You see, I thought I was the first agilist to make the connection between agile transformation models and organizational ambidexterity. Certainly, it seemed original when it emerged in conversation with my supervisor. In fact, it was Dr Alireza Javanmardi Kashan’s idea (better make it 13 signs), but it came from our conversation so we said […]

In the standup, we had a (brief) team discussion about tracking progress. I reacted against Jira because a) I dislike the user interface as it's a collaboration killer, and b) we aren't a software development or IT support team. Standup game visualises progress Three weeks later, team members Sam Thomas and @HughHadfield demonstrated this way […]

Agile Delivery means putting value in your customer’s hands in weeks not years. It also means being able to change your mind about what you want to deliver, as often as the market demands.

One key action: Agile Guidance for C-Suite leadership If my job title was a three-letter acronym and the first letter was a “C”, I might be un-festively fed-up with people telling me how to run my agile digital transformation. Two more ‘top ten something-or other things CEOs and CIOs should worry about’ appeared last week, […]

After almost two years of frustratingly slow progress, the DevOps transformation leaders at MIB (Massive Investment Bank, whose name is interesting but not important) are re-evaluating their choice of key performance indicators (KPIs). They’ve been using just two Agile metrics to measure DevOps progress, the number of releases made per month and the number of […]

The Shu Ha Ri Agile learning metaphor Agile learning is crucial to agile transformation. And, nobody tells the Shu Ha Ri learning metaphor better than Alistair Cockburn as I discovered listening to his Sushi-slicing version whilst in France last year. As I was in France, I was inspired to write a Chef version of Shu […]

The work of the agile business analyst is never done is one of the conclusions reached in my first agile article for online journal InfoQ User Stories Are Placeholders for Requirements. At 3500 words plus five key take-away points, and with editorial and peer-review by the wonderful agile writer and educator Ben Linders, this was […]

There is a workplace evolution underway, lots of people are signalling it. Dan Pink came-up with the label ‘Motivation 3.0’ in Drive; Jurgen Appelo followed suit with ‘Management 3.0’; and many of us speak of a move towards a Lean or Agile enterprise. Earlier this year, Frederic Laloux published Reinventing Organisations in which he not […]

Don’t be Fooled by this Agile Craze If you are in a management or leadership role, the best way to help an agile team succeed is to learn what your team needs from you. Increase Agile Management Beyond the Team It’s relatively easy to agilise a single team, but the real challenge lies in ensuring […]

There’s a quiet revolution going-on right now fueled by people’s expectations of work and productivity. Everyone has a fantastic user experience with their devices and apps at home, and see no reason not to have the same at work. If Agile is about steady transformation, “big bang” is big risk As the next generation take-on […]

Another true story about the art of Agile Estimation About 14 months ago, I wrote this story card: We should sell estimation cards online, to offset the cost of producing them We gave it an estimate of 50 points as it seemed “do-able”, but no-one was exactly sure “how” to do it. Amazon was a […]

Construction runs to a well-established plan Simon is a project manager who is having some building work done at home - an extension with a new kitchen. We were discussing Agile project management and specifically Estimation Cards. He pointed-out that his "development team" consisted of builders, electricians, plumbers and kitchen fitters, who all worked to […]