The Mountain Goat Software Blog

Teams with subgroups formed around compatible skills, attitudes and approaches to work are less likely to lead to a later breakdown in trust.

Remember the difference between an estimate and a commitment and keep the two activities separate, educating management and customers as necessary.

People often ask me whether teams should have the right to vote members off. To help answer that question, let me share a story with you.

I’ve found that the personal relationships established by ambassadors can be extremely valuable even long after the ambassador returns to native soil.

Even before the ascendancy of agile methodologies like Scrum, we knew we should automate our tests. But we didn’t. Automated tests were considered expensive to write and were often written months, or in some cases years, after a feature had been programmed. One reason teams found it difficult to write tests sooner was because they were automating at the wrong level.

A DEEP product backlog is detailed appropriately, estimated, emergent and prioritized.

Moving away from component teams is a difficult but necessary step for those who want to adopt an agile project management approach.

The difference on a Scrum project is not that intentional design is thrown out, but that it is done incrementally.

When introducing a complex change into a large organization, resistance will be inevitable.

The most effective type of community of practice within Scrum organizations seems to be one that forms organically.

The effort of adopting Scrum is best managed using Scrum itself.

The ideal pilot project sits at the confluence of project size, project duration, project importance, and the engagement of the business sponsor.