Great agile teams are built, not hired. These articles cover the daily practices, coaching techniques, and team dynamics that separate high-performing teams from teams that just go through the motions.
Elite sports teams improve every day. Most companies review performance once a quarter. The gap is structural, not cultural — and it is closeable.
Today's organizations are under pressure like never before. Global disruptions, rising customer expectations, shifting talent dynamics, disconnected workforce with the mix of in-person, hybrid, and remote options has increased complexity across the board.
Modern techniques have reshaped how teams plan, develop, and deliver value for years. In fact, when organizations embrace modern Agile techniques, they build a resilient foundation that endures even in the face of rapid technological change.
Achieving success in your Agile journey requires more than adopting new practices. Leaders often find that even when following frameworks like Scrum, Kanban, or even SAFe®, results can sometimes seem unpredictable.
High-performing teams are the driving force behind consistent, efficient software delivery. However, persistent blockers often hinder Agile Development Managers from unlocking their teams' full potential.
Creating software requires more than technical expertise--it thrives on teamwork, innovation, and problem-solving. When a team feels valued, supported, and motivated, they deliver exceptional results.
Boosting team productivity often feels like solving a complex puzzle. You're moving the pieces--adjusting workflows, refining priorities--but the full picture can remain out of reach.
Creating true alignment in software teams can transform your organization. Fragmented communication, conflicting goals, and siloed workflows often derail progress--especially in distributed and hybrid settings.
Diversity in Agile isn't just a buzzword--it's a catalyst for unlocking innovation, promoting operational excellence, and enhancing adaptability.
Integrating strategy with Agile development drives more than just efficiency--it fosters adaptability, cross-functional collaboration, and clarity of purpose.
Agile marketing is revolutionizing how marketing professionals approach their work, enabling teams to respond faster, collaborate more effectively, and deliver higher returns on investment.
Organizational agility is not a passing trend--it's the engine of lasting success. In today's rapidly evolving market, businesses must adapt quickly to rising customer expectations, and shifting demands.
Many organizations aim to deliver innovative solutions, exceptional products, and seamless services. However, a significant obstacle often stands in their way: the presence of organizational silos.
Agile Transformations are essential for organizations striving to stay ahead of market changes and evolving customer needs. While tools and frameworks play their part, the backbone of any Agile initiative lies in having the right people in key roles.
In today's dynamic business world, building a high-performing Agile team starts with selecting team members who bring the right mix of technical expertise, adaptability, and interpersonal skills.
In Agile organizations, collaboration, process efficiency, and delivering value at scale are top priorities. For teams utilizing the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®), the Agile Release Train (ART) plays a pivotal role in managing teamwork and aligning toward common goals.
Agile teams flourish through collaboration, adaptability, and continuous improvement, but there's a crucial and often overlooked component that significantly impacts a team's success: emotional well-being.
In today's fast-paced, tech-driven world, Agile principles enable teams to quickly adapt to changes, deliver consistent value, and maintain high standards of quality. For professionals, an Agile certification can be a powerful way to stand out in this space.
Lean Portfolio Management provides organizations with a framework to improve alignment, optimize value delivery, and reach strategic objectives by focusing on value streams, frequent feedback loops, and open transparency.
Team alignment is crucial for success in environments that prioritize collaboration, adaptability, and quick value delivery. For Agile teams, aligning around a shared goal ensures smooth coordination, reduces misunderstandings, and boosts performance.
Professional Development Units (PDUs) play a vital role in advancing the careers of Agile practitioners.
In today's fast-moving, technology-driven landscape, Agile development is pivotal to delivering value quickly, adapting to constant change, and exceeding customer expectations.
Value stream mapping is a powerful technique that enhances collaboration between sales and operations, optimizes workflows, and strengthens organizational agility. In today's fast-paced business environment, efficiency and alignment are critical.
Building a high-performing Agile team is essential for hiring managers, HR professionals, recruiters, and organizational leaders who want to foster innovation and adaptability.
In the Scrum Agile framework, clear communication and collaboration are essential for achieving team goals, and at the heart of this is the Daily Scrum.
As Agile practices continue to thrive across various industries, preparing for Agile-related interviews is essential for your organization's growth.
Agile teams thrive on collaboration strategies, adaptability, and continuous improvement. But how do you strengthen these vital skills in an engaging and memorable way?
