Decoding Agile Manifesto Values

Many of the teams and leaders I coached struggle with relating to the Agile Manifesto in a meaningful way.  We value the items on the left over those on the right.  Great!  Wonderful.  Huh?  So what does it actually mean? How do I go about decoding the agile manifesto values and use them in my everyday interactions?

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Why do Daily Scrums Suck?

Have you replaced your weekly status update with a daily status update and called it “Agile”?  You are not alone, and that sucks.  Many companies working to transform into an Agile organization struggle with this most fundamental shift in culture. Most often the culture of an organization is very static and requires huge effort to…

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Illusion of Control – You never had it

I recently had a conversation with a functional manager that was concerned with the transition of her organization to agile.  It wasn’t any tool or process or the manifesto but the perceived lack of control.  She wanted to know how to maintain the illusion of control.  “How can I manage my team when they get…

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Lufthansa Lost Customer Focus

About a year ago, I had an experience with Lufthansa that made me really sit and think about the customer experience and how companies need to focus on the results, not the process.  Process at the expense of the results is about as anti-agile as it comes. I was trying to buy a ticket on…

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Agile Coaching Team is an Agile PMO

There is no place in Agile for a traditional PMO, but the need for strong coaching, portfolio management, and reporting expertise does exist, in a very real way. This is where an Agile Coaching Team, or ACT comes in. It is a team that handles the responsibilities of a PMO, but in an Agile supportive way.

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Scrum Gathering Munich

For those of you thinking about attending a Scrum Gathering, even a regional one, trust me, just make it happen. In October, I attended the Global Scrum Gathering Munich and it was the first conference in many years that I did not feel like I was wasting my time.

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Introducing The Scrum Ninja

I have been tossing around the idea for quite some time to focus a blog on the challenges, successes, and yes, failures of Scrum and Agile in my professional life and personal life for quite some time, but never was quite sure of what to do with it other than continue to evangelize and practice…

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