Building working software is no longer a problem; delivering value is the challenge. — In February 2001, the Agile Manifesto was born because building working software was a nightmare for many companies. Something had to change, and the manifesto addressed that very well. Although the Agile Manifesto is still relevant to building working software, our current challenge is another. Today, many companies can build…

Scrum Teams will never reach their highest potential without solid Product Management practices. — Why do companies hire highly qualified professionals? The answer should be straightforward, but what happens, in reality, is complex. I’ve observed many talented people trapped in the business world from doing what they are capable of. The reasons are endless, but some common ones are: Unskilled managers limit talents by…

The market is shifting in a new direction, can Scrum still find its space? — It’s impossible to ignore how well known Scrum is. For years, Scrum was the first choice among Agile frameworks for most companies worldwide; only a few would challenge it. But recently, something changed, organizations are losing trust in Scrum. After failing to get meaningful results, many places are replacing Scrum…

Originally published in GoRetro It seems obvious Quality Assurance should be part of the Scrum team’s skillset. Cross-functional teams should have the required skills to create value and ensure a minimum quality level is expected. Otherwise, whenever you ship something, you run into a risk of breaking everything else. As…

Originally published in GoRetro My first contact with Scrum happened in 2012. Back then, we worked according to a waterfall model. The jobs were well defined: business analyst, software engineer, quality assurance engineer, project manager, delivery manager, and many other titles. However, our results constantly frustrated the new COO; he…

Originally published in GoRetro With a bitter taste, the Jorvik team had just finished their Sprint. Ivar was disappointed as the team couldn’t deliver the promised 63 Story Points. Unfortunately, Björn got stuck with his 5 Story Points ticket, and Ragnar’s last 3 Story Point task was rejected during browser…

Originally published in GoRetro After 99 Sprints together, team Jorvik felt they nailed Scrum. They’ve never been so fast and in perfect sync with each other. Ivar, the Product Owner, wanted to celebrate their accomplishments. Therefore, he prepared a list of achievements to present to the team before the end…

Originally published in GoRetro What’s the best Agile estimation technique? People from all over the world often ask me this question. The question itself doesn’t bug me, but the misunderstandings of estimations do. If you are searching for a perfect way to predict effort, I am afraid you will only be disappointed. In a complex system…