The Quick Brown Fox

Weird confession time? I used to be a little dubious about the long-term role of coaches and even of Scrum Masters or equivalent in an Agile organization. Once you’ve taught people the rules, what else is there to do? People are smart, and Agile methods as a rule aren’t complicated. I wondered—how could it possibly take more than a year or so to get this thing going? Then I spent several years observing an Agile transition from its initial push phase through to a kind of equilibrium, and I have gained a different understanding of the roles and the process in such a transition. I’m going to call these roles Primary Agile, because their work centers on fostering agility— and nothing else . Agile transitions can be thought of as something like a chemical reaction. The system starts in one state, and by adding some ingredients and – most importantly – energy, the system changes into a different state. For most organizations, that end state is going to be very different from whe

Last year it seemed like I couldn't turn around without hearing someone talking about shu ha ri and its applicability to Scrum (it was usually Scrum, probably because other Agile techniques are less ceremonial). There's a good summary here . Although I don't practice martial arts, I do meditate and practice yoga, which I feel gives me a way toward understanding how the idea is supposed to work. When you first start practicing, after all, it takes all of your attention just to get into the poses or to glimpse a moment of still attentiveness. Why you're supposed to do a specific pose or follow a particular sequence won't fit in there until you've been doing it for a while, until the physical part has become automatic. That said, something about that metaphorical connection, about the idea of "just do the Scrum ceremonies as prescribed, and why will come later" didn't sit well with me. After a fair amount of rumination I've finally identified wh