Agile Answers

🎉 The podcast is BACK!

Before we jump into the show, I want to invite you to join me for the LIVE Open Space event I’m hosting on January 27th, 2022!

Now on with the show! 🎉

If your organization is like most, you’re rushing around a bit more than usual right now.

Why? Because it’s the start of a new year, and leaders in your organization are insisting on “annual planning”. They want a plan for 2022 that will set you up for success.

Sadly, big upfront planning rarely works for the complex, ever-changing work we all do.

Thankfully, there’s something else you can do that’ll no doubt be more invigorating, and will likely give you and the rest of your team the boost they need to make 2022 awesome.

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Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

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There are few people in the agile world that have had a bigger impact on our work than Lyssa. In this episode, we’ll talk about her upcoming session at the Agile Virtual Summit entitled Running Around Like Crazy? Use Agile on Yourself! (it’s harder than it seems but really worth it). She’ll even share some brand new news about her book Coaching Agile Teams, which is approaching its 10 year anniversary.

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Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

Every once in a while I stumble upon a facilitation tool that works so well I’m a little shocked. Recently I was helping several teams work together to create a backlog for their large project and I had a sneaking suspicion that the teams they had formed were not truly cross-functional. The trouble was, as an agile coach who had just parachuted in to do some training and coaching around their complex project, I didn’t absolutely *know* that they didn’t have cross-functional teams. Thankfully there were some stickers in the room, and my Red Dots of DEATH activity was born. The activity is amazingly simple, and quickly helps teams and organizations uncover for themselves if they have properly formed teams.

If your team is struggling to deliver value every sprint because your work is dependent on the work of people outside your immediate team, this episode is for you.

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Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

Whether you build video games for a living, or just like playing them for fun today’s episode will help you improve your Scrum implementation. I’m always looking for practical tips on how teams can improve their work together and my friend Clinton Keith (who wrote Agile Game Development with Scrum) just came out with a new book called Gear Up! Advanced Game Development Practices.  This book is a treasure trove of 88 bite sized tips, tools, and tricks your team can use TODAY. While the thrust of the book is video game development, an Agilist working in any space will find useful practices they can employ in their work.

Gear Up recently captured the #1 spot on LeanPub’s best-seller list: https://leanpub.com/GearUp

To celebrate the book’s upcoming release on Amazon, Clinton has offered to give away 5 free copies of the kindle book! Enter the free drawing at /giveaways/gear-up and increase your chances of winning by telling your friends about the contest after you enter.

Like the podcast? I’d love it if you’d take 60 seconds to rate it in iTunes.

Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

Ed works for a government integrator and is finding it very difficult to deliver thin vertical slices of functionality every sprint. The difficulty is that, by law, his company cannot have access to the full system they’re working on. I’ve enlisted the help of my friend Patrick McConnell, who’s an Agilist with tons of government experience to help me tackle this thorny issue. While this question mainly applies to government integrators, the discussion will likely spur some ideas on how you can help remove silos in your organization and improve your definition of done.

A non-scrum related note about Patrick: He was on an episode of Marketplace. The episode is charming and wonderful. You should listen to it: https://www.marketplace.org/2015/10/09/life/transaction/transaction-bar-tab

How awesome is your Daily Scrum? http://DailyScrumQuiz.com/

Looking for scrum course? /available-workshops/

Like the podcast? I’d love it if you’d take 60 seconds to rate it in iTunes.

Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

In my courses and coaching, I’m often asked how a Scrum team should be formed. Since the Scrum Guide gives no guidance on this, organizations usually decide to have managers form these new teams. Sadly, this approach doesn’t work well in the long run for a myriad of reasons.

Thankfully, there’s a better way.

On today’s show, I’ll have a conversation with Adam Hsu, Gabe Abella, Jason Newberg, and Natalie Veilleux of JP Morgan Chase, whom I met while giving an opening keynote at their internal developer’s conference last year.  These four fantastic agile coaches use the approach I recommend to all my clients regarding forming teams. I think you’ll benefit from hearing their real-world experience forming teams.

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Like the podcast? I’d love it if you’d take 60 seconds to rate it in iTunes.

Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

Disclaimer: Any opinions or personal views expressed by the guests of this episode are their own and not those of JP Morgan Chase

The podcast is BACK!

Today’s question comes from Stig, who is wondering how to help his team give honest and constructive feedback to their Scrum Master during retrospectives. We’ll talk about an approach you can use to help your team to break through the power imbalance that might be keeping them from sharing useful information with your Scrum Master.

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Like the podcast? I’d love it if you’d take 60 seconds to rate it in iTunes.

Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

I’ve gotten the same question from several different people over the last several weeks”What happened to the podcast?” and “Is it ever coming back?”.

<< Spoiler Alert >> Yes it’s coming back. Soon

Listen to this quick update to find out what the heck happened to it.

Like the podcast? I’d love it if you’d take 60 seconds to rate it in iTunes.

Do you have a question for the show? Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/

Today’s question come from an anonymous source. “Stifled Scrummer” says that their boss is on their team, which makes self-organization difficult. Stifled is wondering what tips I have for helping them deal with this organizational impediment.

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We’ll take a look at why teams often use user stories to capture agile requirements and how the format often gets misused. If a user story isn’t a detailed requirement, then what is it?

Like the podcast? I’d love it if you’d take 60 seconds to rate it in iTunes.

Do you have a question for the show?  Submit it at http://GetAgileAnswers.com/