Monday 27 September 2010

Weekly agile links 27th September - 1st October 2010

The Rise Of The Lean Machine An eye opening presentation by Claudio Perrone. I can immediately think of at least 5 steps I'd need right now or in the near future.

Where to Begin Your Transition to Lean-Agile
Alan Shalloway & James R. Trott give us a more practical guide to making a lean/agile transition work.

Common Myths of Kanban This is in context of software.. Kanban now popular enough to have myths!

Managers New to Agile May Not Know What to Do Johanna Rothman explains some of the problems with adopting agile..

How to be happy (but not too much) Dan Jones explains how being happy means you're more open to learning,etc.etc.

Defining What Done Means Another great article by Rachel D.

Six Key Things For Managing Agile Teams Derek Neighbors lists a number of the characteristics of collaborative teams (but not all).

A Root Cause Analysis of Agile Practices Regularly link to Karl Scotland and he does not disappoint again with a summary of a recent open space session with the above topic. Also congratulations to Karl on getting the opportunity to write a book about Kanban!

Monday 20 September 2010

Weekly agile links 20th - 24th September 2010

Essence of Scrum Originally published by Tobias Mayer in 2009 and now re-worked and adapted by David Sheriff.

Estimation and Release Planning with Fruit Salad An interesting game to learn estimation and planning on Lyssa Adkins' blog.

Podcast interview with @davegray on How Games at Work Inspire Creativity Podcast on how interactivity will make your meetings and your ideas even better.

The Quest for High Performance Tom Reynolds CSM, CSP on getting there..

The Ultimatum Game and article by Cedric B. that mainly talks about traditional organizational behaviour and how to deal with it while implementing agile/scrum.

Are Job Descriptions Illegal? Here Are 9 Reasons Why They Should Be Lou Adler challengers traditional job descriptions.

THE PROBLEMS WITH ESTIMATING BUSINESS VALUE Mike Cohn on how to estimate business value - e.g. use themes/epics not small items.


Risk Innovation or Be Beaten by Those Who Do An article about innovation not just for products but for process & leadership. By Lea Strickland.

People Help Agile Adoptions An article about change, how people cope with it and how we could go about it .. by Scott Dunn.

Mood Board Shows some process innovation in the form of 'different' kanban boards as well as explains the use of the mood board.

Performance Reviews Shift Blame, Prevent Partnership On Esther Derby's blog although it looks like it is from HBR. Explains a lot of things we seem to just accept as given.

Building a Transition Backlog Another great post by Rachel Davies based on experience with agile transitions.

John Seddon Keynote Great summary of a John Seddon's key note (by Patrick Kua). Couldn't quite get which conference was that but this does not reduce it's value. Thanks Patrick.

Agile 2010 Booklist
Yves Hanoulle went through the trouble to ask attendees for the one book they would recommend - makes a great reading list.


Slides from the Deming's Red Bead Experiment by David Joyce and as presented at Agile Australia 2010.

Thursday 16 September 2010

Scrum is great! .. but what is wrong with it? (100th Post!)

I was wondering how to avoid my 100th post to be a 'weekly links' post and was presented with the opportunity today.

Well this is not really the full post that the title suggests but a "Bare Talk" (as they call it) which I suggested for Scrum Gathering 2010 in Amsterdam.
If it gets into top 6 then I might get the chance to (write &) present the actual talk/article.

So the link is here: "Scrum is great! .. but what is wrong with it?" and I'll need your votes to make it happen!

Thanks for your support!

Friday 10 September 2010

Weekly agile links 13th - 18th September 2010

A Survival Guide for New Agile Coaches New Blog Series by Dave Rooney

Lean Bicycle Factory Demonstration Game This is a great Lean Game that you can play alone or with your team. I found it was really great in showing some lean principles.

STEAL THIS PRESENTATION! Some tips on making your presentation less boring. I'm would also suggest splitting your presentation parts in 10 minutes blocks and have activities in between.

Slicing and Dicing Epic User Stories Some tips from Rachel Davis on splitting big user stories.

How BA uses Agile An explanation from BA of how the Agile has helped IT projects to deliver more value, sooner.

The Joy of Craftsmanship Matt Wynne explains why for him craftsmanship is about finding joy in your work.

GAMING INCENTIVES via Esther Derby. Mainly talks about toddlers but I am pretty sure it would work exactly the same way with adults (not that I have seen it anywhere!)

Speaking is a Team Sport: 3 Ways to be Responsive to Your Audience The same message keeps coming back to me whether it is in books, articles or tweets. so time to remember and learn ;)

Social-Technical Systems The slides from Mary Poppendieck's seminar "Social-Technical Systems" at Crisp published by Henrik Kinberg. Also has a link to Dan Pink's amazing talk on motivation.

Tuesday 7 September 2010

Weekly agile links 6th - 10th September 2010

It seems like links are flowing from everywhere these days and more and more knowledge flies around us.. we only have to reach out and learn. I hope you will find plenty of interesting articles in my collection this week. Happy reading!

Article: Lean And Agile — Roommates, Married Or Twins? Very interesting post by Gil Broza briefly describing a panel discussion with this title at Agile 2010.

Agile is Ready for the Enterprise Michael Hugos explains how mature has agile become in the last 20 years or so.

JOB is a four-letter word Harold Jarche on the inadequacy between the way we structure jobs and the current networked reality.

Agile2010 Bag Packing with Kanban Karl Scotland presents an exciting real world kanban experiment + video.

Is “Agile Methodology” an Oxymoron and Counterintuitive to Agile-Lean Product Development and Craftsmanship? by Russel Pannone. Perhaps worth reading if I could place it higher than all of my other tasks (unlikely).

Reading The Toyota Way Matteo Vaccari with some thoughts on how this book changes his view.

BUT /MY/ TEAM NEEDS A LEADER Can teams function without a leader? Check this Esther Derby article for the answer.

An interview with Jerry Weinberg Thanks to Jon Jagger

The Thinking Tool called Agile Henrik Kniberg's slides from his keynote @ Lean/Agile/Scrum conference in Zurich - "The Thinking Tool Called Agile"

Collaboration Game: Where Are Your Keys? This got me interested in the game so I am reading a bit more about it here

Simplicity: A New Model A nice long post by Jurgen Appelo on simple and complex systems and rules.

10 Tips on Presenting at Conferences Thanks to Cory Foy

How do I know if my PEOPLE are being fully utilized? by Richard Cheng. I changed the word resource to people as this is what this article is about.

Agile Ruined My Life Some interesting agile implementation horror stories by Daniel Markham and some thoughts on the reasons why such things are common.

Success with Agile Managers Here's a great extract from a book I am currently reading. The article is by Clinton Keith and explains why we need the role of Agile Manager.

Solution Focused FAQ Got interested in the solution focused approach (thanks to Dadi) during acg-uk this year and this FAQ comes handy to help me learn more.