This year was the 20th anniversary of the Agile Manifesto for Software Development, and in many sectors, agile ways of working have long since become the standard. There are also many explanations of what agility really means, but there is agreement on the core meaning: focus on customers and their needs. Our own explanation of agility so far has been “the skill to turn customer needs into value flexibly, creatively and quickly while managing risk in complex environments.”
Why We Need to Redefine Agility
That said, if we broaden our view and look not only at individual companies and their customers but take a global perspective…
May 5, 2021 is German Overshoot Day, the day where we in Germany have used up our share of ecological resources that our planet can renew this year. For the remainder of 2021, we are taking an ecological loan to live and do business on a deficit. In other words, we in Germany need almost three times the resources that our planet can renew.
What’s the problem with this? We are putting this deficit on all people without asking, because the ecosystem knows no national borders and the effects of climate change are felt by everyone. That means we live…
A side-by-side comparison of The Scrum Guide 2020 and The Scrum Guide 2017.
On November 18, 2020 the co-creators of Scrum, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, published an update of the Scrum Guide. With the Scrum Guide 2020, the authors aim to “bring Scrum back to being a minimally sufficient framework by removing or softening prescriptive language”[1].
To help you see and understand these changes, we created a side-by-side comparison of the Scrum Guide 2020 and the Scrum Guide 2017.
This information was compiled by Johannes Geske who is a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) at Scrum.org and an agile coach…
Der 5. Mai 2021 ist der deutsche Erdüberlastungstag (German Overshoot Day), an dem wir in Deutschland unseren Anteil an ökologischen Ressourcen, die unser Planet in diesem Jahr erneuern kann, aufgebraucht haben. Für den Rest des Jahres nehmen wir beim Ökosystem Erde also einen Kredit auf, um zu leben und zu wirtschaften. Mit anderen Worten: Wir in Deutschland verbrauchen fast das Dreifache der Ressourcen, die unser Planet erneuern kann.
Was ist das Problem dabei? Diesen Kredit bürden wir ungefragt allen Menschen auf, denn das Ökosystem kennt keine Ländergrenzen, und die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels bekommen nicht nur die (Haupt-)Verursacher zu spüren. Das…
This is a story about a Scrum Team using Scrum to develop a product, learning early and often how to optimize the value of the product for their users. While the story is about a fictional team, the application of Scrum that is shown here is realistic. Thus, this story aims to help achieve a better understanding of Scrum, especially for readers who have not yet experienced Scrum for themselves.
A Scrum Team at Amazing Decisions
Kathryn is the founder and CEO of Amazing Decisions. Her company develops digital products that help other businesses make smart decisions.
Kathryn has an idea for a new product. However…
Dies ist die Geschichte über ein Scrum Team, das Scrum nutzt, um ein Produkt zu entwickeln und um dabei früh und häufig zu lernen, wie es den Wert des Produktes für die Nutzer:innen optimieren kann. Während die Geschichte von einem fiktiven Team handelt, ist die dargestellte Anwendung von Scrum realistisch. So will diese Geschichte dabei helfen, ein besseres Verständnis von Scrum zu erreichen, insbesondere für Leser:innen, die Scrum bisher noch nicht selbst erleben konnten.
Ein Scrum Team bei Amazing Decisions
Kathryn ist Gründerin und Geschäftsführerin von Amazing Decisions. Ihr Unternehmen entwickelt digitale Produkte, die anderen Unternehmen helfen, kluge Entscheidungen zu treffen.
Kathryn hat eine Idee für…
15 tips to improve your agility.
Technology, globalization, the environment and society are more closely linked than ever before: Technological advances are driving globalization, changing our environment and influencing society which in turn calls for new solutions to these challenges. This cycle is happening at an increasing pace and is making our world ever more complex. The COVID-19 pandemic is just one current example of a change with complex global consequences.
With all this complexity, we personally feel how difficult it is to keep up with the speed of change. It’s easy to feel lost. …
Technologie, Globalisierung, Umwelt und unsere Gesellschaft sind längst eng miteinander verknüpft: Technologische Fortschritte treiben die Globalisierung voran, verändern unsere Umwelt und beeinflussen unsere Gesellschaft. Diese Entwicklung passiert mit zunehmendem Tempo und macht unsere Welt immer komplexer. Die COVID-19-Pandemie ist dabei nur ein aktuelles Beispiel einer Veränderung mit weltweit komplexen Folgen.
Bei all dieser Komplexität merken wir persönlich, wie es uns immer schwerer fällt, mit dem Ausmaß und der Geschwindigkeit an Veränderungen Schritt zu halten und dabei nicht die Orientierung zu verlieren. Durch unsere Arbeit als Organisationsentwickler erleben wir, wie es vielen anderen Menschen und Unternehmen genauso geht.
Viele suchen daher…
As long as I can remember, I’ve been curious. As a child, I took things apart just to see how they worked. Luckily for me, my parents encouraged my curiosity, even though I sometimes couldn’t put things back together.
Looking back at how I discovered “agility”, I think it’s that curiosity that helped me embrace and learn about that concept. Discovering things in short plan-do-check-act cycles helped me channel my curiosity, learn more in less time and control the risk of undesirable outcomes — all at the same time.
Being the father of a naturally curious three-year old whom I…
“Can an R&D team of chemists, physicists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers and embedded software developers optimize teamwork and value by using Scrum? And can live virtual Scrum training deliver a practical Scrum learning experience to everyone on such a functionally diverse team?”
These were the two questions one of my customers asked.
Throughout our conversation I learned more about the team, and we quickly agreed that their work of applied research and technology development includes lots of complexity. When they start a new initiative, a lot more is unknown than known to them, and only through research, experimentation and development…
Johannes Geske
I help companies create amazing outcomes ‐ for their business, for people and for our planet.
