Nicola Sedgwick

A few of you may have seen the inaugural #PizzaandPostits happened earlier this week at the awesome Jet Age Museum in #Gloucester. It was an awesome evening with three lightning talks from Matt Spruce - Agile Coach, Wayne Smallman, and myself. The talks from Matt (feedback loops) & Wayne (accountability) were both powerful and though provoking that landed really well with the group by leveraging real world situations and how these topics influence products and teams. Keep an eye out for the next event. Hopefully we can get this in the dairy soon! Here is a short clip of my session which was based on the power of Radical Candor®. This exact piece is demonstrating obnoxious aggression. Take a look and see what you think? Is #radicalcandor something that you are familiar with? If not I can highly recommend the book from Kim Scott or taking a look at her organisation as there are some great resources there to grow your capability with this subject. #meetup #agile #feedback #accountability #businessagility

16

1 Comment

Interesting article to reflect on. The true challenge with agile roles isn’t just about role definitions or leaders' understanding of agile; it’s about the ecosystem’s that not only focus on “training” and “coaching” as the core of agility. While important, true agility demands more—robust engineering, hands-on experiences, exceptional product management, and a comprehensive approach. Business agility is a complex, wicked problem that requires nuanced solutions, not linear, cookie-cutter methods. It’s time to go beyond the basics and address the deeper needs of agile transformation. #agile #beyond #rethink #reflect #shifting

8

Scrum Master's JQL Toolbox Episode 8 - Issues not updated over a given time range This is Episode 8 in a series where I'll share practical JQLs that have helped me in my role. Today's focus: Issues not updated over a given time range Why is this helpful? - Identify Stalled Work: Issues with no recent updates might be stuck. This could be due to various reasons - the assignee is overloaded, facing roadblocks, or the issue itself might be low priority. - Improve Team Efficiency: Stalled issues can clog up workflows and delay progress on dependent tasks. Finding these lets you prioritize them or re-assign them if necessary. - Highlight Potential Problems: Lack of updates might indicate deeper issues. There could be communication breakdowns, technical hurdles, or unclear requirements. Early detection allows you to address these problems before they snowball. - Focus Resources: If many issues from a particular project or assignee haven't been updated, it might signal a need for additional resources or a shift in priorities. - Prioritization and Clean-up: Sometimes, issues become irrelevant or outdated. Identifying those with no recent updates can help with prioritization (focusing on active issues) and potential clean-up (archiving or deleting old, inactive issues). What's does this automation do? This JQL looks back to see all issues that have not been updated over a given period of time . Keeping track of inactive Jira issues helps maintain visibility, identify potential roadblocks, and ensure your team is working on the most relevant tasks for optimal workflow and project progress. Query: team = "[insert team name]" AND issuetype not in (epic, Initiative) AND status not in (live, closed, rejected, approved) AND NOT updated > startOfDay(-180) ORDER BY updated ASC Notes: You can easily adjust the time period in question this query is based on a rolling 6 month period. You can also choose the types of issues included. As well as easily bulk close, reject. Let me know in the comments: What are your favourite JQL's for staying on top of your projects? Have you used this and found this useful? #JQL, #scrummaster, #JiraTips, #jquery

5

One of the parts of working with agile that I love the most but often gets overlooked in favour of clinging to frameworks and processes is how human centred the world of agile thinking is. One of the best places to bring this to life is in retrospective meetings. Back when I was a scrum master the retro was one of my favourite parts of the sprint because it was an opportunity to pause with my team and check in not just on the work progress but also on how they were doing emotionally and mentally. One of my most successful retrospectives actually came during a time of crisis during the COVID pandemic. The same week our retro was due it had been announced that everyone would now be working from home. The news had created an air of unease at our stand ups so I decided to use the time booked for our retro to check in around that. The call opened and I announced that today rather than looking at completed story points, progress towards sprint goal we were instead going to focus on and answer the following question: How are you all feeling about the current situation? From there we talked about the worries and what we could do as a team to help with them. A team that had started the session nervous and uneasy, ended it feeling brighter and more in control. Had I stuck to the framework we'd have discussed their sprint metrics and then addressed work adjustments for the next sprint. But here is a confession I never overly cared about the process side, I fell in love with agile working because I saw its potential to help the humans in teams collaborate, share and most of all be vulnerable with each other in the spirit of working together to be better. It's this that has kept me wanting to continue to bring some agile magic in my solo work as an agile coach with the added spice of some mindfulness practice brought in to help teams take a deeper more meaningful look at where they are and most importantly where they'd like to get to. If you'd like to explore the idea of this kind of connection with your own team, drop me a message. I've got great retrospective plans that will work for a multitude of teams and I'm ready to facilitate those discussions for you by creating a safe space for open discussion and an invitation to grow. If that sounds like a bit of you, drop me a message

