It’s pretty easy to describe a “bad culture,” but articulating what “good
culture” looks like is less straightforward. Similarly, it’s easier to
define what an agile mindset isn’t than what having an agile mindset
actually means.
In this Episode 43 of 5 Minutes with @NYIke, I share five ways of defining
and targeting agile mindsets. It’s an incomplete list, but it’s a start for
any agile transformation leader aiming to take their teams beyond scrum
practices and achieve an agile culture.
Agile Culture Anti-Patterns
In this post, let me share what an agile mindset is not. Here are fifteen
unsorted behaviors that anti-patterns to agile mindsets.
- Leans toward tech excellence to the detriment of customer needs
-
Drives features without considering operational needs (tech debt, defects,
etc) - Wants everything to be a priority or won’t set any priorities
- Expects near-perfect delivery on scope, timeline, and quality
- Wants the scrum team to translate story point estimates into hours
-
Translates “self-organizing” as “full empowerment” to do “whatever the
team wants” -
Uses the phrase, “That’s not Agile” to drive people away from discussing
best practices - Pushes the velocity gas pedal to 110% and rarely celebrates teams’ wins
- Commits but rarely completes
- Defines the what and how without explaining the who and why
- Shares opinions without seeking data to back up the story
-
Closes the user story, then adds others to the backlog on what the team
didn’t get ‘done’ - Develops waterfall project plans on top of agile methodologies
- Inflates estimates to game velocity or circumvent process improvement
-
Underinvests in pre-sprint planning, presents stories right before sprint
start, and changes requirements mid-sprint
Again, this is an incomplete list. Some are behaviors, and some go against
fundament, but they all illustrate
What is an Agile Mindset
Please watch the video, where I share five behaviors aligned with agile
mindsets.
