Scrum Notes

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Missives from the Corporate Badlands
An introduction to this collection of essays
01/01/2023

Essays

Scrum: a 5-step guide for managers
Advice for managers in the new paradigm
Palo Alto, 13/01/2013
A Simple Cycle
An abstraction of the creative process
Palo Alto, 16/01/2013
Seeking 100% Value
Making the Scrum events work for you
Palo Alto, 14/03/2013
Iterative Estimation
Making it up as you go along—for integrity
Palo Alto, 15/04/2013
Agile is not Democracy
Why dot-voting shouldn't be used for decision making
Palo Alto, 15/05/2013
Business Craftsmanship
A right-brain approach to organizational transformation
Palo Alto, 20/05/2013
Big, Upfront Conferences
How agile is your Agile conference?
Palo Alto, 18/06/2013
Withhold your judgment, please
On the destructive and toxic aspect of feedback
Palo Alto, 24/05/2014
World, I am not a project manager
Gently challenging the staus quo
Palo Alto, 02/04/2014
The scrum board: dead on arrival
The travesty of compliance
Palo Alto, 01/05/2014
The Dodo in the Room
Challenging the project management paradigm
Palo Alto, 20/05/2014
Value Expressions
Thoughts on real feelings and fake fun
Palo Alto, 23/12/2014
Sacred Space
Ceremony may be the root of self-organisation
Palo Alto, 23/01/2015
What do you do?
On discovering a better question
Palo Alto, 04/03/2015
The Secondary Indirective
An alternative to the Retrospective Prime Directive
Palo Alto, 06/04/2015
Encode my values, kill my spirit
Value statements are a tool of oppression
Palo Alto, 09/04/2015
SMART Goals, VAGUE Dreams
Smart people know things, vague people seek
Palo Alto, 10/04/2015
Cheap Agile. Yum!
The dire state of our Agile diet
Palo Alto, 14/04/2015
How to Write an Agile Job Ad
...and how not to!
Palo Alto, 15/04/2015
Vapid Leadership
On the importance of citizenship over leadership
Palo Alto, 17/04/2015
Thoughts on Training
Training is for circus animals, pet dogs and HR folk
Palo Alto, 18/04/2015
Scrum for the Layperson
Why scrum matters and why it's worth paying attention
Palo Alto, 01/05/2015
Writers of code, awake from your slumber
Change can begin with the workers
Idaho Falls, 12/08/2015
Top 5 Scrum Workshop Don'ts
Advice to scrum trainers and facilitators
Idaho Falls, 22/08/2015
Rethinking Evaluation
Facilitating judgment-free retrospectives
Idaho Falls, 11/09/2015
I am not a coach
How to not be a coach in a climate of coaching
Idaho Falls, 15/09/2015
Why I do what I do
The 'Robin Hood' model of consultancy
Idaho Falls, 22/09/2015
The Lightness of Transformation
Agile change & transformation in a single slide
Idaho Falls, 11/10/2015
You++
Becoming more than what you are, without compliance
Idaho Falls, 26/10/2015
What is Scrum?
My response to an InfoQ question
Idaho Falls, 05/12/2015
Vacuous Agile
Is this as good as it gets?
Idaho Falls, 07/12/2015
Corporate Culture, a short story
You couldn't make it up!
Palo Alto, 25/01/2016
A few words on (corporate) culture change
Missionaries of the Agile creed
Palo Alto, 25/01/2016
Corporate Happiness
On the creeping corporatisation of human emotion
London, 02/06/2016
Agile is Real—a small lament
Fairies exist, but you have to believe to see them
London, 09/01/2017
Rest in Restlessness
Thoughts on the Agile/PMI marriage
London, 10/01/2017
Damage Repair
What does an Agile consultant actually do?
London, 20/02/2017
Transformation: an emergent becoming
Transformation is shape-shifting more than goal-reaching
London, 21/04/2017
Conflict Revolution
Embracing difference, argument and disagreement
London, 27/07/2017
Comm/unity
The fragility of agility
London, 22/08/2017
Scrum Master or Agile Coach?
An attempt to explain this weird 'scrum master' thing
London, 25/09/2017
The Silence of Scrum
Scrum: simple, clean, reflective, unrelenting, melodic
London, 16/10/2017
The Law of One Bum
Living the scrum values in all your affairs
London, 05/04/2018
Healing what ails us
Fumbling in the dark for the truth
Sheffield, 16/04/2018
Collaboration: the art of letting go
Mostly about what collaboration is not
Sheffield, 15/05/2018
A Consultants' Fable
How stories tell us the truth (if we wish to hear)
Sheffield, 22/05/2018
The Pavlova Guide
Why structure matters
Sheffield, 09/09/2018
A Fresh Look at Transformation
Corporate dysfunction: what's your part?
Sheffield, 07/01/2019
Scrum Master ≠ Project Manager
These roles are distincly different. Let's stop conflating them
Sheffield, 26/01/2019
Agile: to do or to be?
Look past the action, towards the state of being
Sheffield, 25/02/2019
Small Things
A personal reflection on presence and quietude
Sheffield, 25/05/2019
Scrum does not have WIP limits 🕶
A new pair of glasses #1
Sheffield, 22/06/2020
Scrum is a rigid process 🕶
A new pair of glasses #2
Sheffield, 26/06/2020
Scrum masters must be technical 🕶
A new pair of glasses #3
Sheffield, 14/07/2020
Bonus Essay: Living the Scrum Values
The scrum values are more than a list of words in a guide
30/06/2021