Opinionated takes on Agile – backed by 20+ years in the field.
Direct. Uncomfortable. Honest.
Most Scrum problems are not caused by the framework. They come from the small compromises teams normalise until delivery turns into theatre. This article looks at the Scrum anti patterns that quietly wreck flow, ownership and trust.
Read Article →OKRs and Scrum can work well together, but most organisations bolt one system on top of the other and create noise, not focus. This article looks at where OKR und Scrum breaks down in practice, what the Scrum Guide actually supports, and how to combine both without turning every Sprint into quarterly reporting theatre.
Read Article →Not a ceremony. Not a grooming session. A discipline that determines whether Sprint Planning takes ninety minutes or four hours. Most teams do refinement wrong – not because they lack technique, but because they misunderstand the purpose.
Read Article →You have documented the behaviour. You have the backing. You know the escalation path. Now you have to walk into the room. Here is how to frame the conversation, what to say when it goes sideways, and what to do when it goes nowhere.
Read Article →After ten years of watching the same dysfunction repeat itself across banks, telecoms, and software houses, I stopped writing articles. I wrote a book.
Read Article →Every Scrum Master faces it: a manager's behaviour is visibly undermining the team. The problem isn't that the conversation is uncomfortable – it's structural. And until you understand the structure, all advice on difficult conversations is solving the wrong problem.
Read Article →Seven months, nineteen articles, an honest retrospective. What worked, what didn't – and what Season Two will do differently.
Read Article →PSM II isn't hard because the questions are hard. It's hard because it tests whether you actually understand Scrum – not just memorised it.
Read Article →Pharma, banking, energy: can Agile work in heavily regulated environments – or is it fundamentally incompatible with compliance requirements?
Read Article →Two years of Agile transformation at one of Europe's largest financial institutions. What the theory predicted and what actually happened.
Read Article →When Scrum Masters send invitations, write minutes, and manage tickets, something has gone fundamentally wrong – and it's not their fault.
Read Article →Servant Leadership sounds like the perfect leadership model. The reality in Scrum teams tells a different story – and the gap is instructive.
Read Article →Psychological Safety appears in every Agile presentation. In how many teams does it actually exist – and what does its absence cost?
Read Article →Agile Transformation without management support isn't a bold experiment – it's a waste of time. Here's why.
Read Article →Teams debate Scrum vs. Kanban and miss the actual question: what problem is the framework supposed to solve?
Read Article →47 action items in 12 months, 6 completed. Retrospectives that produce no change aren't an improvement system – they're theatre.
Read Article →Sprint Planning can last up to 4 hours. In most teams that's pure waste – and it has a concrete, fixable cause.
Read Article →The Product Owner with 623 backlog items working as a requirements manager: this role is so consistently misunderstood that even experienced teams fail.
Read Article →When teams run standups, plan sprints, and hold retrospectives without knowing why – that's Cargo Cult Agile. A diagnosis.
Read Article →The Daily Standup is the most abused Scrum ceremony. Three questions, 15 minutes – and rarely what it was designed to be.
Read Article →Velocity is the most abused metric in Scrum. Everyone knows it's unsuitable as a planning tool – yet it continues to be used.
Read Article →SAFe, LeSS, Nexus promise Agility at scale. In practice, they often deliver the same thing: more process, less agility, the same problems.
Read Article →A Scrum Master who organises meetings and updates tickets isn't doing their job. This misinterpretation costs teams and organisations significantly.
Read Article →The Agile Manifesto is 20+ years old. The question isn't whether Agile is dead – it's what has replaced it and whether that's better.
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