Mary Iqbal

Sprint after Sprint, a lot of work remained unfinished at the end of the Sprint. Instead of returning that work to the Product Backlog or discussing next steps at the following Sprint Planning event, the vendor simply left the previous Sprint open. At any given time there might be four or five Sprints open for the same Scrum team. Don’t do this!

If you’re bringing in an external vendor to do Agile software development, you need to set things up so that you’re not stuck with poor performance and big bills. Here are a few practical tips I’ve learned the hard way.

I used to roll my eyes when highly-paid consultants would stand in front of leadership and say things like “Agile is a mindset” or “We need an Agile mindset shift.” But damn it… they were right. There really is an Agile mindset. And if you’re using Scrum without it, you’re most likely just going through the motions. And you could be leaving a lot of value on the table - not to mention creating a lot of waste. So, what do I actually mean by “Agile mindset”? Let’s get specific. 1. We’re Open...