The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

Scrum Guide 2020 Throwback - Does Individual Accountability Create Silos?  Referring back to an article that was first published in December 2020, we discuss issues with specific name designations and how the battle of words could be eroding our chance to initiate higher performance and allow teams to work more closely together. 

Does Scrum Team Composition Change in Small & Large Organizations? Of course it does, but it does not need to introduce additional complexity and context switching. Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss what works and what we have seen work through years of Agile Coaching experience...

You heard correctly... AgileDad is at it again with a 100% Free Scrum Alliance Workshop for Military Veterans! Details can be found at AgileDad.Com/military

I’m often asked a question that is impossible to answer. It’s something like, “What camera settings should I use when filming Bigfoot?” That question is impossible to answer because Bigfoot doesn’t exist. (Or does he?) It is similarly impossible to answer, “What do I do when a team won’t self organize?” This can’t be answered because a team that is allowed to self organize will self organize. A team may, for example, decide its former tech lead must approve all designs or will review all code before it’s checked in. In most cases, these would not be good results of a team self organizing. But the team has self organized. I think of it similar to the school dances I attended when I was 13 and 14. We boys would stand against the wall with only a brave few venturing to ask someone to dance. We’d self organized. Not well, but we had. Perhaps the real question I’m often asked, then, is what to do when a team self organizes in a sub-optimal manner. Here are three things to try if you suspect your team has organized suboptimally. First, refuse to step in and make decisions for the team. Some teams are reluctant to embrace self organization. When told they have authority over how work gets done, these teams will often wait for someone to make decisions for them. When you see this happen, resist the temptation to make the decision. Either wait silently for them to decide or reiterate that the decision is theirs and you’ll support them in whatever they decide. Second, amplify or dampen differences among team members. Imagine a team of clones. How clones decide to organize around their work doesn’t matter because each close is identical in all ways to all other clones. Our team members are not clones; there are differences among them. These differences include technical expertise, domain knowledge, power, gender, race, education, connections to others in the company, problem-solving approach, and so on. The types and degrees of these differences influence how a team self organizes. When you suspect a team has not organized itself well, amplify or dampen differences among team members. For example, consider a team composed of individuals who each favor quick decision making, sometimes to the detriment of making good decisions. Look for an opportunity to add a team member with a different decision-making style. Third, praise appropriate behavior. Praising appropriate behavior will encourage more of that behavior. If a team member makes a decision that would have been left to a manager in the pre-agile past, praise that team member. More importantly, offer that praise regardless of whether the decision turns out to be the right one. Perhaps add a short discussion regarding how it might be possible to make a better decision next time. But first you’ll want to commend the person (publicly, if possible) for going beyond traditional responsibilities. Without self-organization, teams remain overly directed by managers. This leads to a team feeling less ownership of (and attachment to) its goals. Self-organizing teams move more quickly due to a greater sense of investment in their work. Getting a team to embrace self-organizing frees managers for other work and benefits the organization and the job satisfaction of team members, enabling the team to succeed with agile,

Today we will learn about the three domains in STABLE Framework. The three domains are shared by each role and include the Future, the Present, and the Past Domains. We have to plan our work ahead of time before we can measure the results of our work. The Future Domain contains information we'll need to access in the future. The Present Domain contains current work in process.

Does Agile & Scrum have an Achilles Heel? The answer is simply YES! Even though we get advice from the Scrum Guide and from several other resources about how to avoid it, the truth is out there and if we are not careful we just may discover it. Join V. Lee Henson as we explore elements of trust and why it is critical. 

Join V. Lee Henson and his new friend Ola as for the first time ever we do a Q&A episode to learn how to make this dramatic transition. Three questions will lead you down the path of discovery and enlightenment. 

Ok.. Confession time.. I LOVE AGT! This season was AMAZING! The winner The Mayyas were a all female dance group from Lebanon. What they did onstage was incredible and the example they can be to us is even MORE Powerful!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0doCSkBY8

What are we supposed to do when we are writing technical system level stories? How do we show context and that each is adding value? Join V. Lee Henson as we explore ideas to help make this process better. 

Let's explore The STABLE Framework together. Today we study the 2 stable roles:  Stable Master Chief Stable Process Owner Who are they and what do they do?