Hi, I'm John and I'm passionate about the world of agility, scrum, and kanban. So much so, that I dedicated the last decade and a half of my career to helping organizations and individuals with implementing agility. Here, I aim to simplify as well as dive deep into all topics regarding agility, scrum, and kanban. Don't miss it. I am a Thinkers360 top 10 agility thought leader, Scrum.org Professional Scrum Trainer and course steward, co-author of Kanban Guide, Prokanban.org Professional Kanban Trainer and LeSS Friendly Scrum Trainer.
John Coleman PKT, PST, LSFT, Thinkers360 top 10
This week, we delve into the key elements of a Kanban board, such as workflow definitions, cycle time, throughput, work item age, and Work-In-Progress (WIP). We break down the types of work—discovery, development, and delivery—and discuss the critical time horizons: discovering the "next best thing," developing with evidence, delivering customer-ready products, and reflecting on past releases. Dive into the importance of avoiding backward movement on the Kanban board and explore the use of swim lanes to facilitate flexible workflow. Discover the benefits of separating discovery work items from development work items and the option of combining all elements into a single work item with subtasks. Access the Kanban Guide in OVER 10 languages here: https://kanbanguides.org/english/ About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #workflow #kanban #management #kanbanguides --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
What are the different classes of service? Should you have classes of service? What are some other options? What does the Kanban Guide say about Classes of Service? Tune in to this week's episode of Agility Island to find out. Access the Kanban Guide in OVER 10 languages here: https://kanbanguides.org/english/ About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #workflow #kanban #classesofservice #kanbanguides --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
You may have heard of funnels in Kanban - but what exactly are they? How do they work? How do they change the way we work? Check out my definition of workflow video: https://youtu.be/rmaE7ipr2p0?si=bi6-tRGjJ0OVZTR5 Access the Kanban Guide in OVER 10 language here: https://kanbanguides.org/english/ About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #workflow #kanban --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
Workflows? How are they defined? What policies should you try on your kanban board? Access the Kanban Guide FREE here in over 10 languages: https://kanbanguides.org/ About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #workflow #kanban --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
#agile #scrum #productowner What are some of the things you should TRY and some things you should AVOID when sizing? Try these tips to take your product backlog to the next level! Articles mentioned in this episode: Monte Carlo Probabilistic Forecasting: https://medium.com/agileinsider/is-release-planning-done-in-scrum-managing-stakeholder-expectations-forecasting-c0064371ee64 The product owner, product leader, product manager and the Scrum accountabilities: https://medium.com/agileinsider/the-product-owner-product-leader-product-manager-and-the-scrum-accountabilities-f9716f78c70d About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #productmanagement --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
Tom Gilb joins me on this week's episode of the Agility Island podcast to discuss what stakeholders need and how to solve solve customer problems, opportunities and threats? On the agenda: 1. How can we, as practitioners, be better at eliciting what stakeholders really need, who the right stakeholders are, and how can we solve customer problems, opportunities, and threats? 2. Tom's Background 3. Review and quality control of requirements 4. Definition of ready 5. Definitions of success and failure and examples 6. Value objectives 7. The principles of success planning and definition: Define the success criteria and the constraints of the failure criteria 8. The importance of rigorous systematic thought 9. Definition of the state of success 10. Scientific inquiry 11. The secret of avoiding failure 12. No evil and outsmarting the evil 13. Limiting losses 14. Choose good 15. The importance of having estimates for much safety will be delivered in a timeframe 16. Who are your critical stakeholders? Who do we need t look after? 17. Tom's experience at Boeing 18. Value requirements and examples 19. Constraint levels: intolerable, tolerable, success, stretches 20. Impact estimation tables 21. Long-term objectives: mature planners vs. immature planners 22. Technical debt 23. Laws of project success 24. Ethics of success 25. De-composing stakeholder needs 26. Delivering miracles while in planning mode? Tom's Amazon Repository: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Books-Tom-Gi... Tom Gilb on Leanpub: https://leanpub.com/u/tomgilb Tom's website (free ebooks): https://www.gilb.com/ About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolem... John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collect... Thank you for watching. #scrum #agile #productmanagement --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
Witness the power of collaboration as these roles/accountabilities harmoniously converge to create a winning formula. Explore how Product Owners, Product Leaders, and Product Managers align their efforts, leveraging their unique perspectives and skill sets to drive product success. Learn about their interplay in agile environments and how they contribute to creating customer-centric, market-leading products. Get ready to elevate your product management skills and propel your career to new heights! About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #productmanagement --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
