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Some may have noticed that I’ve quietly dropped the SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) training courses from the website some time ago and earlier this year I declined a rather big SAFe gig! so why have I've made the conscious decision to step away from providing SAFe training and consultancy? It's a question that deserves a thoughtful response, as it represents a bit of a shift in both my approach to helping organisations embrace agility and..... a core revenue stream!
Read MoreI suspect story points are perhaps the most miss-understood, abused and perhaps argumentative subject I come across (barring SAFe). Long ‘arguments’ within teams over if something is a 3SP or 5SP, Pressure from project managers and stakeholders for smaller estimates (As if making a story 5SP rather than 8SP will mean it’s delivered quicker)
Read MoreThe next step is to introduce the concept of models as metaphors - To demonstrate I have a few bricks which I randomly assemble and explain how I could interpret my rather questionable model to perhaps be a lion to show courage, but equally it might represent a dog and shows loyalty - The point is that the models are not literal but can be interpreted by the builder.
Read MoreI’ve been running design sprints for around 5 years but never a remote design sprint…. In fact I’ve always refused to even contemplate running them remote… If a company can’t or won’t go to the effort of getting everyone in a room together with a free calendar for 1 week… Then I generally decide that they're not serious about the process and say no!
Read MoreSAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is one of the most ‘in use’ frameworks for organisational agility, probably the most controversial and almost certainly the best marketed, with glossy posters, videos, case studies and a long list of training courses!! It has been unashamedly packaged in a way where it can be delivered with confidence to large enterprises and is reassuring detailed and complete unlike perhaps Scrum or LeSS
Read MoreI’ve recently started to introduce LEGO(C) serious play into Design Sprints - Design sprints come from Google Ventures and are typically a 5 day design process to build and test products
Read MoreEstimates done in hours and tasks assigned to people throughout the sprint. The sprints are carefully planned and loaded to achieve as close to a 100% utilisation as possible. Usually the end result of the sprint looks very different to what was planned… But why?
Read MoreLego Scrum is a great way for teams to learn and understand Scrum... By doing Scrum!
Read MoreIt’s a very common scenario - as a team you have uncertainty around an estimate you need to give, possibly due to dependencies or other technical risk.. However you’ve been forced to commit to a date estimate and declaring uncertainty is not allowed
Read MoreThe term agile coach is as misunderstood as the role of Scrum Master… Probably much more so! with titles such as Team coach, Enterprise coach and Lead agile coach to name just a few further complicating this space.
Read MoreOne of the questions I’m still asked is ‘Why do we need to be Agile?’ I sat in a meeting recently with the CIO who has asked the same question of his business, Why we are not capable of articulating what is it they wanted well enough upfront.
Read MoreDesign Sprints come out of Google and are used widely within Google Ventures - Their Venture Capitalist division. Design sprints are 5 days in duration running from 10am to 5pm in the following format.....
Read More"It's meant to be an agile project why are we still making changes?" "Why didn't you capture those requirements earlier?" "It meets MVP why can't you release?" "Why are we only discovering these issues now? It needs to hit this deadline so no more changes!"
Read MoreClean Language is a technique developed by David Grove in the 1980's which was a result of clinical work helping to resolve clients traumatic memories - Encouraging clients to develop and build metaphors which are then explored using clean language questions.
Read MoreI've been trying to design a game which will teach some agile & lean principles around running a portfolio of work.. And to be honest I've been struggling!! So many learning points to get across whilst making it fun.
Read MoreSAFe is probably not best suited to highly complex domains which require constant probing and exploration and where pivots are to be expected.
However for large organisations who are struggling to deliver products the use of SAFe would deliver considerable economic improvements from their current processes.
Read MoreAt the planning level metrics are invaluable - And allow you to plan with some confidence.... Although planning when you have actual metrics suddenly becomes a much more complex and tiring process than just guessing it!
But you have to them use metrics responsibly and remember Goodhart's law - "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."
Kanban thinking is a methodology for understanding systems. When I introduce Kanban I like to run a number of workshops.
The first is to understand the purpose of the system and to create a shared understanding and context…
