Agile is a prerequisite for digital business because it combines an early and frequent delivery of customer value with the ability to rapidly adapt to changing market conditions. Agile has become essential to compete with digital-born businesses and to remain relevant in a world of digital fluency. This means that the demand for experienced developers … continue reading
It has been 20 years since the Manifesto for Agile Software Development was published, and even longer since the idea was first formed, and yet there still isn’t a clear understanding in the industry of what Agile really is. “Far too many teams that claim to be ‘Agile’ are not. I’ve had people — with … continue reading
Two motivations drove the update to the Scrum Guide, which was delivered last month. The original creators of Scrum — Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland — described their goals: To provide better support for the growing number of teams using Scrum outside of Software Development. Scrum is being used by product teams working on problems … continue reading
Scrum.org has announced updates to the Scrum Framework as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. Updates include simplified language, less prescriptive and emphasis on the Scrum team and its need to be self-managing. “Over the years, the Scrum Guide started getting a bit more prescriptive, yet our goal has always been to retain it as a … continue reading
As Agile software development continues to take hold across all industries, along with DevOps practices and tooling, refining the delivery of products and services is increasingly the focus for many firms. Ensuring business goals and customer requirements are being met is key to software delivery. This requires detailed planning and organization of all teams working … continue reading
As I travel around talking to Scrum teams, developers and pretty much anyone involved in building products, they seem to always bring up “velocity.” Don’t get me wrong; velocity is a good measure, but it is only ONE measure, and it is one that can be quite subjective as well. In Scrum, for example, teams … continue reading
Despite what you may have heard, Agile is not dead. A couple years ago, Dave Thomas, one of the creators of the Agile manifesto, declared that Agile was dead, but it wasn’t the idea of Agile he was talking about. It was the word Agile itself. “The word ‘agile’ has been subverted to the point … continue reading
Organizations that really want to make Agile processes work realize they have to make an investment in people. That was among the findings of the 13th State of Agile Report, produced by Collabnet VersionOne and released today. The top three responses to the question of what has been most valuable in helping organizations scale Agile … continue reading
When your organization begins using Agile methodology for projects in the development pipeline, success hinges of many things, but none more important than the team members themselves — their success and their buy-in. And in an Agile environment, if your software engineers are the players, then the Scrum Master is the team manager and is … continue reading
It’s been 18 years since the members of “The Agile Alliance” wrote this manifesto. Since then, Agile has dominated the software industry’s mindset for how to manage software development. We have abandoned the “Old Way” of trying to fit software into the frameworks developed for other disciplines. We have recognized that change is both a … continue reading
Back in the late 1950s when iterative and incremental development methods — two of the underpinnings of Agile development — were first being utilized at IBM’s Service Bureau Corp. in Los Angeles, it would have been inconceivable that development teams could be created one day to work together on the same project from multiple remote … continue reading
Most Agile developers have worked in both real Agile environments and in the more traditional set-ups dressed up in Agile ceremonies. You know the ones — where people are just stepping through the Agile motions, with “standups” in which no one stands up; and “retrospectives” where there is no honest reflection and improvement. These fake retros … continue reading