Scrum: 1. The accountabilities in Scrum 2. Product owner 3. The role of developers in Scrum Product management: 1. Design Lead 2. Tech Lead 3. Product Manager Is there any overlap? Some. About John Coleman: John Coleman's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ John Coleman's website: https://orderlydisruption.com/ Looking to get your Scrum/Agility training? Check out my courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses Thank you for listening. #scrum #agile #productmanagement --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
Throughput is important. But what is it, how do you measure it and what role does value play? Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses As always, thank you for listening! #scrum #kanban #agile #managementconsulting --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
What if I told you there is one 1 question you can ask to figure out where you are in the product life cycle? Moreover, what if I told you figuring out where you are can tell you the kind of complexities you can expect to deal with? Ready? Let's go. Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses As always, thank you for listening! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/agilityisland/message
Are you a product owner? Here are some tried and tested product owner coping strategies! 1. Become a developer - 1:33 2. 'Speak now or forever hold your silence' meeting - 2:19 Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses As always, thank you for listening/watching! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland/message
What are the different categories of product owner? This episode goes outlines all the different types of product owners as well as the characteristics/pros and cons of each by considering them against the definition of a product and how you may deliver value. Join me as I also bust a common myth: product management being taught at product ownership classes. #productowner #agility #managementconsulting In this episode I drew on my information I gained from my interviews with: Indi Young - https://anchor.fm/xagility/episodes/Indi-Young-on-why-you-shouldnt-look-at-a-problem-through-the-aperture-of-a-solution-e1fpr78/a-a7j8he8 John Carter, chief engineer of BOSE noise cancelling headphones - full interview available here: https://anchor.fm/xagility/episodes/John-Carter---chief-engineer-of-BOSE-noise-cancelling-headphones-on-the-BOSE-culture--marketing-a-new-invention-and-agility-e1k1g3t/subscribe Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses As always, thank you for listening. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland/message
In this episode, I take you through what Large Scale Scrum precisely consists of, including a breakdown of the sprint retrospectives, product backlog refinement, and the daily scrum. What are the advantages of scaling? I mentioned the article I wrote, comparing the differences between the 2017 and 2020 Scrum Guide: https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/grow-agility-for-your-why/whats-different-in-the-2020-scrum-guide For a comprehensive study of all available scaling frameworks check out: https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/scaling/can-scrum-and-agility-be-scaled-and-what-s-the-best-way-to-do-it Enjoyed this episode? Or perhaps you may have a question? Let's connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ or Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/?hl=en If you are looking for scrum or kanban training, check out my upcoming courses at: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses As always, thank you for listening. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland/message
The last 18 years working in a range of different industries (ranging from tech to oil, tobacco, etc) have taught me a lot. Today I share some of the advice I would give the version of myself who was just starting out. Whether you are an experienced scrum master or just starting your career, there's something for everyone in this episode. From the Kübler-Ross Change Curve to the Tuckman Model, the devastating impact closing down a project can have on a team, what drives our behavior, Executive Agility, the importance of understanding the business and technical domain when working outside software, imposing your views on other people's beliefs and lip service. Do let me know if you have found this episode useful by messaging me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef/ If you are looking to get your Scrum training in, check out: https://www.scrum.org/classes?uid=217428 My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/ My twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnColemanIRL #scrum #agility #scrummaster --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland/message
What is the difference between a scrum master and an agile leader? If you start with the scrum master, what should a scrum master be doing? What would a leader do? the difference in the positions of scrum masters and agile leaders may not be as big as you think it is. Thank you for listening. #scrum #agility #agileleader #managementconsulting #scrummaster My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/ Looking for a scrum.org course from an active agility practitioner with over 15+ experience? Check out: https://orderlydisruption.com/collections/courses I also have a page dedicated to simplifying agility, if you're just starting out or perhaps looking to get a more simple understanding of a complex topic, check out: https://www.instagram.com/basicallyagile/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/basicallyagile/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland/message
Sustainability should be central to value. Instead of inauthentic greenwashing lets aim to be authentic with our sustainability and truly reduce our impact on the environment. If you truly want to improve your sustainability, consider it in terms of how you prioritize value.
