Happy 2023 to you all! I am very much looking forward to this year because I have all kinds of plans. Many have to do with this substack newsletter.
But before I look forward, I wish to reflect a bit on what inspired me last year. As editor of the Serious Scrum publication and as an agile coach in my daily life, I have read, heard and viewed many agile articles, talks and podcasts.
Here are 10 excellent pieces of output that resonated the most with me.
10. Patty Aluskewicz - Newton’s Law to change organizational culture
In this talk, Agile Coach and former science teacher, Patty Aluskewicz will apply Newton’s Laws and other scientific concepts to help you understand that YOU have much more power to affect organizational cultural change than you might imagine.
9. Stable Or Fluid Teams? What Does The Science Say? by Christiaan Verwijs
Christiaan Verwijs discusses the academic research behind effective teams. His aim is to show how science looks at stable teams vs fluid teams. This article triggered me because of my publications about Fluid Scrum Teams in the months before. I wrote a response to Christiaan’s article, which is here.
8. 21 secrets the Scrum Guide doesn’t tell you by Todd Lankford
We all work in a system. Some systems are well-designed to support agility. But others work against it; these toxic systems are rampant. You can improve your system with any of Todd’s twenty-one idea options in his post.
7. Starting with Scrum series by Erik de Bos
created a beautiful series of articles that guide you through the journey of starting with Scrum for a new product.6. How to become a mindful Scrum Master by Ramya Shastri
What is Mindfulness? Why it is important? How can you benefit from it and how can one become a mindful Scrum Master?
5. Fluid Scrum use case by Bettina Kuchenbuch - German
The German company Brainbits decided to run an experiment with my concept of Fluid Scrum Teams. Bettina Kuchenbuch created a beautiful use case. It is in German at the moment. As soon as an English version arrives, I will certainly inform you!
4. The truth about agility and rigidity in Scrum by Sjoerd Nijland
How can a lightweight framework with rules and an immutable definition promote agility and empiricism? Of course! And Sjoerd clearly shows how.
3. Jurgen Appelo’s unFIX
One of the major introductions of 2022 is the unFIX model of Jurgen Appelo. I predict it will change the way we organize around value streams, taking the world by storm.
2. Watch Out, Waterfall Ahead! The truth about SAFe by Pawel Huryn
caused quite a stir with this article. He even received legal threats from SAFe. He must have hit a nerve there. Thing is, his article is completely right!1. Scrum's unintended and gradual disconnect from Product Management by Maarten Dalmijn
tells us it’s time for a wake-up call in the Scrum community. Instead of pointing at what the Product Owner label was supposed to achieve, let’s take a look at the rubble and confusion it leaves behind and take responsibility.I should be at the end of my list, but I have one more, cheating a bit, to be honest.
0. Moving the Scrum downfield by Gunther Verheyen
Technically, this is not a talk that originates from this year. But I heard it last month at Scrum Day Europe and it had a significant impact on me. This is why I mention it nevertheless! “We stopped challenging the status quo.” I don’t have a video of the talk I saw, but here’s the same talk on YouTube.