Articles
AI and Organizational Design
Routine expertise has been or will be automated by AIs. What does this mean for your existing job titles and org chart?
Agile Coaching is a Fool’s Errand
I just spoke to a couple managers who rightly see a need to modernize their organization, and whose CEO is rightly skeptical of Agile Coaches1. They both ha...
Potentially Useful Things To Add To Scrum
Scrum (and LeSS) are intentionally incomplete, just some feedback loops to aid learning, and some empty space to put the people doing the work back in charge...
Scrum and Government Outsourcing
In an outsourced Scrum project how can we know the end-product is of the same value of what was originally promised by the contractor (noting the features...
Is Scrum For Infrastructure Work?
mj: A frequent question is whether Scrum should be used for “infrastructure projects.” Then they get vague when I ask for specific examples. We’ve alrea...
Scrum, The Unflattering Mirror
Here’s what Ken Schwaber wanted you to learn years ago: Scrum is intended to highlight every deficiency and impediment the enterprise has so the enterpris...
Things Ken Schwaber Intentionally Omits From Scrum
I’ve listed some things that are intentionally not part of Scrum, and may contradict it or make it less useful.
Common Misconceptions About Large Scale Agility
If you really pay attention to this video you’ll be able to call B.S. on 90% of Agile Coaches.
You Won’t Change Your Organization Without A System Optimization Goal
Why “make everything better” does not work.
Nine Disadvantages of LeSS, From Someone Who’s Doing It
Why Write This? You may know that I helped Manoj Vadakkan establish Fans of LeSS, our attempt to un-hijack Scrum and Agile. But just as Ken Schwaber used to...
Please Hold On To Your Wallet When You Hear Someone Claim That Scrum Scales Linearly
Be skeptical of anyone who tells you that nine Scrum teams will finish your product in one ninth the time. All else being equal, it’s not going to happen.
Why We Do Not Recommend Trying To Break Products Into Small Independent Pieces For Small Teams
Just today I heard two people give the same naive scaling advice: divide products into independent pieces for different teams to work on. This advice is so ...
An Example Dysfunctional Contract Relationship
Q: I am having a struggle with our contractor over scrum meetings. I am proposing that only the scrum master (me) and the developers (contractors) attend a s...
Jira Vs Human
I walked into a Backlog Refinement session with one person typing at a keyboard, a couple people interacting with him, and everyone else looking bored. We w...
JIRA and The Deckard Defense
Rachael: It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public? Deckard: Replicants are just like any other machine. They are either a benefit or ...
How is Knowledge Creation Work Different? (Why Johnny, Inc. Can’t Code.)
The fundamental constraint of knowledge creation work – such as software development – is our ability to discover and create knowledge.
My Code, Your Code. Private code policies considered harmful to agility.
Tying particular people or teams to particular parts of the code has several negative impacts.
Seven Alternatives To The Dreaded Scrum Of Scrums
Scrum Master Peter Woolley writes: I have only seen Scrum of Scrums (SOS) work once, when SMs and POs met 3 times a week to share their premeditated conve...
Local Optimization Bias: Here and Now vs. Elsewhere and Later
We human animals naturally think about what’s right in front of us. We focus on the here and now. This served us well enough when life was simpler. But ac...
Large Organization Software Development Misconception #4: Will Parts Made By Different Teams Fit Together By Magic?
Misconception 4.1: Will Components From Different Teams Integrate Into A Feature Without Teams Working Together?
Large Organization Software Development Misconception #3: Should Our Team See A Narrow View Or A Whole Product View?
Small teams are great, and mandated by the definition of Scrum. Scrum also mandates a Product Backlog and Product Owner.
Large Organization Software Development Misconception #2: Are All Teams Working On Equal Value Stuff?
If someone in an seven-team company had only a superficial understanding of Scrum, they might think each team should have its own segregated list of stuff t...
Why “Scrum” Isn’t Making Your Company Very Agile, How Misconceptions About The Product Owner Role Harm Your Organization, And What To Do About It.
This comic book went viral by revealing the truth of most “Scrum” implementations. It dismantles misconceptions in SAFe and Henrik Kniberg’s Nutshell video.
Large Organization Software Development Misconception #1: Are “Dependencies” In Knowledge Work Caused By Immutable Laws Of Physics?
Just before World War I, a colleague of Frederick Taylor named HL Gantt promoted the use of a project schedule chart highlighting activities that depend on e...
日本語でご覧いただけるMJの著作
スクラム
Cult Of Fibonacci
Scrum was supposed to help team start with the simplest thing that could possibly work. And then add complexity only as proven needed for their situation.
Larman’s Laws (日本語)
組織構造は暗黙的に現行のマネージャーと専門家の役職や権限が変わらないように最適化されています。
Resolving Product Owner Bottleneck
If we want an organization that can quickly adapt to external reality as it’s discovered (let’s call that agility), we need one Product Owner expressing visi...
Multitasking? Unprepared? Please Take Someone Else’s Class
After running hundreds of workshops for thousands of people I’ve learned that people trying to multitask on their mobile devices — even leaving phones out on...
Does Scrum For Hardware Exist?
My friend Viktor Grgic wrote: I think there is no such thing as Scrum in hardware, but love to be proven wrong after trying to find myself anything in thi...
The Eraserhead Scrum Master
A couple months ago I saw a tweet wondering why a CSM class takes two days when the Scrum Guide can be read in a few minutes. I’m reflecting on that as I d...
Scaling Is The Answer To The Wrong Question
If you’ve read one of my favorite 80’s books, Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, you’ll recall it concerns the search for the Answer to the Ultimate Question ...
Should Agile Teams Do Time Tracking
QUESTION: Currently the teams track progress/velocity through time estimates. We are shortly going to be moving to story points which should be a big impr...
Technical Debt Is The High Cost Of Future Change
It is possible for software to meet its current requirements – to work from the perspective of a user – but difficult to work with from the perspective of th...
Why I Barely Mention Velocity Anymore
Velocity isn’t part of any Scrum definition that I’m aware of. The application of “velocity” to software development was invented by eXtreme Programming (XP...
Feature Teams Do Not Eliminate Shared Work
It is nearly always better to organize into cross-component feature teams that aren’t restricted (by policy or skills) to a single architectural layer or des...
Documentation Can Be Part Of Definition Of Done
Participant: Hi MJ. Great news. I have landed a contract position as a scrum master. I had the three hour interview with six different folks and did extre...