The (mis)adventures of an agile coach
This article is a review of “Thanks for the Feedback” by Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen. Consider the following scenario: a manager is providing performance feedback to an employee. The employee is doing their best, but they are feeling defensive and dejected as the boss cites all of their areas for improvement. The manager, on … Read more
This article is a review of “Coaching Agile Teams” by Lyssa Adkins. I have based this review on a Dutch translation of the book. “Coaching Agile Teams” by Lyssa Adkins is a well-regarded book on the subject of coaching agile teams and is recommended reading for those interested in the topic. The book provides practical … Read more
This article is a review of “Scrum – The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time” by Jeff Sutherland. In an earlier article I referred to this book by its somewhat misleading title. Scrum emphasizes delivering value and improving the overall process over simply increasing output or doing more work in less … Read more
This article is a review of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable” by Patrick Lencioni. Patrick Lencioni’s leadership book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” describes five main dysfunctions that prohibit teams from reaching their full potential. According to Lencioni, these dysfunctions are interrelated, with each one building on the one … Read more
This article is a review of “Fixing Your Scrum” by Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller. The book “Fixing Your Scrum” by Ryan Ripley and Todd Miller aims to help Scrum practitioners improve their Scrum practices and overcome common challenges. It is a well-written and well-thought-out guidebook for solving ‘real-world’ Scrum problems and improving team performance. … Read more
This article is a review of “SCRUM – A Smart Travel Companion” by Gunther Verheyen. As I take along quite some books to be read on my daily commute, one little book often gets stuck behind other books, my work laptop and lunchbox in my backpack. And as I move big things from my backpack, … Read more
This article is a review of “Mastering Professional Scrum” by Stephanie Ockerman & Simon Reindl. In a variety of Scrum literature, I encountered the ‘Shu-Ha-Ri’ concept, which describes the stages of learning to mastery. Originating from Japanese Aikido, it can be roughly translated to “follow the rule, break the rule and transcend the rule”. In … Read more
This article is a review of “Scrum Mastery” by Geoff Watts. Do you know that feeling, when reading professional literature, that you are overcome with a feeling of happiness? When you’re reading a book, and think “God, I love my job“? That is basically what this book did for me. It was a reaffirmation for … Read more
This article is a review of “Scrum Insights for Practitioners: The Scrum Guide Companion” by Hiren Doshi. To me, the Scrum Guide (by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland) is the gift that keeps on giving. Every once in a while I read the guide all over again and I always get different take-away’s every time … Read more