2

I have made a couple of posts in the last two days about how many in the Agile space seem to be victims of management. They complain about ho management works against Agile. While there is no question that many managers are not working in Agile ways with their teams my own experience has been much less negative than what I read about. Much of this is because of both the attitude I take as a consultant (I am responsible for the result and I respect people even when they are impeding my actions) and because I know how to use systems thinking, the theories of Flow, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints, along with how people interact and learn to convey ideas to people. The attitude a consultant takes is very important. I thought this recording of an Amplio Consultant Educators session where we talked about this would be of interest and value. https://lnkd.in/gd9FcBVd Here is a chapter on The Attitude of an Effective Value Coach from Paula Stewart and my book on Being an Effective Value Coach: Leading by Coaching People to Add Value for Themselves and Others. https://lnkd.in/grWmYTJn This is a recording of a session from my Amplio Consultant Educators learning journey where we talk about the attitude of a coach. This pertains to this post quite a lot and I think you'll find it interesting. Attitudes and Capabilities of a Value Coach https://lnkd.in/gd9FcBVd Here is a chapter on The Attitude of an Effective Value Coach from Paula Stewart and my book on Being an Effective Value Coach: Leading by Coaching People to Add Value for Themselves and Others. https://lnkd.in/grWmYTJn

7

6 Comments

Some good weekend reading... https://lnkd.in/eJs6pQBM Thank you to Richard Speed for interviewing me on this topic. I am looking for places where agility is flourishing. DM me! Or see me in Dallas, TX, USA, at #Agile2024 -- my colleagues are doing a Wednesday morning panel session. (And hopefully, I can get a topic on Exemplars accepted for the Extreme Open Space.) #ReimaginingAgile

12

At #agile2024 in Manchester we got to meet and hear from the founders of DSDM and the Agile Manifesto. Two important elements of the story of Human Agility. Naturally we had various conversations about when Agile actually started. Here I trace human agility as far back as 1620 (yes, sixteen twenty). Next time I will take it back even further to pre-agricultural times. 😀 And then I will introduce Natural Agility or Natural Agile. I believe that we are born agile, and have it smothered as we reach our teens. Unplugging Agile from the Matrix is the work David Michel and I are doing on how to return to that state.

2

Quite aligned with my observations during 16 year experience in Software Development.

6

It is well worth a watch to learn more about how coaching and Kanban are the perfect combination with the fabulous Helen Meek

10

1 Comment

This is my favourite officially approved SAFe case study. https://lnkd.in/ehnxSAnV The reason I like this SAFe case study the best is … wait for it … because it does not do SAFe! That’s right this officially approved article on SAFe by a top SAFe expert, does not do SAFe! Its for the SAFe ‘Community Contributions’ series by Luke Hohmann, who is a ‘SAFe Fellow’, which SAFe describe as the “most prestigious distinction, recognizing individuals who have exhibited the highest level of thought leadership and transformational expertise for implementing the Scaled Agile Framework.” Impressive, most impressive. The reason its not a SAFe case study (despite what it says) is because it breaks at least one of the many SAFe rules that make SAFe … errr well … SAFe. But can you tell me which exact explicit SAFe rule it breaks? For even more learning you may wish to avoid two days in a scaling course and instead join my Certified LeSS Basics course for only a day. Link: https://lnkd.in/eQiYH9tg Whereby you can learn about scaling and descaling. Potentially twice the learning in half the time :P

6

6 Comments

Another week, another article talking about how Scrum Masters and agile coaches are no longer in demand. The premise of this week's article was that so many people who've been filling these roles got certifications with no practical experience and due to this the perceived value of the role has diminished throughout the industry. Something else I've been noticing, Product managers are beginning to get the same treatment as agilists are. In the last 2 weeks I've seen a bunch of articles about how Product roles are being cut and how PMs aren't necessary and too many were hired during the pandemic. Product and Agile roles are only tangentially related, yet both seem to be suffering from similar fates right now. I wonder, what is this signaling as a larger shift to the ways of working? Part of me feels like since tech companies are feeling headwinds for the first time in almost 2 decades, they're quickly reverting to the way of working gives company leadership the most sense of security, and that's command and control, project based waterfall. The trick for agilists right now will be to weather this storm, keep our jobs, and keep the human focused ways of working while giving the sense of security to leaders that command and control waterfall gives. I'm wondering if anyone in my network has had luck with products like Actionable Agile's monte carlo simulations to add some metrics and predictability to their agile ways of working in an effort to stem the backslide to waterfall. #Agile #waysofworking #waterfall #product #TheFuture

