Category Archives: Agile

Agile Area Rugs- Covering Opportunities with Longer Sprints?

Will longer agile sprints or iterations cover up opportunities to improve and cause you to view these opportunities as unsolvable problems?

The typical agile sprint size is 2 weeks. What percentage of teams use 2 weeks? I don’t have statistics on it, but I’d guess over 90%. I’m working on a product where we are doing 1 week sprints. It’s a startup and things are changing a lot so 1 week works well. I also know some teams that use 3 week sprints and it is working for them. I’m not saying it has to be a certain number of weeks – but please don’t kid yourself with what length will actually work for you.

I’ve seen situations where people are doing 3 week sprints, but then have a 1 week “hardening” sprint. Personally, I’m not a big fan of hardening sprints. I can see many “logical” arguments on why people need them, but in the 3+1 week sprints – I’d say stop kidding yourself. You have a 4 week sprint! Maybe that is the best you can do right now and you are ACTIVELY working to eliminate the hardening sprint – but if you believe you will always need one you are likely stuck. Continue reading →

Thoughts on Professional Coaching

by Jake Calabrese

I get a lot of questions about coaching – what is it, what do you mean by the word ‘coach’, is it the same as mentoring, is coaching just asking questions… and many more.

Who do you coach? I coach people. 🙂 These may be individuals, pairs, couples, teams, organizations, or systems.

Can you tell me more about what the word Coach means to you? The word ‘Coach’ tends to have a lot of different uses. When I talk about coaching, I am referring to professional coaching, which in the US, tends to be associated with standards laid out by the International Coaching Federation (ICF). I view coaching as helping people find the internal wisdom to achieve their goals by moving beyond whatever is stopping them or slowing them down. Coaching is NOT about telling people what to do or judging them – the coach may be an expert on “coaching” but is not the expert on the person or the goals they have. This is concept is misunderstood by a lot of people. A coach is not the person who says “do this” or “don’t do that”! Coaching is always about the clients agenda – NOT the coach’s! The coach relies on the client being fabulous, amazing, and wanting to move forward toward a goal! That sounds over the top to some, but it really isn’t, it’s about having faith in the person! The key is that as a coach, I need to fully believe that the person (or people or system) I am coaching has the wisdom to solve their challenges. They might need some help in finding or accessing that wisdom or working through different options, but they can access the information to let them move forward! This is not always an easy place to stand, but believing in the client is a fundamental part of professional coaching. It does not work without it. Continue reading →

Mile High Agile Conference 2012 – April 3rd!

by Jake Calabrese

Agile Denver is hosting the 2nd Mile High Agile conference, in Downtown Denver, Colorado on April 3rd, 2012! Last year, the first, there were nearly 500 people!!

I am sure many people are already registered, but if you have not, The Early Bird pricing is $125!!! Through February 16th.

The Agile Cooperative will have a table again – Stop by and say hello! If you are going to be in from out of town – let me know!

On a related note: Michael Spayd and Lyssa Adkins will be teaching Coaching Agile Teams in Boulder, Colorado on April 4th and 5th. An excellent class on agile coaching and coaching in general. You can view a description of the course on their website, agilecoachinginstitute.com… or just register!

Mile High Agile 2011 April 7th

by Jake Calabrese

Should be a great event in Denver. The Agile Cooperative will have a table if anyone has questions! Hopefully we can listen to some of the great presentations and spend some time at the table!

Agile Denver is excited to announce our first annual conference, Mile High Agile 2011: Elevating Agility. Our one-day conference was created to further Agile Denver’s mission of creating and sustaining the world’s best agile community. We foster this by creating opportunities for people to connect to other agilists, user groups, events, jobs, technical communities and vendors. Agile Denver has been the heart of the agile community in Colorado and we are in our 11th year and still growing. This conference will extend your agile knowledge regardless of your role or experience level in your organization.