People & Teams

Articles

Cookbook The Agile Cookbook: Recipes for Enterprise Agile Transformations

Scaling agile across a large, enterprise organization is different from dealing with just a handful of teams. Though you have the same key ingredients, there are several recipes for how to put those ingredients together. Enter The Agile Coach’s Transformation Cookbook. You can whip up an organization-wide agile transformation by finding your own recipe for success.

Joel Bancroft-Connors's picture Joel Bancroft-Connors
Multitasking Agile Techniques for the Multitaskers in All of Us

Multitasking can sabotage your productivity, but with all our different responsibilities, it's often a necessary evil. However, your work quality and quantity don’t have to suffer. These agile techniques can help you avoid interruptions, organize your to-do list, and regain focus after switching tasks.

Charles Cain's picture Charles Cain
Team huddle Whole Agile Teams: Beyond Resource Efficiency

Which is better for your agile team: resource efficiency or flow efficiency? It may seem better to have everyone busy 100 percent of the time, but a little extra availability in everybody's schedule allows the team to able to respond to change. We need to get beyond “I do my job, you do yours” and instead focus on what the software needs to move forward.

Matt Heusser's picture Matt Heusser
Sign: Changes Strategies for Implementing Agile in Small Organizations

The experience of implementing agile in a company of thousands of employees differs widely from that of a company of hundreds. Although the risks can be greater, the rewards can be, too. If you work in a small company that is interested in transitioning to an agile workflow, consider these strategies for implementing agile in small organizations.

David Kirk's picture David Kirk David Thach
The Reason Scrum So Often Fails Agile Teams

The core of the Scrum framework for managing product development is the three key roles: ScrumMaster, product owner, and the development team. This triad is what makes Scrum so successful—when it works. However, it is the absence of these three roles that is the root cause of the majority of unsuccessful adoptions.

John Yorke's picture John Yorke
Agile icon 5 Ways Agile Testing Is Different from Traditional Testing

It’s the distinctions between agile and traditional software development approaches, as well as the adaptability of testers in these very different environments, that makes agile testing different from traditional testing. Agile demands more from its testers, and, in turn, it values them more, too. Let’s look at five main things that make an agile tester’s life different from that of a traditional tester.

Nishi Grover's picture Nishi Grover
Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools, and Practices to Motivate Any Team Book Review: Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools, and Practices to Motivate Any Team

Jurgen Appelo’s useful and fun-to-read book Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools, and Practices to Motivate Any Team gives you concrete tools to identify ways to help your team be happier and to create environments where people can thrive and be more productive. Despite the word managing being in the title, the book is a beneficial read for anyone.

Steve Berczuk's picture Steve Berczuk
implementing gears Getting Employees On Board when Implementing Change Management

Change is a difficult but important part of business. It can be most difficult on the employees, but if you involve them in the planning process and make an effort to understand their points of view, you can mitigate resistance and facilitate the experience for everyone. This article deals specifically with ERP implementation, but its advice is useful for any change management situation.

RK Prasad's picture RK Prasad
mob programming in action Try Mob Programming to Inspire Team Growth

If you're familiar with pair programming, you know how much it can increase code quality and encourage developers to learn from each other. You should try mob programming—the same concept, but with an entire team of up to eight people and only one keyboard. It's a great way to explore new techniques and solve problems as a team.

Mark Richards's picture Mark Richards
Swiss army knife Want True Agility? Foster General Skills over Specialization

Many organizations enforce systems that stifle flexibility by promoting specialization. But encouraging learning new skills and expanding outside core responsibilities promotes flow over resource efficiency, helps cover gaps in time of crisis, and lets you build a team that can deliver continually at a sustainable pace. It's the age of the generalist.

Phil Gadzinski's picture Phil Gadzinski

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