13

🎧 New Episode Alert! The Delivery Space Podcast Presents: "The Evolution of the Scrum Master Role" 🎙️ We’re thrilled to have Jac Hughes, Director of Everyday Agile, join us in this episode! Here’s what we cover: 📌 Jac’s Agile Journey - From the Navy to Agile consultancy; his unique path and insights. 📌 Honesty in Agile - Discussing the reality that Agile isn’t a perfect fit for every organisation. 📌 Swimmer’s Body Illusion - Why organisations should take inspiration rather than copy others. 📌 Communication Mastery - The critical role of effective communication in being a successful Scrum Master. 📌 Real-World Challenges - Practical advice on tailoring Agile practices to fit specific organisational contexts. 📌 Community Insights - Addressing controversies, nit-picking and misconceptions within the Agile community. 🌟About Jac Hughes🌟 Jac captured our attention as he understands that while bringing in big-name consultancies can seem like the obvious choice for adopting agility, it often leaves organisations more confused than before. Everyday Agile is different. Jac and his team are dedicated to being part of the co-created change, working alongside you to demystify Agile. They focus on empowering your teams to create products and services that customers love. Everyday Agile is about practical, collaborative transformation, making Agile work for your unique context. This episode is packed with practical advice and real-life examples that are sure to resonate with Agile practitioners at all levels. 🎧 Listen now to gain fresh perspectives and actionable insights. Click the link in the comments below ⬇️ to listen. If you like our content, we'd love a review and rating so we can keep sharing content that's relevant to our community. #TheDeliverySpacePodcast #ScrumMaster #AgileLeadership #TeamPerformance #ContinuousImprovement #AgileCommunity

44

5 Comments

𝐌𝐲 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐀𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡 I often get asked, "What do you do as an agile coach?" Whether people are interested in becoming coaches themselves or wondering what a coach could do for them, it's a common question. Here are a couple of my favourite activities to give you a good idea. Have you ever wondered what makes coaching so transformative? It's not about telling; it's about creating spaces where new opportunities emerge from fresh perspectives. 𝐈𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬. This week, I had the privilege of facilitating growth and innovation for various teams and individuals, which I truly enjoyed. 𝐅𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭: I had the opportunity to work with a group of leaders to align behind the biggest opportunities to create value for the business. 🚀 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐞𝐰 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐠𝐢𝐥𝐞: I trained a group of new starters in agile ways of working, creating a space for them to realize how they can apply the mindset in their area of business. See photo below of the wonderful group.🌱 𝐒𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐓𝐞𝐬𝐭-𝐚𝐧𝐝- 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡. I helped teams use a test-and learn approach to innovate. 🔄 Agile coaching and training accelerate outcomes and opens doors to new possibilities. It’s an extremely rewarding experience for both the coachee and the coach while it delivers results. Have you ever benefited from coaching? What was your experience?✨

71

5 Comments

Quick reminder to my fellow Agile adventurers! Just having Jira open on your screen doesn’t make your team agile any more than having a gym membership makes you fit. Tools like Jira are just the starting blocks, not the finish line! 🛠️🏃‍♂️ True agility comes from embracing the core Agile principles—think less about ticking boxes and more about building a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and real value delivery. Let's focus on nurturing the right mindset rather than getting lost in the tools. Remember, it's the hard yards in practice, not the shiny tools, that create genuine Agile transformations. Let’s make it happen! 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞 𝐀 𝐭𝐨 𝐙 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐨𝐥𝐤𝐢𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞: https://lnkd.in/gUFsSFvR 𝐏.𝐒 - 𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥, 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 & 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬! #Agile #Jira #ProjectManagement #ContinuousImprovement #Mindset #AgileTransformation #Lean #Scrum #Kanban #AgileCoach"

