Improv Ing Agile Teams

IMPROV IS NOT ABOUT BEING FUNNY, ORIGINAL, OR CHAOTIC. IT'S ABOUT EMBRACING CHANGE. Improvisation. The mere mention of the word makes many people quake with fear at the prospect of chaos and uncertainty. The fact is, though, human beings are improvising almost every minute of their lives it is more natural, and more filled with possibility, than you might imagine. On stage, improvisational actors use simple rules, collaborative principles, and game constraints to build unscripted yet intriguing storylines. This book explores how those same simple rules and principles can help agile teams collaborate more effectively and how purposefully working within constraints can unlock creativity. Inside, you ll find over 50 techniques and improv games tailored for agile teams, complete with step-by-step instructions. These games are based on five different principles of improvisational theatre: SAFETY how accepting failure is essential to discovery SPONTANEITY how to increase the flow of ideas STORYTELLING how narratives help teams relate to their customers and end users STATUS how adjusting personal behaviour can encourage collaboration SENSITIVITY how to become more fully engaged with fellow team members

Agile retrospectives help you get to the root of your real problems, so you can solve them quickly and effectively. They’re the cornerstone of a successful continuous improvement process, and one of your best tools for triggering positive cultural change. In Improving Agile Retrospectives, leading agile coach/trainer Marc Loeffler combines practical guidance, proven practices, and innovative approaches for maximizing the value of retrospectives for your team—and your entire organization. You can apply his powerful techniques in any project, agile or otherwise. These techniques offer exceptional value wherever continuous improvement is needed: from “lessons-learned” workshops in traditional project management to enterprise-wide change management. Loeffler’s detailed, results-focused examples help you recognize and overcome common pitfalls, adapt retrospectives to your unique needs, and consistently achieve tangible results. Throughout, he integrates breakthrough concepts, such as using experimentation and learning from system thinking. He presents small ideas that make a big difference—because they’re deeply grounded in real experience. • Learn from failures and successes, and make good things even better • Master facilitation techniques that help you achieve your goals (and have fun doing it) • Prepare your retrospective so it runs smoothly • Practice techniques for generating actionable insights • Keep your retrospectives fresh and interesting • Perform retrospectives that address the entire system, not just your team • Focus on your “better future” with solution-focused retrospectives • Learn how to avoid typical pitfalls when facilitating retrospectives • Lead retrospectives across multiple distributed teams • Use retrospectives to support large-scale change

Agile retrospectives help you get to the root of your real problems, so you can solve them quickly and effectively. They're the cornerstone of a successful continuous improvement process, and one of your best tools for triggering positive cultural change. In Improving Agile Retrospectives, leading agile coach/trainer Marc Loeffler combines practical guidance, proven practices, and innovative approaches for maximizing the value of retrospectives for your team--and your entire organization. You can apply his powerful techniques in any project, agile or otherwise. These techniques offer exceptional value wherever continuous improvement is needed: from "lessons-learned" workshops in traditional project management to enterprise-wide change management. Loeffler's detailed, results-focused examples help you recognize and overcome common pitfalls, adapt retrospectives to your unique needs, and consistently achieve tangible results. Throughout, he integrates breakthrough concepts, such as using experimentation and learning from system thinking. He presents small ideas that make a big difference--because they're deeply grounded in real experience. * Learn from failures and successes, and make good things even better * Master facilitation techniques that help you achieve your goals (and have fun doing it) * Prepare your retrospective so it runs smoothly * Practice techniques for generating actionable insights * Keep your retrospectives fresh and interesting * Perform retrospectives that address the entire system, not just your team * Focus on your "better future" with solution-focused retrospectives * Learn how to avoid typical pitfalls when facilitating retrospectives * Lead retrospectives across multiple distributed teams * Use retrospectives to support large-scale change

The Agile Self-Assessment Game is used by teams and organizations to self-assess their agility. Playing the game enables teams to reflect on their own team interworking, discover how agile they are and decide what they can do to increase their agility to deliver more value to their customers and stakeholders. This is the first book specifically about Agile Self-assessments. In this book, Ben Linders explains what self-assessments are and why you would do them, and explores how to do them using the Agile Self-assessment Game. He's also sharing experience stories from people who played the game. This book is based on his experience as a developer, tester, team leader, project manager, quality manager, process manager, consultant, coach, trainer, and adviser in Agile, Lean, Quality and Continuous Improvement. It takes a deep dive into self-assessments, viewing them from different perspectives and provides ideas, suggestions, practices, and experiences that will help you to do effective agile self-assessments with your teams. The book is aimed at Scrum masters, agile coaches, consultants leading agile transformations, developers and testers, project managers, line managers, and CxOs; basically for anyone who is looking for an effective way to help their agile teams improve and to increase the agility of their organization. With plenty of ideas, suggestions, and practical cases on Agile Self-assessments, this book will help you to apply assessments and help teams to improve. Note: The agile coaching cards needed to play the games described in the book can be downloaded for a nominal fee at benlinders.com/downloads.

