05/26-28: Scrum Coaching Retreat | Kiev, Ukraine

2017 Scrum Coaching Retreat in Kiev  is in the books!!!  The event has brought together a few dozens of agile coaches and trainers from nearby and far away. The participants came from different backgrounds and focus areas but due to everyone’s extensive experience in self-organization and self-management, got the show on the road very quickly.  After … Read more

Sprint Length: Who Decides? How? Why?

What is the best Sprint length?  Who decides on Sprint length? Are there any exceptions?  What are some of the most common mistakes people make, when making decisions about Sprint length? Let’s start from grassroots and answer the following basic question: “What is Sprint main goal?”  And while looking for an answer, let’s refer to … Read more

2017 Big Apple Scrum Day: Coaching Clinic

The Third Annual BASD (2017) event is in the books.  27 people have been served by the coaches, whose cumulative experience and depth of knowledge were just immense.  Many thanks to Zuzka Sochova, Kim Brainard, Bob Galen, David Liebman and Jim York for making this happen.  This event had the largest every presence of Certified Enterprise Coaches … Read more

Agile Flyer – 04-09-2017

    Public Announcement: Scrum Alliance® Announces Partnership with LeSS Company   Denver, CO,— SCRUM ALLIANCE® – The news are finally out and public: On 4/7/2017, Scrum Alliance interim CEO Lisa Hershman, has announced that Scrum Alliance, most established and influential professional membership organization and certifying body in the Agile community,entered in partnership with LeSS … Read more

Applying LeSS Thinking to Basic Scrum

As per Scrum Guide, “…Scrum is a framework for developing and sustaining complex products… It [Scrum] is lightweight, easy to understand and difficult to master”.  The guide talks about basic Scrum, or Scrum by one cross-functional team that works for only one Product Owner, on one single product.  The guide also mentions situations when multiple … Read more

Agile Flyer – 03-25-2017

From www.ScrumAlliance.org Connect with a Certified Coach for Online Coaching! (re-published from Scrum Alliance newsletter) CHALLENGES WITH AGILE TRAINING: EXAMPLES, REASONS, CONSEQUENCES Virtual networks of professional agile coaches and trainers is good place to pick up some most thoughtful and provocative agile discussions. The most reputable networks that I know of, and happen to belong … Read more

Challenges with Agile Training: Examples, Reasons, Consequences

Virtual networks of professional agile coaches and trainers is good place to pick up some most thoughtful and provocative agile discussions.  The most reputable networks that I know of, and happen to belong to, are the communities of: Certified Enterprise Coaches and Certified Scrum Trainers (both, from Scrum Alliance), and Candidate Large Scale Scrum Trainers … Read more

The “R” part of HR

Frequently, HR topics find their way into Agile Communities and almost always become heated discussions. Recently,  and again, one of such topics was raised in the global community of Coaches and Trainers. Truth be told, HR norms and policies are a direct reflection of organizational culture (also, corollary to structure) and very much define human … Read more

Agile Flyer – 02-05-2017

  Unspoken Agile Topics /re-printed from its original version/ This paper, originally written in February 2013, brings to light some of the least-discussed topics and consequences of “broadband agilization” that currently take place in the industry. The materials of this paper are subdivided into two general sections: The first section describes certain impacts that Agile … Read more