Articles
Agile’s Next Step: From Wants and Features to Jobs and Outcomes
This paper outlines such a flow. It begins with Jobs to Be Done (JTBD), which frame the enduring needs people hire solutions to fulfill. A Quickest Valuable Release (QVR) then narrows the field to a release-sized bet worth delivering now. Within that scope, job stories articulate situational demand, outcome stories define measurable effects, and context captures constraints and guardrails. From this, capabilities express what the system must enable, and slices implement those capabilities in thin, demo-able increments. Taken together, this model provides continuity from strategic intent to incremental delivery, helping Agile teams evolve their practices without losing the principles that made Agile valuable in the first place. Click here for the article.
You can watch a video about Jobs to be Done here.
Automatic Interpretive Reframing
Much of human performance and decision-making is shaped not by the raw information we encounter, but by the way we automatically interpret it. That is, you don’t actually hear what someone says as much as hear it through your filters and the conversation you have about what they said. Automatic Interpretive Reframing (AIR) captures this phenomenon: as listeners, we unconsciously reshape what we hear through our ego-descriptions, prior distinctions, and assumptions. This enables rapid sense-making but also distorts communication and narrows learning. Miscommunication, in this view, is not accidental but structural: every act of listening is also an act of reframing. Click here for the article.
Automatic Interpretive Reframing is just one aspect of the Amplio Kata Coaching approach. The Amplio Kata Coaching Learning Journey is part of the Amplio’s Learning Journey Suite. You can learn more about it here.
Demystifying Kanban.
Much that is being written today is written by Scrum folks. It’s like trying to see red with green glasses. The Scrum filters out the value of Kanban. Scrum-Kanban hybrids are all too often Scrum with Kanban practices.
Here’s an article I wrote in 2011 entitled Demystifying Kanban, because even Kanban folks have different views about it.
The two best books on Kanban are Scrumban: Essays on Kanban Systems for Lean Software Development by Corey Ladas, and Rethinking Agile: Why Agile Teams Have Nothing To Do With Business Agility by Leopold Klaus
Agile Is Not Dead. Just Not Kept Up With the Times
This article is a copy of a linkedin post by the same name I wrote last week. It seems to have struck a nerve so I wanted to post it here as an article. I had 5 followup posts that are linked to at the end of this article. I don’t see Agile as dead, or even dying. But it has stagnated I’m not...
Past Articles
Agile Is Not Dead. Just Not Kept Up With the Times
This article is a copy of a linkedin post by the same name I wrote last week. It seems to have struck a nerve so I wanted to post it here as an article. I had 5 followup posts that are linked to at...
What’s Mostly Unique to Amplio
It’s not how to be complete or purposefully incomplete. It’s how to disseminate useful information at the right time without overloading people Almost all the challenges I see people discussing on...
Going From Scrum to Flow/Lean/ToC to Amplio
I tend to think of Scrum as an MVP of Agile. 20+ years ago we knew Agile worked but we didn’t understand why. A few years later, some of us adopted Lean as the base, some others Theory of...
Why Leaders Should Focus on Value Streams
Al Shalloway’s article on Cutter’s website outlines how leadership’s focus must switch from hierarchies to the value streams of the organization. Doing this increases innovation and alignment while...
Using foundational principles to drive effective change in complex systems
This paper discusses a different way to deal with complexity than suggesting complex systems are unknowable and that we therefore must see what happens and inspect and adapt in response. It...
If your Agile coach is telling you to “run experiments” and “fail-fast” do this…
If your Agile coach is telling you to “run experiments” and “fail-fast,” then let me show you how to “learn how to deliver value quickly.” We live in a complex world. But that doesn’t mean we should...
How an Approach Is Taught Is Just as Important as What It Is
There is no question that people can only absorb so much at any one time. Moreover, we have a lot of limitations to learning – cognitive bias, bounded rationality, cognitive overload, ego, etc. So...
In Praise of Differences
I have found that the biggest difference between experts and those with less competence is mostly what they attend to. That is, experts attend to certain things and ignore others. Less competent...
Looking for people who want to learn how to change the world
Linked Article from Value Stream Management Master Class on Success Mentors University Twenty-three years ago, when I formed Net Objectives, I adopted a personal goal of "Effective software...
What and how you’ll learn in the 12 Steps to Effective Lean-Agile at the Team
The biggest difference between Scrum Guide Scrum and the effective Scrum that results in this workshop is not so much the practices you'll do as it is how you will look at how your teams create...
Three things I hate most about Scrum and how I’m helping to fix them
People struggle with Scrum because they haven't been adequately prepared in their initial training. Many teams are required to do Scrum, and they are trapped in it. People struggling with Scrum are...
How to improve Scrum and SAFe
There are many concepts that can improve both Scrum and SAFe. While both approaches are quite different, it is perhaps surprising that most of the concepts listed here would be useful to both. A...
My Approach to Sensemaking in Knowledge Work
First, I am not an expert in sensemaking in the academic sense. As a practitioner/consultant in the knowledge work arena, I am writing this. Nothing in this article is intended to attend to domains...
The Amplio@MidScale Quick Start (Amplio means “improve” in Latin)
This article is intended for those people who are considering SAFe because it has a laid-out method. While SAFe does help many companies at the start it has some gaps and is overly complex. This is...
Attending to the Risks of an Agile Adoption
Undertaking an Agile adoption has almost become an imperative for organizations. Unfortunately, many of those recently beginning their journey have little understanding of the risks involved. Worse,...
How Agile frameworks ignore the biggest risks in Agile
When you start a project, creating or enhancing an existing product, or most any significant work I hope you attend to some risk issues: how do you know if this will result in value? what happens if...
Alternatives to SAFe if your development group is under 100 folks
I have seen SAFe to be attractive to many small companies. There are good reasons for this. SAFe provides concepts to: Create a common backlog that can be sequenced across the organization...
How I’m out of the box – soon to create a new box
I was reflecting on how I'm out of the box in many ways. Here's my list: I believe it's possible to create an expert system to guide consultants in engaging with a client (in fact, this is...
“We are uncovering better ways” – is present tense
The above quote is the opening line of Manifest for Agile Software Development. It did not say "we uncovered better ways" and here's our answer. To be living the Agile Manifesto one has to go beyond...
Why You Should Take the DAVSC for the Learning, not the Certification
And why you should take it this year from me and my associates this year. The Disciplined Agile Value Stream Consultant Workshop is based on Flow, Lean, Theory of Constraints, and organizational...