Agile Transition — learn from success, failure on Age-of-Product.com

“Agile” Does Not Work for You? Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman at the 59th Hands-on Agile Meetup

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-04-01 Agile and ScrumAgile TransitionVideos

TL; DR: Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman

Your team is supposed to use an agile approach, such as Scrum. But you have a years-long backlog, your standups are individual status reports, and you’re still multitasking. You and your team members wish you had the chance to do great work, but this feels a lot like an “agile” death march. There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry. Now, there is light at the end of the tunnel; let’s delve into Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman!

“Agile” Does Not Work for You? Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman at the 59th Hands-on Agile Meetup — Age-of-Product.com

📺 Watch the video now: “Agile” Does Not Work for You? Tackling Fake Agility with Johanna Rothman at the 59th Hands-on Agile Meetup.

How Scrum Teams Fail Stakeholders and What You Can Do About It

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-03-24 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: How Scrum Teams Fail Stakeholders

In this article, we uncover typical ways in which Scrum teams fail stakeholders, from overpromising results to poor risk communication to neglecting feedback. Moreover, we will also explore actionable strategies to overcome these anti-patterns by building trust, aligning priorities, and enhancing collaboration for successful product development.

How Scrum Teams Fail Stakeholders and What You Can Do About It — Age-of-Product.com

Sprint Anti-Patterns

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-03-10 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Sprint Anti-Patterns Holding Your Teams Back

Welcome to Sprint anti-patterns! This article covers the three Scrum accountabilities (formerly roles) and addresses interferences of stakeholders and IT/line management with this crucial Scrum event. Moreover, I added some food for thought. For example, could a month-long Sprint be too short for accomplishing something meaningful? And if so, what are the consequences?

Sprint Anti-Patterns Holding Back Scrum Teams — Age-of-Product.com

Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-02-05 Featured Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach

Are you considering a new Scrum Master or Agile Coach job? However, you are not sure that it is the right organization? Don’t worry; there are four steps of proactive research to identify suitable employers or clients for getting hired as a Scrum Master and avoid disappointment later.

I have used those four steps for years to identify organizations I would like to work with, and they never failed me. Read on and learn how to employ search engines, LinkedIn’s people search, reach out to peers in the agile community, and analyze the event markets in the quest for your next Scrum Master job.

Getting Hired as a Scrum Master or Agile Coach — Age-of-Product.com

Agile Laws: From Conway to Goodhart to Parkinson to Occam’s Razor

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-01-27 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Agile Laws in Software Development

On many occasions, working with agile teams has amplified existing organizational, technical, and cultural challenges in many organizations. Starting to change always requires the acceptance that there is a problem that needs attention. The following article addresses some of the most prevailing impediments to achieving agility by revisiting several agile laws that are particularly relevant to any team’s effectiveness in solving customer problems.

Agile Laws: From Conway to Goodhart to Parkinson to Occam’s Razor — Age-of-Product.com

Sunsetting Scrum Masters

by Stefan Wolpers | 2024-01-15 Agile and ScrumAgile Transition

TL; DR: Sunsetting Scrum Masters

In this article, I uncover indicators that a Scrum Master’s or Agile Coach’s journey is coming to a close; they are sunsetting Scrum Masters.

These indicators include, for example, management’s deviation from first principles, reduced support for your change initiatives, an emerging preference for short-term fixes over long-term agile strategies, a shift back to top-down control, decreased communication involvement, exclusion from management discussions, neglected input, waning reliance from the team, being left out of new communication channels, and lessened requests for meeting facilitation.

Consequently, recognizing and addressing these signs is critical to maintaining integrity and effectiveness.

Finally, please do not fool yourself; sometimes, it is also time to move on.