It was the 44th day of the 2024 so I decided to write a 44-line Agile Masterclass
Capturing some of my top learnings in my 12 year journey in the agile world
Let's get started.
1. Leaders care more about outcomes → Not agile
2. Imperfect action > perfect inaction → Take action & learn from it
3. Frequent feedback loops = More chance of building the right thing
4. People don't like forced change → Co-create change instead
5. Learn fast resonates better than fail fast - Especially with leadership
6. Customers don't care how many story points you deliver
7. Agile won't solve all your problems → Just expose them faster
8. Agile transformation is never complete → Evolve, don't transform
9. Individuals & interactions can be ENABLED by processes & tools
10. Innovation needs capacity → Make time for it
11. High frequency of customer interaction = Indicator of value delivery
12. Copy + paste frameworks are a scaffolding at best
13. We're humans first, employees second → Read that again
14. Estimates = not deadlines → Try probabilistic forecasting
15. Certifications are the start of your journey, not the end
16. Meetups & conferences will accelerate your career
17. The best time to start networking? Yesterday. The 2nd best time? Today
18. Everything = an experiment → Be more scientist
19. Knowledge is our most powerful asset - Retros share that knowledge
20. Learning how to communicate your value isn't emphasised enough
21. Limiting WIP is one of the easiest fixes to so many problems
22. We need to normalise admitting we don't know the answer
23. Talking psychological safety isn't enough → Create safety with action
24. We learn more from fails than wins but don't talk about them equally
25. Agile isn't the destination → It will help you reach it with less risk
26. It's ok to deviate from Scrum → Only 6% do it by the book
27. 100's of features delivered efficiently doesn't mean value
28. Focus more on removing waste (Features, bureaucracy)
29. Calling it "The business" reinforces siloes
30. We don't need to add 'Agile' in front of everything (HR, Marketing)
31. And sometimes Agile isn't even the answer
32. Remove dependencies → don't just manage them
32. Listening more than speaking = More respect
33. Just resorting to 'It depends' won't win you many fans
34. And only asking powerful questions won't cut it either
35. A co-created working agreement prevents 99% unhealthy conflict
36. While creating the environment for healthy conflict
37. Reframing it as 'Us' against the problem is an underrated skill
38. Continuous Improvement = team sport → Involving everyone, everyday
39. So don't wait for retros to identify opportunities
40. Or to flag problems holding us back
41. Daily habits get the results → Creating goals doesn't
42. A 1% improvement can always be made
43. Agile is the norm. So talk about it less
44. If the agile community can't agree what agile is - How do you expect others to?
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