Today’s session with Dan North was a standout. Following a somewhat disappointing morning, Dan’s talk was exactly what I needed to rejuvenate my enthusiasm.
Dan had promised a critical look at Scrum, and he delivered. Here are some key takeaways from his session:
- “A manager in a crappy system with a certificate is still a manager in a crappy system.”
- “Certified$crumMa$ter :)”
- Refer to the Satir Change Model to understand people’s resistance to change.
- Consider the Dreyfus Model for skill acquisition stages.
- Ken Schweiber’s assertion: “75% of uncoached Scrum projects will fail.”
- Implement continuous integration and automated tests to reveal and address underlying issues.
- Use assumption tests to document assumptions on legacy code.
- Embrace Deliberate Discovery in domain understanding, architecture, and team dynamics.
- Practice Rolling Wave Planning to detail only imminent stories.
- Write concise stories and break features into manageable pieces.
- Beware of “WaterScrum,” where long sprints can lead to drawbacks of both Agile and Waterfall methodologies.
- Shorten sprints to one week, identify pain points, and address them using the Plan -> Do -> Check -> Act cycle.
- “I love failing. It’s fun and is a great opportunity to learn.”
- Focus on the impact on effectiveness rather than just the cost of investments in tools and processes.
- Build trust with the business by demonstrating and celebrating successes, and maintaining transparency.
- Ensure all parts of your value chain understand “What’s in it for me?” including operations, testing, business, corporate, and development.
- Address the challenge of project management resistance to change by integrating lifecycle management and making frequent small changes.
- Establish a strategic fund for changes that transcend individual projects.
- Challenge the “Ivory Tower” mindset among architects; involve them in teams as consultants and reward knowledge sharing.
- Adopt Stewart leadership—lead by supporting and facilitating team needs (e.g., getting coffee).
- Integrate testers into the team and invest in automated testing.
- Recognize that systemic change requires a systemic approach.
- “A bad system will beat a good person every time.” – Edward Deming
Dan North’s presentation was a crisp and insightful analysis of common agile adoption pitfalls and solutions. It was a much-needed boost, reinforcing many of the challenges and strategies I’ve encountered in my own work.