Overcoming the Ringelmann Effect -Forming agile teams

In 1913, Max Ringelmann performed a simple experiment using German workers. He asked subjects to pull on a rope alone or in groups and measured the strain to demonstrate social loafing. The Ringelmann effect occurs when individual performance begins to diminish as the size of the team increases. This phenomena can also be known as “social loafing.” How can we deal with this effect in agile teams?

The Net Promoter Score - Creating a culture of customer advocacy

Implementing NPS is easier for the company to analyze user feedback and product problems; Based on this, the company could decide which action to take in order to improve customer happiness. NPS can also provide a stable measurement of business performance that can be compared across products, business units or even across industries. It’s not just the score; it’s about listening to our customer, raising the bar (meaning delivering value to our customer, meaning loyalty) and creating a culture of customer trust.

DevOps & Agile - Continuous software delivery (in the cloud).

Agile development and DevOps are two halves of the same coin. Implementing DevOps to increase speed and innovation requires adopting agile development methodologies, and Agile development requires quicker and more frequent release cycles. There are organizational aspects of successfully implementing Agile Development and DevOps and the new tools that should be used to support Agile Development and DevOps processes. By applying lean and agile principles across the delivery lifecycle, organizations deliver a differentiated and engaging customer experience and achieve quicker time to value.

Ping Pong Programming

Ping-pong programming (P3) is an offspring of two well-known extreme programming practices: pair programming and test-driven development. These practices by themselves promote intra-team knowledge sharing. One of the major issues preventing effective pairing is passivity. When used simultaneously with test-driven development, it encourages more frequent switching of roles: one programmer writes a failing unit test, then passes the keyboard to the other who writes the corresponding code, then goes on to a new test.

Xscale - an Agile enterprise ecosystem

XSCALE is a continuously delivering, continuously self-organizing, continuously adaptive Agile enterprise ecosystem that turns all the knobs to ten.

Goldilocks and the Three Bears scrum game

'Creating children's book with SCRUM' - Creating a book is not a simple project however applying Agile principles to the process might make it much more easier to manage and give you better results.

Goldilocks principle - Agile - How to get to Just right?

The Goldilocks principle states that something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes. There is a balance required between too much and too little.

This principle is derived from a children’s story “The Three Bears” .

 In agile world it means that you need to do "just enough". If you say this to people they either think it's an inspirational breath of fresh air that fits in with all of their existing beliefs or they think it's a complete cop out! 

Just like Goldilocks, it’s up to you to experiment and try things until it is just right.

What do you think?

Teaching lean with games

emonstrating Lean concepts is one of the main reasons to use a simulation as a teaching tool. During a Lean workshop, the key material can be taught, and then illustrated with a simulation or game.

Once participants have seen with their own eyes the difference between Push and Pull production, they'll never forget it. That massive stack of half assembled Lego is a sight that will burn itself into their brains.

An Exercise in Flow: Dice Game

Games are a great way to learn…especially as a team. 

Here is one powerful exercise that can be used to demonstrate several aspects of flow, value and teamwork: The Dice Game with few variations done by experienced professionals each gives a different angle, using a slight deferent scope or parts of the same game.

Enjoy .

Extra Materials for Scrum Week - Sevastopol July 2014

This collection includes references to many of the issues we will cover during the scrum week. For more issues please refer to  http://agilopedia.blogspot.co.il/

Here we come. Enjoy :)