Agile teams thrive by embracing adaptability, fostering collaboration, and committing to continuous improvement. In today's business environment, organizations turn to Agile Methodologies to stay competitive. Knowing and leveraging each team member's strengths is essential.
Agile methodologies are widely recognized for their association with improved project outcomes. Mastering Agile skills is not just beneficial--it's essential for sustainable success.
Companies implementing Agile learning strategies have reported improvements in employee productivity.. In an era defined by rapid technological advancements and constant market shifts, organizations must strategically embrace change rather than merely react to it.
Delivering high-quality products that satisfy user needs is more crucial than ever for tech companies aiming to stay competitive.
In the ever-changing landscape of Agile, teams must adapt quickly, take risks, and engage in open collaboration. Achieving these outcomes hinges on a less visible but crucial factor: Psychological Safety.
Did you know that Product Owners who prioritize effectively can improve team efficiency by up to 30%? Product Owners play a pivotal role in Agile environments, serving as the bridge between stakeholders and development teams.
In today's fast paced world, the most successful organizations don't just rely on tools or processes - they cultivate Agile mindset.
Agile Transformation is a strategy for companies aiming to enhance their responsiveness and deliver value more efficiently. But how can you determine if your Agile Transformation is truly effective?
Embarking on an Agile Transformation can revolutionize your organization, promising enhanced agility, improved teamwork, and stronger alignment with your business goals. But let's be honest--it's not an easy journey.
In the fast-paced world of Agile Transformations, Scrum teams stand at the forefront of organizational agility, driving product success with precision and adaptability. Effective planning and capacity management are crucial pillars in enhancing the performance of these teams.
The landscape of remote work continues to redefine how Agile teams operate across the globe. The pivot towards remote environments poses unique challenges but also opens new avenues for Agile Methodologies to evolve and thrive.
In a world where change is the only constant, the mantle of leadership is being reshaped by the principles of agility.
Effective communication plays a pivotal role in the success of Agile software teams. As these teams navigate the complexities of rapid project cycles and evolving requirements, the role of communication becomes pivotal in enhancing collaboration and driving productivity.
In the dynamic world of product management, Agile Methodologies have become a beacon for teams seeking to enhance their adaptability and speed. However, implementing Agile in practice comes with its own set of challenges, from minimizing churn to optimizing team performance.
In the face of an ever-evolving business landscape, dubbed the 'Next Normal,' agility has become the keystone of thriving organizations.
In a rapidly evolving business landscape, the ability to adapt and deliver results swiftly has become a cornerstone of success. Agile Methodologies are the beacon of adaptability, promising enhanced team performance and more efficient progress.
For a high-performing team and organization, the ability to provide feedback is critical but in this day in age, it can create anxiety and fear. Fear of saying the wrong thing, fear of looking foolish, and even fear of retaliation.
One of the biggest challenges Agile leads like coaches and Scrum Masters face today is how to connect and report Agile transformation to business results like predictable delivery.
In the dynamic world of business, leaders and teams face evolving challenges that demand innovative, flexible, and efficient solutions.
Psychological safety is crucial for the success and high performance of any team.
In a previous article, we explored the topic of measuring team health and morale. This article unpacks the links between key agile capabilities and team performance. Team Performance isn't just a buzzword--it's a critical factor in the success of any organization.
Companies are increasingly recognizing the need to measure and visualize how their teams are performing, using various metrics such as OKRs, KPIs, and NPS scores.
![Maximizing Team Effectiveness: Measuring the Performance of Software Development Teams [Webinar Recording]](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2FMaximizing-Team-Effectiveness-Webinar-Recording-Thumbnail.png&w=2048&q=75)
A panel of coaches from Agile Velocity discuss how to measure the performance of software development teams, including best practices and antipatterns, before diving into metrics to consider.
In today's crazy-fast business world, keeping up with the pace of change and making quick decisions is like trying to sprint on a treadmill. Why aren't businesses getting anywhere?
When it comes to Sprint Planning in the Scrum framework, precision and predictability are paramount. Yet Sprint Planning based on story points and average velocity, while popular, has inherent flaws.
![The Damaging Impacts of Technical Debt on Dev Team Performance [Video]](/_next/image?url=%2Fimages%2Fblog%2FImpacts-of-technical-debt-thumbnail.png&w=2048&q=75)
Enterprise Coach Randy Hale interviews Principal Software Engineer Joshua Meriyah on the biggest challenges impacting development teams. They focus on technical debt and organizational strategies to prevent debt from bankrupting your teams and product.