When will it be done? How do we manage expectations in scrum? How do we use Monte Carlo probabilistic forecasting and the importance of throughput. My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/ My twitter: https://twitter.com/JohnColemanIRL
The 2020 version of the Scrum guide introduced the notion of ''product goal' but big visions can sometimes be hard for scrum teams to wrap their heads around which can in turn affect empiricism. What is a product goal and how can we go about having one without affecting empiricism? My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolem... Agility Island Podcast: https://anchor.fm/agilityisland #scrum #agile #kanban #productgoal #agility
On today's episode I take you through some of the techniques from Esther Derby and Diana Larsen's book on Retrospectives such as setting the stage as well as I explain why I think improvements should happen on the spot and the importance of doing so on team performance. My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolem... My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johncoleman... My Website: https://orderlydisruption.com/
Do you know what your team or team of teams capability to take on work is? How can throughput help? Using real-world examples, this episode aims to outline work capability and throughput. My social media: https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef http://orderlydisruption.co.uk/
What is value and how is it measured in scrum? In this episode, I walk you through some types of value such as organizational value, market value, societal value and learning value. I then focus on models such as the WK Kellogg Foundation Logic Model as well as Martin Fowler's Strangler Pattern to further outline the importance of learning. https://www.instagram.com/basicallyagile/ https://www.instagram.com/johncolemanagilitychef/ https://anchor.fm/xagility
How does trust impact the definition of done? Does low trust affect the definition of done? How can we work on building trust to help our definition of done? You can't see me, but I am adding something in the air. What is it? Trust. Trust yourself. Trust your team. Do the work. Impact the Definition of Done. For more check out: My LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johncolemanagilitychef My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/basicallyagile/ orderlydisruption.com
Do you think work should be handed off once it meets the definition of done? On this episode, I talk about how developers should collaborate with the 'testers' and the important role that plays overall. Tune in, you might find some useful tips.
In this episode, I talk you through some of the different ways and frameworks you can use to scale scrum and agile. The first rule is of course not scale but if you must, here are some ways to do so: 3:27 LeSS - what is it and how does it work? 6:29 Disciplined agile - what is it and how does it work? 7:21 Scrum at scale - what is it and how does it work? 8:21 SAFe - what is it and how does it work? 9:55 Nexus - what is it and how does it work? 11:43 Spotify ING - what is it and how does it work? 12:29 Flight Levels - what is it and how does it work? I also wrote a blog post on this, you can find it here: https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/grow-agility-for-your-why/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-preamble-to-1-of-4
How do we deliver value in Kanban? In this episode, John starts off by talking about by briefly introducing evidence-based management (EBM) and explains its 4 key values: time to market, ability to innovate, current value and unrealized value. John then moves on to look at how these values operate in the context of Kanban (2:35) and things that may actually harm your ability to deliver value. John then goes on to talk about classes of service in Kanban and why in his opinion, intangible is the preferred class of service.
Is there such thing as balancing UX with shipping fast in scrum? Is there even such thing as shipping fast in scrum? How can we know what is value when we don't know the end-user? What happens in each box of the Lean UX canvas?
How can we better deal with complexity in a Kanban footprint? Join me in this short episode to explore how.
In this episode, I go through some field stories regarding story points - why you shouldn't use them and offer alternatives.
Popular patterns for sizing including "exact" time/cost, relative, right-sizing, and #noestimates. Popular patterns for forecasting include Gantt charts(ugh!), burnup/down charts(hmmm), and probabilistic forecasting(oooo). An emerging trend is with right-sizing and probabilistic forecasting. It's not all sunshine and honey, context matters, and it's dangerous to over-simplify. Let's laser focus on the upsides and downsides of each of these options. Time Stamps: 0:00 Approaches & Their Upsides 9:00 Downsides of Approaches 19:02 Approaches for Forecasting
Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:22 scrum master vs agile coach 1:46 The conversations you might have as a leader/scrum master/agility coach 3:48 What I expect a scrum master or agility coach to do 10:00 What about a leader? 13:17 Some things to consider stopping Watch the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/9n90oOChNQY
Let's focus on non-software - let's consider a people recruitment process as an example. What does "done" mean? Valuable, useful, and usable in Scrum, whatever the organization/team decides it is. "When someone's need was met" in Agendashift. Maybe a near to exit stage on a Kanban board... How is "done" different from acceptance criteria for a Scrum product backlog item or subtasks on a Kanban work item? 0:00 Introduction 3:42 The definition of "done" 5:27 Definition of done in Kanban & subtasks 7:05 Acceptance criteria may become obsolete 7:53 Different categories of quality standards 10:44 Recruitment example 18:07 Definition of Done in Kanban for non-software 20:17 One of the things I love about kanban 24:28 Answering questions and comments Watch the video version of this episode here: https://youtu.be/CZTarEzFvBc
Product Backlog Refinement is an activity in (single team) Scrum, with supporting events for multi-team Scrum in Nexus and LeSS. Why is it encouraged? Is there something equivalent in Kanban? 0:00 Introduction 0:27 Product backlog refinement in Scrum 8:03 How do we obtain a common understanding 9:06 A nerve centre for discovery 15:00 Optional practices 15:11 Misunderstandings of product backlog refinement Watch this in the video format here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gti64RAlVL4
Projects are artificial constructs to get money to get some work done. Key metric include time, scope, and cost. Products don't have scope. Scrum is for product development and works even better with Lean UX and Kanban as a powerful combination. Should we set up Scrum Teams dedicated to projects? 0:34 What is a project? 1:01 Deciding whether to use Scrum or not 3:17 Problems with using Scrum for projects 9:01 Managing expectations 10:12 Scrum teams for each project - good idea? Watch the video format here: https://youtu.be/VnahFNJgS-g
Daily Flow - what is LeSS and why is it needed?
