-a-great-team-culture-10553ba46e4b

When organizations are trying to transition from Waterfall to Agile they often struggle to get a few key foundational pieces in place and this leads to major Agile Pitfalls. Today we will discuss 5 of the most commonly encountered Agile Transformation pitfalls:  1) Placing Output Over Outcome 2) Abuse & Overuse of Agile Metrics 3) Rituals/Customs Over Culture 4) Tools and Data Valued More...