New feature alert! We understand how important it is to be able to visualize team performance and improvement areas so we made it even easier! Watch as David Hawks gives a tour of the newest feature updates in Path to Agility Navigator.
We had so much fun at Keep Austin Agile this week! We hosted Agile City Limits with a special guest-star appearance from Mathew McCut-out. Some might say it was alright alright alright... At Agile Velocity, we focus on business outcomes over practices.
In a previous post in our Scrum Assessment Series, we shared some ideas to help catalyze engaging sprint reviews. Here, we take a deeper dive into the topic of awesome Sprint Reviews.
The recent Harvard Business Review (HBR) article 'The Agile C-Suite'1 and Forbes article 'Agile Isn't New: What's New Is The C-Suite Embracing It' have prompted some good discussion around the Agile Velocity virtual water cooler.
There's a pattern in client conversations I'm having. Every client I've spoken to recently has guided our conversations to highlight how much better they see their teams responding to recent pandemic challenges because of their newly developed Agile capabilities. Every one.
The issue. Conflict. It makes me nervous just thinking about conflict in the workplace. It brings to the surface old insecurities, hurt feelings, and power struggles.
Happy days. Your organization has made the commitment to experiment with Agile or to go whole hog and do a 'rip-the-band-aid-off' transformation. Now, you're learning about stand-ups, backlogs, and self-organizing teams.
Is HR Agile a thing? That's what Samantha Wiseman (Sr. HR Business Partner) wanted to find out when she took our Scrum Master cert class this January. After spending two days learning about empirical process, Agile, and the Scrum framework, she began to see how it can be applied to her role as a [...
To estimate or not? To re-estimate or not? This short article will tackle the second question. We''ll weigh in on #EstimateGate in a later blog post.
We've discussed what a ScrumMaster is and what their main responsibilities are. We've even discussed the hard and soft skills needed to make a successful ScrumMaster (thanks, Leslie Knope). But, still, what does a ScrumMaster do anyway? What makes up an entire work day?
In traditional resource allocation, we assign programmers or 'resources' to a project based on need or availability. However, issues arise when we start working on multiple projects and suddenly our programmers are now working on multiple projects and teams.
In the past, we''ve used component teams in development: teams of people that with generally the same skills. These teams are typically assigned a part of a project to work on.
Scrum sprints can be tricky. Agile teams often fall into the trap of turning their Scrum sprint into a mini-waterfall. In other words, they take on work and save testing until the end of a Sprint, which tends to create more carryover than truly done work.
This video breaks down the basics of one of the most popular Agile frameworks, Scrum, and covers topics like: Scrum Roles Scrum teams Backlog Prioritization Scrum ceremonies Sprint cycles See below for the full transcription.
Backlog Refinement has been gaining momentum as a best practice in Scrum. I think it's so important that I champion it to be a standard event, on par with Sprint Planning, Sprint Retrospectives, and Standups. (If you agree you should go to the Scrum Guide's site and vote it up).
Confused about the correct sprint ceremony schedule? Does the sprint planning come before or after the daily scrum? For new Agile practitioners, all of these meetings can be confusing and hard to keep track of.
Most teams say they are doing Scrum, but they really aren't. One of the core elements of Scrum is something called the Potentially Shippable Product Increment (PSPI), or getting to Done Done.
Daily Scrum Meeting Purpose The goal of the Daily Scrum meeting is to synchronize and plan the team's work toward the Sprint Goal over the next day (until the next Daily Scrum) meeting.
Retrospective Purpose The Retrospective is held at the end of each sprint in order to evaluate the previous sprint and discuss what worked well and what areas the team could improve upon. The team should identify one or two areas to work on in the next sprint.
Purpose The Sprint Planning meeting is a two-part meeting where the team commits to a sprint goal for the next two-week sprint with a complete sprint backlog of prioritized product requests, their tasks, and sizes.
As a 15-year Scrum practitioner, I try to revisit the official Scrum Guide, sometimes referred to as the 'Scrum Bible', to make sure I stay on top of any updates associated with the framework roles, events, artifacts, rules, and underlying philosophies.
When you hear the term 'extreme programming', what do you think of? Coding while skydiving at 15,000 feet? Bug-fixing while scaling the north face of Kilimanjaro? Refactoring while swimming with sharks at the Great Barrier Reef?
