Since the 20th January 2021, I have had the privilege of training 55 people on Leading SAFe across Old Mutual. I think of it as a privilege because during these 2 days we truly start the conversation and thinking about how to implement business agility. We have had vigorous debates on financing Value Streams and why project thinking limits us and how empowered teams really are the way of the future. In my opinion, the

2021 – What now? AUTHOR: Malene Marie Bendixen Jacobsen, Agile Coach Happy New Year and welcome to 2021! We from Kaizania are back from holiday and ready for a new year, are you? At the end of 2020, most people were longing for 2021 and change – but what would actually change in 2021? What were people’s expectations? No doubt 2020 has been a tough year for the whole world – but also an interesting

What is a good Sprint Goal? How do you write a good Sprint Goal? AUTHOR: Malene Marie Bendixen Jacobsen, Agile Coach To answer this question, let us first look into the reason behind the Sprint Goal.. From the official Scrum Guide: “The Sprint Goal is an objective set for the Sprint that can be met through the implementation of the Product Backlog” The outcome of Sprint Planning is the Sprint Goal and a Sprint Backlog.

How do you become a great Scrum Master? Read the Scrum Master tips to find out how. AUTHOR: Malene Marie Bendixen Jacobsen, Agile Coach Let’s first have a look at what skills you need to be a great Scrum Master. As the Scrum Guide explains, a Scrum Master needs to be a Servant Leader – but what does that mean? It means that Scrum Master responsibilities are always centred on serving the people. This differs

Can you use breakout rooms in Microsoft Teams? You actually can!  AUTHOR: Malene Marie Bendixen Jacobsen, Agile Coach I have always been a fan of Zoom and it’s breakout room functionality for my virtual sessions, and I must admit I was always skeptical when working on Microsoft Teams as I hand a long list of “issues” with what they could do for remote teams. Breakout room functionality was at the top of this list. How

AUTHOR: Darren Bekker, Agile Coach & RTE ‘’We should never waste a good crisis’’ Winston Churchill With Covid-19, most of the world in lockdown and a pending global recession, it has never been more important for businesses to transform. Many companies have ceased projects and programmes and have moved into survival mode. It is now, more important than ever for organizations to accelerate digital transformation initiatives or face potential extinction.  The last global recession in

AUTHOR: Greg Banach, Agile Coach I have used this quote before when selling the concept of PI planning to clients, “We bring everyone together so that people can have quality, face-to-face conversations”. I have stressed that it is was vital to bring everyone together – that the cost of flights and travel were worth it as quality conversations were vital in ensuring that all members of the team were clear with their deliverables, tough conversations

AUTHOR: Vanessa Martens, Agile Coach I was reflecting on the Business Agility conference we went to about a month ago and the talk that really resonated with me was lessons from an Agile Transformation Coach….I have kept the lessons but put my own flavor to it, I hope she doesn’t mind:) These lessons humble me as I quickly forget where people are in their Agile journey, I may have done this many times over the

AUTHOR: Vanessa Martens, Agile Coach Over the last 3 years, we have worked with organizations across South Africa that are realizing the benefits of implementing an agile approach to transform their business. The most cited reason we have encountered to embark on a Digital Transformation is improved speed to market. Today’s successful companies innovate on the fly and recently we have been coaching an AI-powered Chatbot division at a Telecommunications company that has successfully embraced an

SAFe is an excellent framework for bringing more agility to teams as a break through the glass ceiling between development teams and the rest of the business. This leads to improved delivery and less frustration at all levels of the organization. Sounds amazing, but unfortunately it’s not all as easy as it sounds on paper. You can easily end up cargo culting or having bad scrum practices. Let me explain why. AUTHOR: Kevin Shine Some