The Provocative and Practical Guide to Coaching Agile Teams As an agile coach, you can help project teams become outstanding at agile, creating products that make them proud and helping organizations reap the powerful benefits of teams that deliver both innovation and excellence. More and more frequently, ScrumMasters and project managers are being asked to coach agile teams. But it’s a challenging role. It requires new skills—as well as a subtle understanding of when to step in and when to step back. Migrating from “command and control” to agile coaching requires a whole new mind-set. In Coaching Agile Teams, Lyssa Adkins gives agile coaches the insights they need to adopt this new mind-set and to guide teams to extraordinary performance in a re-energized work environment. You’ll gain a deep view into the role of the agile coach, discover what works and what doesn’t, and learn how to adapt powerful skills from many allied disciplines, including the fields of professional coaching and mentoring. Coverage includes Understanding what it takes to be a great agile coach Mastering all of the agile coach’s roles: teacher, mentor, problem solver, conflict navigator, and performance coach Creating an environment where self-organized, high-performance teams can emerge Coaching teams past cooperation and into full collaboration Evolving your leadership style as your team grows and changes Staying actively engaged without dominating your team and stunting its growth Recognizing failure, recovery, and success modes in your coaching Getting the most out of your own personal agile coaching journey Whether you’re an agile coach, leader, trainer, mentor, facilitator, ScrumMaster, project manager, product owner, or team member, this book will help you become skilled at helping others become truly great. What could possibly be more rewarding?

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2021, which was held virtually during June 14-18, 2021. XP is the premier agile software development conference combining research and practice. It is a unique forum where agile researchers, practitioners, thought leaders, coaches, and trainers get together to present and discuss their most recent innovations, research results, experiences, concerns, challenges, and trends. XP conferences provide an informal environment to learn and trigger discussions and welcome both people new to agile and seasoned agile practitioners. This year’s conference was held with the theme “Agile Turns Twenty While the World Goes Online”. The 11 full and 2 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 38 submissions. They were organized in topical sections named: agile practices; process assessment; large-scale agile; and short contributions.

Dreading Monday mornings; running out of the office on Friday; uninspired at work; Agile isn’t making sense to you...if this describes your mood, you’re not alone. I’ve been there. The good news is that you don’t have to remain in a rut. This book aims to inspire you; aims to remind you of the bigger picture and then gently guide you through a series of steps on how to embody the Agile principles, move with urgency, grow to enjoy your job, and help your colleagues along the way.

No organization is impervious to change. Rather, the survival and growth of an organization is dependent on how well it copes with change. Successful change initiatives consist of the integrated eco-system of its portfolio, programs, and projects. These change initiatives become the delivery mechanisms for implementing the strategy of an organization. Improving Business Performance: A Project Portfolio Management Approach clarifies how the proper application of portfolio, program, and project management concepts can help commercial and non-profit organizations achieve their strategic objectives. Most organizations have been good at devising strategy, but falter during its implementation. Executing strategy well to deliver superior business performance remains a key challenge, which is addressed as the core theme of this book. The book portrays a top-down orientation as well as a bottom-up integration of change initiatives to facilitate alignment to strategy and accommodate mid-course changes. It takes into account existing global best management practices to bring forth an approach that is customizable and useful to organizations in any industry. Describing why portfolio management lies at the apex of change initiative management, the book explains how to design and fine-tune portfolios so they are in alignment with your organization’s overall strategy and business needs. After reading this book, you will understand: How to design the project portfolio structure for your organization How to integrate programs and projects within the portfolio more effectively How to better manage interactions across diverse change initiatives How to maintain focus while managing change to realize benefits The book presents a case study that illustrates the application of project portfolio concepts in practical scenarios. It includes chapters dedicated to transition management, change management, benefits management, and the Enterprise Project Management Office. It also includes templates you can immediately put to use in your own portfolios, programs, and projects.