So many teams have a list of projects laid out on a roadmap sometimes months or years out, without a clear idea of how success is measured. Are they being measured based on the number of projects completed? Getting them done 'on time'? High quality? Team utilization?
Cross-functional teams are at the heart of Agile development. What is a cross-functional team? It's generally defined as a group of experts in their individual functional areas working towards a common goal. Most of the 'teams' I've come across fit this definition.
Let me ask you this: If you had a team of five would you rather have 20% annual gain without adding another developer, or go hire and integrate a new developer every year to get a 20% productivity gain YoY? If it was up to me, I'd go with option one and make sure that [...]
Product Owners are in high demand. Searching on Indeed for 'Product Owner' pulled up 103 new jobs posted this month.
Sprint Retrospectives...the other bookend to Sprints. Retros mark the official end of the Sprint and provide teams the opportunity to reflect so the next Sprint is even more efficient.
In the perfect Agile world, a ScrumMaster is a ScrumMaster...and that's it. There's not a never-ending custody battle where a person goes back and forth between two roles. Unfortunately, we live in the real world.
If your Sprint begins with two days of design followed by six days of development and finally two days of QA, each phase stacked right behind another like dominoes, then congratulations...you have a mini waterfall.
The ScrumMaster role on the team is never static and takes on many forms. Their role is one of servant leadership; as the team needs, the ScrumMaster provides.
Did you guys know it was election season? Don't worry, we're not here to discuss the five candidates on the presidential ballot. We're here to discuss and debate the following question... If the United States was a development team, would POTUS be a ScrumMaster or Product Owner?
As a ScrumMaster, some of my teams resented the burndown chart and me for pestering them to update their time. Sometimes, teams feel the updating of hours and the burndown are ways to make micro-managing easier. And, sometimes, that''s EXACTLY what it is used for.
A hurdle for companies who are transitioning to Agile is how to find your product owner. Should they look externally or is it OK to look within as they already have roles that are similar to the Product Owner (PO) position.
Books like Khoi Tu's 'Superteams' and articles in the Harvard Business Review discuss what makes successful, high-performing teams. In the Agileverse¹, we talk a lot about self-organizing teams, transparency, servant leadership, and the power of cross-functional teams.
Remember when you were a kid being told to eat your vegetables? Even though you know they're good for you, you just don't 'wanna' sometimes. Story point estimation can be similar. It can feel like an extra meeting in your already busy schedule.
A healthy backlog has 2 sprints worth of sprintable stories. What does this mean? Learn what makes a story 'ready' and how many to have in your backlog at all times.
With Daily Scrum, Backlog Grooming, Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, and finally the Retrospective, Scrum provides a lot of opportunities for the team to come together and discuss, assess, and pivot when necessary. In other words, meet on a regular basis.
Imagine you were tasked with building a transportation vehicle for two individuals. What would be your first step? If you dove head first into your list of features, you made the wrong move. What if the person needed to travel from Austin, Texas to Oxford, England?
The Scrum Master's job is to realize the full potential of Scrum by facilitating meetings including all of the Scrum ceremonies, removing impediments, and resolving conflicts. It's a good job, both in terms of financial, emotional, and intellectual gain.
Building an Agile team is more than just posting job ads and signing contracts. Before you make an addition to the team, make sure you have the right infrastructure in place by knowing the what, who, and when of growing an Agile team.
It's been said that your product backlog is the ultimate to-do list. However, have you ever tried to complete a to-do list without prioritizing each task first? Or going to the grocery store without grouping items? You couldn't pay me to go to a grocery store with a chaotic list.
Product Owners typically express application requirements from a user-centric perspective. This usually means that non-functional requirements are not a primary focus.
Amazon lists over 3,000 books related to Agile Software Development and there is no shortage of information on the internet about how best to implement Agile, but I think there are still small improvements and tips I don't see often mentioned that I think are useful.
In Agile methodology, the role of the Product Owner is critical to the overall effectiveness and success of the development team. When a company is looking to increase the time to market and productivity, a dedicated product owner is one solution.
Technical debt accumulates silently and compounds relentlessly. Most teams feel the symptoms (slow delivery, mounting defects, frustrated developers) but struggle to make the problem visible to leadership. A simulation game can change that.
What is the role of the Agile Business Analyst? David Hawks covers iterative requirements, the relationship between product owners and business analysts, and how to create user stories that drive value.
David Hawks presented Introduction to Agile for Product Managers at ProductCamp Austin, covering what Agile is, how it compares to traditional waterfall development, and advantages of Agile for increased visibility and shortened feedback loops.
