Does a mature scrum team need a facilitator for their daily scrum?

A question came up this week that seems simple on the surface but got interesting as we started to unpack it. The question was “does a mature scrum team need a facilitator for their daily scrum?”

Craving certainty - why we distrust probabilistic forecasts

When faced with the question of “when will we be done?”, the most factually accurate answer we can give is one from a probabilistic forecast. Yet counter-intuitively, despite being the most correct answer, it’s usually not the one many people want. What they want is a deterministic answer, even if it’s less accurate.

Growth vs Fixed mindsets and the influence of AI

In her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success, Carol Dweck talks about the difference between the Growth and Fixed mindsets. I’d encourage you to read her words on this, but in a nutshell, people with a growth mindset believe that their intelligence can expand and develop, whereas people with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is fixed and what you’ve got now is all you’re getting.

Collecting metrics for no reason

I’ve worked in many places where an edict has come down from senior management to start collecting metrics, without any direction. While usually well intentioned, these requests are frequently poorly considered and poorly implemented. Many times I’ve asked “what decisions are going to be made from these” and nobody knows.

Tacit knowledge

When I was a teenager, I read a book called Juggling for the Complete Klutz, which seemed just perfect for me. It came with three bean bag balls, and instructions on how to use them.

Stalled work

I talked recently about how many items in progress (WIP) we have and how lower is better. That’s absolutely true, and yet it’s not the whole picture. Of the items that are started, how many of those are actually being worked on?

Work in Progress (WIP) for a team

I’m frequently asked what is the optimal amount of work in progress (WIP) for a team, and everyone is disappointed to hear that there isn’t one.

Motivation and deadlines

While in a meeting, I heard “It’s easier to get things done when there is a deadline”, and that tells me something about motivation, or more specifically, lack of it.

Sometimes we just need to pick up the fax machine

My friend Dave once got brought in to help with a large project. The company was purchasing a large fax system from a vendor and then planned to extensively customize it to work in their environment.

LEGO Serious Play and Threat Modeling

Here’s a great case study of how the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has used LEGO® Serious Play® to do threat modeling around digital identity.