For a while now, I have wondered how you can combine Scrum and Kanban. Scrum is a good lightweight method that, if applied properly, can improve productivity, and more importantly, transparency for all stakeholders. On the other hand, Kanban seduced me for its simplicity and its ability to streamline your development. However, I never read anything about combining the two and most articles I have read so far seems to portray those two methodologies as oil and water.

This article take a different approach and shows how a well lubricated and performing Scrum team can benefit from Kanban.

This is food for thought.

[via AvailAgility]

In Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steven Covey describes the concept of circles of control, influence, and concern. Succinctly, this concept states that you should only focus on the few things you can control and influence, and not on the many for which you are powerless.

This article describe an innovative retrospective process that one can use to help focus a Scrum team on the items they can control or influence.

This is a nice idea.

[via Partnership & Possibilities]

How can one improve competency in a software development team? This is a critical question for a software development manager and this video of a presentation given by Jurgen Appelo at the 2010 Norvegian Development Conference provide an insight that attempt to answer this question.

You may also want to view the slides for this presentation.

I believe that Agile is a great tool to help development teams achieve more, improve, and reach their next level in effectiveness, productivity, or creativity. However, like any tool, it can be misused or misapplied. You can shoot yourself in the foot if you are not applying a certain level of discipline or hygiene.

Mike Griffiths posted a short and sweet article on this subject that he entitled Agile anti-patterns. He classifies those anti-patterns as follow:

1. Agile as a silver bullet
2. Agile as an excuse for no discipline
3. Agile without explanation
4. Shallow Feedback

You may have seen the video below as it was quite popular in the last few weeks. If not, I really encourage you to watch it as it is food for thought if you hold a job where you have to manage other individuals.