It's been over 10 years since the official Agile movement startedㅡa time when companies were focused on projects, deadlines, and budgets. Agile approaches shifted thinking from large, single delivery linear projects to small incremental, continuously delivered features.
Mark Spitzer, Agile Coach, presented at the San Antonio Agilistas meeting. In this presentation, he addressed common challenges for distributed agile teams. Common scenarios are covered along with practical suggestions that have been successful for many organizations.
In the past, developers either had only the choice between multiple machines or sharing development environments. In the first instance, this is an expensive solution and in the second, lots of developers sharing a single environment leads to contention issues.
Agile Velocity had a great time hosting and facilitating a location in Austin during Global Day of Coderetreat 2014! This was our first time hosting and facilitating this event and we enjoyed the group that came out for some community, learning, and deliberate practice!
This is Part 1 of a 3-part blog series for Scrum Masters, Product and Product Managers, and facilitators. Use these exercises to break the ice and lead meetings that are fun and energized, resulting in more participant engagement.
This is Part 2 of a 3-part blog series for Scrum Masters, Product and Product Managers, and facilitators. Use these exercises to incite brainstorming meetings that are fun and energized, resulting in more participant engagement.
This is Part 3 of a 3-part blog series for Scrum Masters, Product and Product Managers, and facilitators. Use these exercises to lead long meetings that are fun and energized, resulting in more participant engagement. These exercises are great for re-energizing a group, especially in long meetings.
The Austin Business Journal named Agile Velocity in the top ten of the best places to work in Austin for the micro companies category. Agile Velocity was named to the list for the first time, ranking #8 out of 20 micro companies.
This is the fourth post in our Scrum Assessment Series. Often we'll attend a Sprint Review where the team is present and ready to demonstrate the work they completed during the Sprint, but there are no stakeholders or customers present to see the demo!
In this article, we'll explore the motivation for saying 'yes', understand the damage it can cause, and identify what it takes to be able to say 'no'. Agile can help you build a culture focused on frequent delivery of value to customers.
This is the third post in our Scrum Assessment Series. Too many teams we observe are trying to get out of their Sprint Planning meetings as fast as possible. They think the goal is to just get a plan. Some cheat by having everyone task their work ahead of time or skip the tasking altogether. They [...
This is the second post in our Scrum Assessment Series. A continuous improvement culture is the most important thing for a team to establish early. Where does the team land on the scale below?
This is the first post in our Scrum Assessment Series. The Daily Scrums or Standups are a critical planning meeting for the team. It should be fun and engaging. A great team demonstrates a culture of shared ownership.
The Agile Velocity team attended and participated in Austin Product Camp 11 at the AT&T Conference Center. David Hawks led two popular sessions, 'Delivering Product in an Agile World' and 'Requirements Process from Discovery to Delivery.'
The word 'team' in Agile Team is hugely important and something we rarely give much thought to. What really makes a good team player? Part of my personal journey is to improve as a member of my team. I look to these words for inspiration.
There has been a lot of talk over the years about having a definition of 'Done' or 'being Done', but I think it is just important to have a definition of Ready. Have you ever been in Sprint Planning and been surprised to find out the requirements aren't clear or the team has no idea [...]
Last month I attended the Agile2012 Conference, where the core themes were Agile Organization Transformation and thoughts challenging the effectiveness of the currently defined Product Owner role.
Our prior post, Evolution of a User Story, provides a better understanding of how a new feature or product transforms from high-level epics to sprint-sized or incremental stories.
I feel the Retrospective is the most important ceremony, especially for new teams. I am concerned when ScrumMasters boast they can get their Retrospective done in 30 minutes or less. I must ask, 'Did your team learn anything? Are they improving?
The Daily Scrum Meeting is for the TEAM to self-organize towards achieving their Sprint commitment.
If Your Sprints are crazy, do any of these issues sound familiar?
I get a little resistance from teams to start using Story Points for estimating, but it really is a superior way to estimate over hour based estimates.
'What do you think the impact will be on an organization of having a potentially shippable product increment at least every 30 days?' This is one of the hardest feats to accomplish, but a critical component in highly successful Scrum.
I think getting teams to be self-organizing in a productive way is one of the toughest challenges of Scrum. I remember early on in our adoption of Scrum when I was having trouble getting the teams to embrace a self-organizing culture.
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