Continuous Improvement

A talk with Esther Derby about what a retrospective really is and the role of the facilitator.

Have you ever wondered what a retrospective really is? What’s the role of the facilitator? Is it just to pick an activity… time box discussions, move on to the next item… write down the action items and assign it to someone? Well if only retrospective facilitation was that simple… what are things to watch out for? What are things to strive for? In this initial episode we invited Esther Derby to answer some of these questions.

The commitments required as foundation for proper team adaptation.

“Responding to change”, is often more difficult than expected. Teams need to adapt, or otherwise be continuously confronted with their ineptitude. The inability to uphold improvement commitments often lead to disappointment and demotivation, but Sjoerd Nijland shares that the Wizard of Oz gives us hope. It tells a tale of individuals, each lacking key elements, can come together and work it out - as long as there is support and trust.

Explaining why retrospectives are the engine for team improvement, and a flexible framework to improve them.

How often does your team meet to brainstorm after a software rollout or an iteration? Too often or rarely? Agile retrospectives are braced to help company teams improve when conducted well. However, they could also fail to deliver expected results when done too often or when the team members do not follow through with the meeting. This article explains what are Agile retrospectives and proposes a flexible framework to improve them.

Understand the pivotal role the Sprint Retrospective plays in Scrum, how to hold a basic session, and what is the importance of a Kaizen.

The Sprint Retrospective, the last ceremony in the Sprint, takes place after the Sprint Review and before the next Sprint Planning. The meeting should be time-boxed to no more than an hour per week of Sprint length. The Scrum Master facilitates the meeting to keep it on track, focused, and within the time-box.

The sprint retrospective should always remain a consistent event at the end of each sprint.

The Sprint Retrospective is often the first item to get skipped when a team is under pressure, often with the intention of getting to it when life is a bit more relaxed and under control. The irony is that this session is most valuable when the pressure is on, and things aren't running as expected. In this article, Cecil Goldstein explains the elements of retrospectives to assist you in never again skipping it.

Illustrating how the act of deliberately capturing and evolving "learning streams" (in addition to the more conventional value streams) can lead to surprising consequences.

Claudio Perrone explains some of the factors hindering effective Agile transformations in most organizations. He points to the fact that traditional Agile approaches haven't been effective and that Agility must affect the entire value stream, not just the development teams. He illustrates his experience by sharing a story of how a company became fully Agile by evolving experimentally. The organization first tested SCRUM and realized it was not a viable option then decided to introduce Lean Techniques pragmatically leveraging the Lean Change Cycle.

Analyzing the elements that sprint retrospectives successful and how to implement them properly.

The most important aspect of agile software development is the continuous improvement, and a great way to bake that into your process is by having regular retrospective meetings that engage and challenge the team to solve their own problems and make things better. However, these meetings can be difficult to run well and drive improvement. In fact, many teams sleepwalk through sessions, treating them as a box-ticking exercise that signals the end of the iteration. In this talk, Chris explains how to put together an awesome sprint retrospective. He discusses the following:
* Why retrospectives can be unpopular
* Structuring the meeting to succeed
* Setting the right tone
* Activities to gather data
* Activities to generate insights
* How to decide what to do
* How to manage retrospective actions

It can be an effective agile adoption pattern & model for continuous improvement.

Used to describe the progression of training or learning, Shu Ha Ri is a Japanese martial art concept that is used to describe the stages of learning to mastery. In this article, Jason Novack shows that its distinct levels are useful guides (not black and white rules) providing a frame of reference to help influence how to approach learning any new skill, including agile adoption.

Building on the power of habits, Toyota Kata will help you build a daily continuous learning and improvement culture - a kaizen culture.

Lean coach Hakan Forss makes an interesting presentation on Restrospective on steroids basing Toyota Kata citing that continuous learning leads to real-time improvements. We see that Kata is the process of synthesizing thoughts and behavior in skillful actions for continuous learning and improvements and the strategy entails identifying the current condition, setting the target condition, facing the challenge, and achieving the vision. view the slides to learn more about Kata.

Why and how the team should reflect on how to become more effective, then tune and adjust its behaviour accordingly.

A Brief Guide to Success with Agile

Agile methods are now mainstream, but many organizational leaders point out that they are not reaping the benefits they expected. This article presents a set of four growth phases that agile teams pass through as they learn. By understanding the challenges afflicting the teams, the authors hope to bring light into where investments should be made and where to look for help when teams don't deliver the desired benefits.

Like all learning processes, transformation means letting go of the image we had of ourselves and embracing an uncertain future of a "new" self.

An agile transformation is a journey, it takes time to change from one framework to another in an organization. Whether it's a leap from a planned approach system to an agile framework or a shift from leveraging SMART Goals to OKRs, the transition requires patience. This is as a result of the period it might take to adopt agile values and principles, or setbacks such as resistance to change by the people. But, ever wondered why such setbacks arise? This article explains where most organizations go wrong when making an agile transformation and coach why it's fundamental to build your relationship with people amid agile transformations.

How to frequently deliver value to customers, measure the results, and adapt accordingly with the smallest investment.

"We all know what “agility” is about, right? It’s about delivering faster, eliminating waste, and becoming more efficient." Kurt Bittner notes, arguing that what if that's not the fact? As many organizations that she speaks with aren't aware if they're heading in the right direction. They work incredibly hard to increase their delivery speed, but once they’ve shipped something they turn their attention to the next release. So what if most of what they just delivered turned out to be waste, or lacking in any real value to their customers? She explores this dilemma on speed, efficiency, and value through the article using empiricism to achieve business agility.

Producing a politically motivated, insignificant success story backed by people who do not exhibit an agile mindset.

The reality is that many organizations that want to "become Agile" start by browsing through the catalog of common frameworks. They pick their favorite, and run a Transformation Program. While they may be communicated as success stories, Michael Küsters casts a bit of light on what is actually going on. He offers his view on the reality of transformations through frameworks, and how they impact expectations, overcome problems, and actually change the culture.

Get your team discussing the burning issues

Eleven formats are shared that can be introduced into the retrospective to challenge the team and get them to discuss issues outside the normal range. Try these ideas when your retrospectives are resulting in the identification of only small improvements.

Agility is the state of being (not just doing) Agile, which means going beyond its “well-known” practices.

Differentiating between "continuous improvement" and "discontinuous improvement" as seen through the lens of systems thinking.

The most exciting part was to meet Alistair Cockburn. My mistake was not raising a hand.

Clickbait-y title or not - I’ve got some stern truths for you.

Benefits of the quality management system implemented at Wolox, in their path to flexible continuous improvement.