The Daily Standup

How Do You Teach others About Story Points? It’s nearly back-to-school time where I live. I can almost smell the new spiral notebooks and freshly sharpened pencils! What are your back-to-school plans? Do any of them involve building your agile skills? I want to help. For the next six weeks, I’ll send a tip per week on common Scrum and agile topics, with three practical pointers for each. Every poi...

Top Ten Ways To Know Your Transformation Will FAIL Before You Even Begin Brought in consultants to prescribe the details of what everyone must do, when and how. Spend more time documenting the Future Mode than experimenting or talking to people. Already know the perfect solution, before having made a single change. Can show the future on a slide deck, but not in a team. Have defined the correct pr...

10 Signs Your ScrumMaster Does NOT Understand Scrum Definition of Done? Yeah, we have one ... somewhere ... Let me find it. That's the Standard Process. You Can't Change It Just Because It's Stupid. We Wouldn't Need Feedback if you Just Learn to Write Better User Stories! Releasable Product Increment? Once a Quarter - otherwise, it's Too Much Overhead. You Want Time for Learning? Just Look at All...

Top 8 Behaviors That Will Cause a Loss of Trust.. Boundaryless Freedom Avoid Confrontation Act as a Know-It-All Becoming a Naysayer Waver Back and Forth Playing The Victim Over Promise & Under Deliver Talk The Talk Without Walking The Walk How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook]  ⁠https://www.fa...

Using Real Examples To Explain What a Great ScrumMaster Does! The Navigator if a Road Trip The Conductor of an Orchestra The Facilitator of a Discussion The Playground Mediator The Team Cheerleader The Traffic Cop The Wedding Planner The Gardener The Sports Team Coach The Theater Director The Chef in a Kitchen How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠h...

The Daily Scrum Defined - What does the Scrum Guide say about the daily Scrum? The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work. The Daily Scrum is a 15-minute event for the Developers of the Scrum Team. To reduce complexity, it is held at the same time and place every working day of the Spri...

Is There Ever a Good Time For Multiple Product Owners? According to the scrum guide, there should be one product owner who is in charge of the product vision and decides what to do, to create a better product (Not how to do it!) The Scrum Guide states: “The Product Owner is one person, not a committee.” Yet, in some environments companies build products that are so complex and big that they need m...

Demystifying The Top Five Forms of Bias: Affinity Bias Affinity bias means we like people who are more like us. So, if I meet a woman in her early sixties from the south of England who works in HR, I’ll be inclined to like her. Affinity bias is triggered by anything which makes the other person seem ‘like us’. You might not think much of Sunil from Marketing until you find out he’s a keen fisherma...

The 3 Pillars of Scrum and Why Adaption Is So Very Powerful! What are the three pillars of Scrum? The Scrum framework uses three pillars of empiricism: Transparency, Inspection and Adaption. Transparency suggests that the details about the product development process are available, accessible, and present to all those involved in the process; including customers, Scrum team and the stakeholders. F...

What Are The Top 5 Keys To Being a Better Listener? Being a good listener is an essential skill that fosters understanding, empathy, and connection with others. Here are five inspirational keys to becoming a better listener: Embrace Silence, Hear Wisdom: Practice the art of stillness and give others the space to express themselves. Silence is not an absence but a presence, a moment filled with pot...

Top 5 Most Common Mistakes When Using Spikes Many people do not know how to properly use a spike or when to use one. In this episode we will reveal the top 5 mistakes individuals and teams make when trying to use spikes: Executing a spike long before you need it Not defining a clear spike outcome Doing spikes before considering to reduce scope Using spikes for immediate implementation details Perf...

In this episode we feature Agile Coach and Yoga Master Sarah Bayliff where she takes us on a journey to learn where, when, and how yoga and Agile Intersect! Enjoy! Namaste! How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook]  ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ - [Linkedin]  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/le...

The Best Days To Start Or End a Sprint Are NOT Monday and Friday! Here are the top reasons why: Friday Meeting Fatigue Mundane Monday Ramp Up Public Holidays Extended Weekends / Personal Holidays Meeting Room Space / Regular Cadence International Time Zones How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook]  ⁠...

