SAFe Agile alternative in 2021? The Scrum values are at the heart of Scrum: Commitment, Focus, Openness, Respect and Courage. Without these values, Scrum will not come to life. The reason why many teams are not showing this behaviour is because they are situated in an often political environment where these values are missing. You cannot expect a Scrum team to act according these values if you do not set the right example yourself. As a leader you need to create a safe environment where these values can flourish and where you continuously set the right example. To give the right example, leaders should play an active part in an Agile transformation (monitoring, guiding and regular evaluations).
There are uncertainties that are internal to organizations and those that are external. The external we do not have much control over, but if you are aware of them then we are able to adapt to them. When it comes to agile leadership, you must be open to embrace and understand and at least begin to seek some of the knowledge that’s out there. Look at your market shifts and industry trends, looking at what your competitors are doing. You also want to look to see how you can measure your effectiveness in the market because measurement really is a tool that tells you and helps you determine how you move forward.
Many employees, especially Millennials and Generation Z, feel that it is necessary to be involved in lifelong, continuous learning. In recent years, over 35 million workers have participated in MOOCs, like Coursera and edX, per year. Support the agile, in-the-moment learning styles of younger employees by supporting the use of MOOCs or incorporating MOOC-like elements into their own training programs. Whether employees work remotely or they work at an office, they often need to learn something right at a certain moment. They need an answer to a problem right then. If they do not have any peers to ask, they have to find the answer somewhere else. For many people, that is with videos and text online. The other factor is that people need information quickly and they need to be able to put it into practice within a short amount of time. Microlearning is a great way to make this happen as it is a chunk of information packed into 5-10 minutes. Employees can find an answer and move through their task within 15 minutes. And they have learned something new! Find extra information at Best Agile and Scrum Certification.
One of the hardest parts to maintain with Agile Project development is the Daily Scrum. Essentially, Daily Scrum meetings are daily sessions where the development team members organize themselves to get things done for the day and to review what happened yesterday. It’s for the team to know where they are in the sprint, to discuss the tasks and User Stories and for the Scrum Master to identify what obstacles have to be taken out of the way. It is usually best to organize it in the morning when it suits everyone. However, when working with remote teams with time differences, an afternoon Daily Scrum might be best appropriate. But just like any part of the Agile Development methodology, the Daily Scrum can deteriorate and turn messy. Here are ways to make the most out of Daily Scrum meetings and avoid its misuse.
Many Scrum teams are focused on velocity, which is an amount of work a development team handles during a sprint. Lots of Scrum teams use story points to measure velocity. Though velocity is, undoubtedly, the most important metric in Scrum, it shouldn’t become a goal for your team. The Agile Manifesto clearly states that working software is more important than comprehensive documentation. This means that team members should do their best to deliver value instead of chasing after story points. Story points are merely informal agreements on how much effort each task requires, whereas working software is an objective value. Also, development teams shouldn’t neglect code quality. If there’s a choice: more story points per sprint versus better code quality, the priority should be given to code quality. Read extra info at agileeducation.ro.