AGILE IN ACTION

We use timeouts and a couple of different retrospectives to drive improvement. Stop-the-line events like Pomodoro timeouts and Pomodoro retrospectives happen spontaneously within the team to solve problems immediately and produce small continual improvements. We also use a monthly retrospective for the product stream to reflect on how it's working and conceive bigger, more strategic improvements.

We're enjoying ourselves so much I'm wondering if it's illegal. We're working in a 4-man team with a new client (who consult for the Lean Enterprise Academy) and we're experimenting with some new techniques. Our goal is to create a product that is very kind to its users, so we're trying to stay as close as possible to the users' conceptual model and stop thinking like programmers all the bloody time. When we catch one another 'flipping' to techie mode we quickly 'flop' them back to user mode.

It's tough to prevent technical discussions getting lost in the weeds. Actually, it's the people involved who get lost in the weeds.

If you're new to light-touch leadership you may find yourself focusing on the big events (standups, retrospectives, planning games, showcase, beer). However it's the little-noticed gardening work that happens over the course of an iteration that really helps a team work together and deliver effectively. Here's a few examples, some of which may be specific to our environment.

Our team has been together now for about 15 weeks and things are going well. We've got a sustainable pace that's delivering value every week, our Product Owner and Product Sponsor are both happy, and everyone is having fun. So what's bugging me? 2 things.