Once, in an Agile Mentors live Q&A, someone asked me: How important is it for agile teams to define the specific problem that they’re trying to solve? I thought that was an interesting question. My initial response was to say that it is super important. As Yogi Berra said, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else.” So yes, often, it is important for a team t...

Do you lead with Light and love? On of my very dear friends Michael Sahota asked a couple of REALLY powerful questions at the end of the Agile 2023 Keynote presentation given on July 26, 2023 by Bushra Amiwala. Her light was incredible but the wisdom shared my Michael was even more amazing! He acknowledged that current culture and a lack of education is leading us deeper and deeper into the "isms"...

People Pay For The Story.. - How Do We Focus On Outcome - Agile 2023 I love the story of the European tourist who loses everything but her passport and how well it ties into customers and customer relations! How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  https://www.agiledad.com/ - [instagram]  https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/ - [facebook]  https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/ - [Linkedin]  ht...

Individuals And Interactions Were Alive And Well at Agile 2023! I was SUPER excited to catch up with so many old friends and meet so many new ones! The conference was a roaring success and one of the highlights was to walk and talk with Jim Highsmith, one of the original authors of the Agile Manifesto. You have to listen to the episode to learn more! How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  http...

Vanilla Ice Was The PERFECT Agile Coach - Agile 2023 Many have asked if I can speak at their conference, work retreat, or even to their teams... Here is a link to what I offer and how you can book me! AgileDad Speaks Website It is hard to believe that it has been a week since I gave this conference presentation at Agile 2023! This time I decided to give you a little insight into the presentation a...

The Journey To Speaking at Agile 2023 - What I Learned and Who I Met I start this episode off with a story about a homeless man who is gifted 15 dollars from a wealthy businessman and what he does with his newfound wealth. I liken this to my journey to share all that I have with others and how my journey to and through the Agile 2023 Conference was nothing less than magical. https://fb.watch/m2se6...

Celebrating Episode 850 - Three Questions with Bob Hartman - Agile For All This is a VERY special episode of The Daily Standup Podcast! I have my dear friend Bob Hartman joining me and have I mentioned that he is one of my favorite human beings on the planet? Tune in to live laugh and learn as we share some fun stories and offer an inspiring challenge. https://www.linkedin.com/in/bobhartman/ https...

Here are eight critical side effects of this Product Backlog anti-pattern: Encourages Waste: An oversized Product Backlog fosters waste by investing time in items that may never be developed due to the continuous discovery of more valuable tasks. It’s a clear violation of Agile Manifesto principles; particularly, simplicity—the art of maximizing the work not done—is essential. Sunk Cost Fallacy Ri...

What Is a REAL Stakeholder? Do you know the difference between a Key Stakeholder, Stakeholder, and an Interested Party? Join V. Lee Henson and learn more about these differences and why they should matter to you! How to connect with AgileDad: - [website]  ⁠https://www.agiledad.com/⁠ - [instagram]  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/agile_coach/⁠ - [facebook]  ⁠https://www.facebook.com/RealAgileDad/⁠ - [Li...

Everyone agrees that in complex work, clear goals give guidance to what needs attention and what doesn’t (right now). They also see how goals are the glue that binds individuals into a team by giving them a shared purpose. A shared goal gives Scrum teams focus on what is important during a Sprint while allowing flexibility to adjust course and avoid emerging obstacles as needed. Shared goals are t...

Agile project management represents an iterative methodology for planning and guiding project processes. It centers on dividing project work into shorter timeframes, known as sprints or iterations. Agile project management empowers software development teams to work swiftly and collaboratively on projects while remaining adaptable to evolving requirements. It also facilitates rapid response to fee...

Once upon a time, in a small village nestled among rolling hills, there lived a water bearer. Every day, he would walk to the nearby stream, carrying two large pots tied to a pole that rested upon his shoulders. One pot was perfect, without a flaw, while the other had a deep crack running along its side. As the water bearer made his way from the stream to his master's house, the perfect pot would...