Agile Otter Blog

For all the 'take back agile" and "agile smagile" and "apologizing for agile" and all the other post-agilists and so-called post-agilists in the world, I give you Otter's law: Any methodology followed via obligation and knowledge-avoidance cannot produce positive change.  I've ranted about change gone wrong and methodologies followed badly and horrible oversales and undersales and all, but it comes down to otter's law ultimately. Too many companies have huge gains from using XP and Scrum and what-have-you. Too many others tried "the same thing" with entirely different results. Some teams are whole-heartedly into the whole agile thing, and they seem to have pretty good. Others don't seem very excited and don't get much out of it. Is it excitement that they need? I don't think so. I think that the lack of excitement and the lack of progress have the same root. I think it's a lack of profluence in agile-a...

State of Practice: Scrum I participate in a number of forums where I am happy to help people understand agile methods and practices. I see dozens of question s every week asked (and often answered!) by people who are operating in a system they simply don't understand. For instance, one very well-intended manager called a meeting with HR and consultants and leaders of teams to decide what a scrum master's duties are, and what a PO's duties are. Only the consultant had ever read t he scrum guide ; the rest were going to invent roles to match their current job titles. Not understanding that people can rotate roles (and roles can even evaporate), the HR wanted to make the roles have specific meaning benefit-wise and hire specifically for some of those roles. In an online forum, a manager asked "since release schedules are fixed, how do you make up for slippages in sprints." This belies that the project plan was a big-project plan (BDUF-style) divided into sprint...

On Aug 4, 2008 I moved from Object Mentor where I was an Agile coach and mentor to various companies to Textura where I have been an internal coach and now am managing a team of developers. I realized that I need a new professional outlet now since I won't be filling up the pages of the Object Mentor blog. My friends recommended that I start working on personal branding by starting up an individual pro blog outside of my work environment. I will be writing from myself, and not from the point of view of any employer. Welcome to the result of that. Now I am working the agile transition from a whole different angle. Hopefully, this will be a great time of growth for me as well and I intend to blog my observations about agile practice as usual. I hope it will be a place where people can participate by giving me new observations, advice, and even possibly an occasional boot to the head. Enjoy. We will cover many miles together.