Is success or failure really a choice?  I don’t think it is at all.  Pretty much no one chooses to fail.  Unfortunately, we can’t just choose to be successful either.  What we CAN choose is to try to make a success out of a failure!  The old saying “Make lemonade out of lemons” really is a good way of looking at things, especially for agile teams.

Agile teams will have times when they “fail.”  I know a lot of people dislike using the words “fail” and “failure” when talking about team results.  I’m actually pretty tired of that argument because I don’t think it helps anyone.  I’d rather call a “poor result” a “failure” and acknowledge we can and will strive to do better next time.  As I say during workshops I facilitate, “I am blunt and reality based. Sometimes that means I will say things which you won’t like to hear.”  I don’t call teams “failures” or anything like that.  That would be namecalling and that is never appropriate.  However, calling results a failure is correct and leaves no room for interpretation.  I find being blunt in those situations to be more useful because teams then must face the reality and not try to sugar coat it as “not being all that bad…” [Read more...]

Here in the United States we will be celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday, November 26.  If you are currently on an agile team you may want to consider giving thanks a bit earlier!  My thank you list would definitely include:

1. Thanks for the organization allowing us to be successful with an agile development framework.
2. Thanks for giving the team the support needed from all areas of the organization so value is delivered each release.
3. Thanks for giving us the training necessary to be successful with agile. [Read more...]