38

8 Comments

Last week some colleagues and I attended the National Software Testing Conference held at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms in central London. I hadn’t attended this conference since 2019 when I first spoke here so I was keen to go back. The calibre of topics when I attended in 2019 were far from beginner level and I came away with a wealth of new knowledge and ideas from the topics these industry leaders were sharing. This year was equally beneficial. One talk in particular by Simon Amey was called Measuring QA quality: What do your teams score? In this short talk, he outline a framework that could be used to measure the level of quality in your development teams. At the end of this simple assessment, your team will have a picture of where you are in terms of the absolute highest level. Once you have your current level, you can then lay out steps to take to go from where you are to where you want to be. What did I find useful? What I liked about this framework and the delivery of this talk overall was that it quickly explained key points in all levels, the information for this talk is immediately implementable within teams and the results are fast and simple to obtain. What’s the point of all this anyway? By following this framework, it will hopefully help you to improve the quality of your code, gain faster feedback (during development and from the end users), and get the best product to your customers. Please remember, that while working with a framework like this is good, metrics are not the be all and end all. Don’t focus blindly on metrics. The biggest question to keep asking is “is this delivering value to the customer?” and to keep making moves in order to delight them. Team Quality Dimensions Framework There are five dimensions to measure your team against: - Requirement capture - Process - QA Effectiveness - Test platform and tools - Deployment Note: There are no levels which cover observability or monitoring but these can be added in with similar levels to the other dimensions. Under each dimension, there are 6 different levels of adoption that range from 1 to 6. 1 is the very basic level and 6 is the superior level. You score yourself at the number which best represents your team’s current position in that dimension. You can read the details of each level in the full post on my blog here https://lnkd.in/e9NMAuK4. Lastly… Thanks to Simon for a great talk. And as a further thank you, here’s a link to his book (https://lnkd.in/eKc-QSzq). I hope you find this framework useful!

2

2 Comments

Getting past Agile Fatigue (see my post yesterday for the context here): This is absolutely guesswork here on my part. If I had the answers, I'd probably be retired and living on a beach somewhere. - Pulling the best things out of frameworks - what are the principles that are behind the frameworks? That's what we should focus on - the rest contributes to "agile theater" and is largely overhead. - Partnerships between IT and business and leaders everywhere. We really are one team - we have to act like it. No more silos, blaming one side or the other, or using one's power to harm the other. Empathy matters, understanding and transparency right behind it. - Killing meetings. We have to have time to think, innovate and work. I'm trying to make most of my meetings tag ups or brainstorming/problem solving sessions. It's a start, but I still have work to do. - Stop using tiresome buzz words, including "agile" itself, in day-to-day interactions. We should just be focused on the outcomes we're trying to achieve. Getting better. Fewer bugs. Faster deployments. More customer value. Increased NPS. Whatever it is we are trying to achieve - focus on that. The tactics to get there don't need labels. It burns people out. A lot of these are happening in my current org, which is why I am so much happier here than I have been in some time. Incremental improvement is all we can ask for - and that gives people a sense of purpose and hope.

7

2 Comments

Agile is dead - it’s like that one joke everyone has heard a million times. Some say it's overused and rapidly losing its hook factor. Others say it needs to evolve... Tune in to the latest episode of The Delivery Space podcast, where we unpack this topic with our special guests, Christiaan Verwijs and Johannes Schartau, and ask ourselves why now might be the worst time to abandon Agile. We cover:  📌 Is Agile Dead? - Tackling the question head-on and exploring whether Agile is truly obsolete or simply evolving. 📌 Why Didn’t It Work for Us? - Many organisations claim Agile didn't work for them. It may not be for everyone, but deeper reflection can help us surface and drive behaviours and practices to achieve agility, even in small measures, to give teams confidence and empower them to pursue business goals. 📌 Evidence-Based Success - Christiaan refers to data-driven evidence showing that Agile teams tend to outperform in several key metrics, from customer satisfaction to team morale. 📌 The Real Role of Agile Coaches - Johannes sheds light on the often misunderstood role of Agile coaches and why they are crucial for genuine transformation. There is a critical difference between truly effective Agile practices and coaching and those that merely create a false sense of progress by focusing most on the happy clappy team happiness stuff and less on understanding the purpose of the practices. 🌟About Our Guests🌟 Johannes is an Agile Coach, international speaker, complexity and integral thinker, Liberating Structures user, and Zombie Scrum fighter! Christiaan enjoys igniting positive change in teams and organisations. It is his strong belief that people should be empowered to drive change themselves, rather than being told by management or consultants how to change. His mission is to liberate the world from ineffective and demotivating workplaces by helping organisations find better ways to tap into the creativity, intelligence, and wisdom of people. Together they are the co-authors of the "Zombie Scrum Survival Guide" along with Barry Overeem. 🎧 Listen now using the link in the comments and let us know what you think! #Agile #Scrum #BusinessTransformation #Leadership #TheDeliverySpacePodcast

34

5 Comments