Like many other Agile practitioners, I have seen too many cases where an organization wants to adopt Agile, but believes that all they need is a little training. Of course, the most extreme would be when a group believes they can send one person off to become a Certified ScrumMaster and then they can simply train everyone else. While this intuitively sounds foolish, and many people could begin to articulate the shortcomings of this mental model, I’ve struggled to present a clear and succinct view of what exactly why this model doesn’t work. Although I recently came across a very good model that captures what I tacitly knew already. I hope this is valuable to the rest of you out there trying to make the case for coaching. more »

The other day I had an interesting thought. I’ m not sure what precipitated it exactly, but there were several things that led me to this idea I’ve been mulling in my head. Perhaps it was Alistair Coburn’s keynote at Agile 2009 where he said that Agile as a distinct entity was gone; if it was once an iceberg, it has since melted and is now just part of the ocean. It could have been Jeff Sutherland’s presentation where he points out that 84% of IT organizations are self-reporting to use Scrum. Or perhaps it was simply working with a current client when they were asking for my help to come up with very clear guidelines about the number of acceptance criteria that should be allowed for a single story. Anyway, it struck me: as Scrum grows in popularity, are we institutionalizing it? more »

Many thanks to the people who attended this presentation. Their comments and observations were very good and helpful. Getting this type of feedback is great!. You can download a copy from this location.  The impact of Agile Architect Teams in Scaling Enterprise Efforts

Thanks to everyone who came to see my presentation at the Agile 2009 Conference. Here is a link to the slides for anyone wishing to get a copy: http://www.bigvisible.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Loss-Aversion-Slides.pdf.

George and I presented our Agile Battlemapping presentation at the Agile2009 conference.  I had an absolutely fantastic time and based on the feedback we received from the audience, it appeared that everyone else had a good time too.  This was the first time we had added the practical exercises.  First the audience members individually drew battlemaps of their own projects or programs followed and then they combined into groups to create prioritized response strategies.  I look forward to making further enhancements and to the next time we present it.  Click below do download a PDF of the presentation.

Agile 2009: Mapping the Change Battlefied

Courage can’t be taught, I’m told.  It can be learned though.

I wasn’t taught it…but I did learn it.

One day long ago my professional career seemed torn asunder by an organizational change.  At that time, I believed that all I had worked for was no longer firm ground on which to base my next successes (that is the way it seemed, anyway).

“It is only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything” – Tyler Durden

I use that quote way too often.  My perception at the time was that I had lost everything.  There was a new regime moving in.  My colleagues resigned themselves to stagnation while the new leaders arrived and established their top-down plans.  This seemed really familiar to me… more »

Coaching has some really important benefits in helping organizations adopt Agile methods, Lean, <insert process improvement of your choice here>.  This is especially true in large, complex organizations with deeply-traditional cultures that seem resistant to change.

Are you considering a coach?

If you aren’t, are your organization and projects at risk? more »