Are you in an agile team? Does it feel like meeting mania? It doesn't have to be. Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction 0:24 Meetings with agile 2:12 Three questions in the Scrum guide 4:04 The situation to strive for 7:13 Sprint planning 10:15 Product backlog refinement 13:50 Having a chat with key stakeholders Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/t99iRz-h2Xs
Daily Flow hosts the amazing Steven Tendon to discuss constraints in knowledge work. This episode is packed with fun anecdotes as well as the story of Herbie. Join us in discussing Steve's amazing work in his own Tame Flow. 1:48 - Basics of constraints in knowledge work / understanding what is a constraint 2:51 - Story of Herbie 8:53 - Finding the constraint 15:31 - Moving people around 22:33 - Rating behaviour/mental models as a constraint
Remember those three annoying questions? Thank goodness they no longer exist in the Scrum guide. 0:00 Introduction 2:05 Five domains to think about when working on problems... 3:49 What to talk about in the daily scrum 5:15 From a flow perspective... 7:58 Getting to know each other 10:57 Answering questions and comments
Nexus is Scrum.org's scaling/de-scaling pattern. It's simple and it's practical. 0:00 Introduction 1:03 The cake metaphor 4:55 A basic Nexus 7:58 Why I like Nexus 10:50 Minimising dependencies 12:49 The Nexus daily scrum 15:47 The 2021 update 18:25 A key distinction between LeSS and Nexus 21:10 Answering questions and comments
Two weeks is the most popular sprint length for Scrum teams, so we should use that right? What if we have multiple teams for the product?
On the Xagility ™ podcast at https://anchor.fm/xagility, Marty Cagan explained his view on product ownership & product management, calling it "CSPO pathology". Listen to John Coleman's personal opinion on the following: What does it mean for teams? What does it mean for entrepreneurial Product Owners? What does it mean for Product Leaders? What does it mean for training? What does it mean for organizations?
Prateek Singh is Director, Business Agility at UKG(Ultimate Kronos Group) Speaker, Blogger, and co-host of the fabulous DrunkAgile podcast. DrunkAgile https://youtube.com/channel/UC758reHaPAeEixmCjWIbsOA
intent and Impulse. Why do we do what we do? What is the narrative that sits behind our actions? Understanding the difference between these two terms and their true meaning is a process of reflection and exploration. Two of the fundamentals of personal and professional development. David Nixon's intent and impulse article https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/intent-impulse-david-nixon
Nik Antonelli made John Coleman aware of the expression "take the time it takes so it takes less time"; complexity aside, it's about being able to afford to do it twice when one could have done it properly once. "It takes as long as it takes" is a dead-sure sign that work item aging is not being taken seriously, and it's the slippery slope to expedite-mania.
In another episode, John Coleman talked about "turning off the tap". A few weeks after turning off the tap, work level anxiety can still be high. It can be tempting to re-open the tap before your workload has normalized. Don't. How often do we pause to walk in nature, to reflect? don't lose that opportunity to finish work that's been in progress for longer than you'd like to admit. sidebar, sometimes work item age is beyond our control. Remember. By switching off, we switch back on. How likely is that if you reopen the tap?
Lean UX was co-created by Joshua Seiden and Jeff Gothelf. Scrum and Lean UX were formally combined in recent years, and John Coleman loves this combination. He refers to it as a heat-seeking missile for value. Find out why.
In Kanban, explicit policies are visible/accessible to Kanban system members. Implicit policies are assumptions, and they might not be shared assumptions. Let's talk about policies.
Wouldn't know a cycle time scatter plot if it hit you on the head? You're in the right place to look at that and a few other sleep-inducing charts. What a way to start the weekend!
What is Kanban? John Coleman will refer to https://kanbanguides.org.
Water flow is often used as a metaphor for flow in knowledge work. John often uses the expression "turn off the tap" (incoming work). Is he going crazy?
Is the application of Scrum as per the Scrum Guide too prescriptive? Is the Scrum Guide used as a set of laws you need to adhere here to? Should the Scrum Guide rather be treated as a guide that gives the team a starting point but encourages the team to inspect and adapt the framework to better their outcomes? To request a topic, leave a message at https://anchor.fm/dailyflow/message or WhatsApp +447908539437, thank you.
For some, sterile is a good thing; it means safe and clean. For others, it's kind of lacking in fun. Kanban practitioners can often forget the human side; virtually beating people over the head with work item aging charts, and in doing so they "lose the dressing room".
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