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Tag: Agile transition

  • Agile Teams as Investors: A Deeper Dive into Maximizing Organizational Value

    TL; DR: Agile Teams as Investors

    Stakeholders often regard Scrum and other agile teams as cost centers, primarily focused on executing projects within budgetary confines. This conventional view, however, undervalues their strategic potential. If we reconsider agile teams as investors—carefully allocating their resources to optimize returns—they can significantly impact an organization’s strategic objectives and long-term profitability.

    This perspective not only redefines their role but also enhances the effectiveness of their contributions to the business by solving the customers’ problems.

    Agile Teams as Investors: A Deeper Dive into Maximizing Organizational Value – Berlin-Product-People.com

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  • The Scrum Trap: How Unfit Practices Will Harm Return on Investment

    TL, DR: The Scrum Trap

    Scrum is a purposefully incomplete framework. Consequently, it needs to be augmented with tools and practices to apply its theoretical foundation to an organization’s business reality: what problems shall be solved for whom in which market? Moreover, there is an organization’s culture to take into account. However, the intentional “gap” is not a free-for-all to accept whatever comes to mind or is convenient. Some tools and practices have proven highly effective in supporting Scrum’s application and reaping its benefits. And then there are others — the Scrum trap.

    Let’s look at what practices and tools for collaboration and team building are not helpful when used with Scrum.

    The Scrum Trap: How Unfit Practices Will Harm Return on Investment — Berlin-Product-People.com

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  • Illusion of Velocity — The Effect of Unsuitable Practices on Agility

    TL; DR: The Illusion of Velocity

    In this article, I explore the pitfalls of ‘The Illusion of Velocity’ in agile contexts, peeling back the layers of traditional metrics as leadership tools. Moreover, I point to the advantages gained from leadership engaging directly with teams.

    Understand why servant leadership and practices like the Gemba Walks are crucial for coping with complex, adaptive environments toward actual progress. Moreover, get an idea of how to start flipping outdated hierarchies and embrace the natural rhythm of productivity and innovation.

    Illusion of Velocity — The Effect of Unsuitable Practices on Agility — Berlin-Product-People.com

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  • Resistance to Agile Transformations: Reasons and How To Overcome Them

    TL; DR: Resistance to Agile Transformations

    Stakeholders often revert to resistance to agile transformations due to fears about job security, perceived loss of control, comfort with established practices, and misconceptions about Agile.

    However, we can help: Agile practitioners can ease the change process by employing techniques such as empathetic listening, co-creating the change process, introducing incremental changes, offering targeted education, and showcasing internal success stories. Addressing resistance with understanding and respect is pivotal to a successful agile transformation.

    Resistance to Agile Transformations: Reasons and How To Overcome Them — Berlin-Product-People.com

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  • SAFe® — Despised, Yet Successful?

    TL; DR: SAFe® — Despised, Yet Successful?

    Many in the Agile community consider the Scaled Agile Framework designed by Dean Leffingwell and Drew Jemilo as unagile, violating the Agile Manifesto and the Scrum Guide. “True agilists” would never employ SAFe® to help transition corporations to agility. SAFe® is an abomination of all essential principles of “agility.” They despise it.

    Nevertheless, SAFe® has proven not only to be resilient but thriving. SAFe® has a growing market share in the corporate world and is now the agile framework of choice for many large organizations.

    How come? Learn more about nine reasons for this development.

    PS: I have no affiliation with SAFe® whatsoever and consider it harmful. Yet there are lessons to learn.

    SAFe® — Despised, Yet Successful? — Berlin-Product-People.com

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  • Three Essential Agile Failure Patterns in 7:31 Minutes—Making Your Scrum Work #12

    TL; DR: Essential Agile Failure Patterns — When Noise Interferes with Signal

    There are plenty of failure possibilities with Scrum. Given that Scrum is a framework with a reasonable yet short “manual,” this effect should not surprise anyone. When Scrum becomes an element of an agile transformation, the following three common essential agile failure patterns prove to be an exceptionally tough nut to crack for any Scrum Master.

    ???? Join me and explore the consequences of foreseeable failure patterns and what you can do about them in a little more than seven minutes.

    Three Essential Agile Failure Patterns in 7:31 Minutes—Making Your Scrum Work #12 — Berlin Product People GmbH

    Update: I am running a poll on LinkedIn—join the voting: “What is your top agile failure pattern in organizations?”

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  • How to Create an Agile Community of Practice

    How to Create an Agile Community of Practice

    TL;DR: Creating an Agile Community of Practice

    Creating an agile community of practice helps winning hearts and minds within the organization as it provides authenticity to the agile transition — signaling that the effort is not merely another management fad.

    Read more to learn how to get your agile community going even without a dedicated budget and how to make it work with distributed teams.

    ???? Update 2023-05-11: Recently, Petra Wille published the findings of her study on how to establish and grow a product community of practice based on interviewing 100-plus practitioners. Watch her talk now!

    How to Create an Agile Community of Practice — Berlin Product People GmbH

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  • Remote Agile Transitions — The Top-Ten Challenges

    Remote Agile Transitions — The Top-Ten Challenges

    TL; DR: Remote Agile Transitions

    We are used to saying the Scrum is a perfect probe for organizations, as it will reliably discover all dysfunctionalities. Since the pandemic has forced many of us to work remotely, this unique capability has been kicked into overdrive regarding remote agile transitions.

    Here are my top-10 challenges of organizational change that remote Agile has made more urgent to address than ever before.

    Remote Agile Transitions — The Top-Ten Challenges — Berlin Product People GmbH

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  • Remote Agile Transitions — The Top-Ten Challenges

    Remote Agile Transitions — The Top-Ten Challenges

    TL; DR: Remote Agile Transitions

    We are used to saying the Scrum is a perfect probe for organizations, as it will reliably discover all dysfunctionalities. Since the pandemic has forced many of us to work remotely, this unique capability has been kicked into overdrive regarding remote agile transitions.

    Here are my top-10 challenges of organizational change that remote Agile has made more urgent to address than ever before.

    Remote Agile Transitions — The Top-Ten Challenges — Berlin Product People GmbH

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  • The Agile Workspace: The Undervalued Success Factor

    The Agile Workspace: The Undervalued Success Factor

    TL;DR: Agile Workspace Means Choice Among a Diversity of Spaces

    If you want your organization to become agile, adding more whiteboards to the workspace will not suffice. You have to abandon the idea that the workspace is an assembly line for white-collar workers. You need to let go Taylorism. We are now in the age of the creative worker.

    To become agile – and reap its benefits such as becoming more innovative –, you need a diversity of workspaces to support all forms of creative work: focus, collaborate, learn, and socialize. Also, you have to let your creative workers choose which space is best suited for a task.

    Upcoming Scrum and Liberating Stuctures Training Classes and Workshops

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