We’d all like to find information – fast – but very few have the drive to provide the information. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to google knowledge and processes that are specific to your organization, so someone’s gotta do it. The actually documenting, that is.
But how, if there’s nothing to build on? Start a Linklist! Collect whatever scattered resources already exist and make them accessible.
Star Wars or StarTrek?
If you are active in agile spaces, chances are, you have come across Yves Hanoulle. He does a lot of important community work such as organizing conferences and his looong-running series of interviews “Who is agile?“, first written and lately as videos. I’m honoured to be part of it and it was a very interesting… Continue reading Star Wars or StarTrek?
Is this blog dead? (As of March 2026: No)
Let me check: Last post is from August 2018. More than a year ago. Wow, that’s worse than I expected. And that post isn’t even there anymore. It moved over to retromat.org. I guess that settles it, this blog is dead 🙁 It’s not for a lack of topics. I’ve got about 10 drafts and… Continue reading Is this blog dead? (As of March 2026: No)
Are you aware of the stories you tell yourself? – Clean Feedback
Have you ever wondered how discussions escalate into shouting matches? Into a series of accusations and “I never said that!” “Yeah, you did!” Us humans have a tendency to think that the stories we tell ourselves in our heads are the actual factual truths. We are rational beings after all. Or are we? At least… Continue reading Are you aware of the stories you tell yourself? – Clean Feedback
Ad-Hoc Leadership
[This topic in German will be part of the upcoming 2nd sipgate book \o/]. We don’t have any middle management at sipgate. In our teams nobody is anybody else’s boss. Hearing this, visitors often assume we’re without leaders. In fact, the opposite is true. (Disclaimer: We do have a hierarchy. It only has 2 levels… Continue reading Ad-Hoc Leadership
Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches need an Emergency Fund
Scrum doesn’t fix an organization’s problems. It makes problems glaringly obvious so that they have a chance to fix them. Except that “glaringly obvious” is relative and sometimes you still need someone to point to the steaming pile o’ shit of a problem and say it out loud. Sometimes to someone that has the authority… Continue reading Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches need an Emergency Fund
Expect turnover – Agile transitions and changes in the work force
The other day, I’ve had 3 visitors from a large corporation. Since one of them was from HR we talked a lot about these topics and exchanged our hiring processes. One hidden criterium of theirs is that people must be “leidensfähig” to a certain extent. “Leidensfähig” is a beautiful German word that literally translates to… Continue reading Expect turnover – Agile transitions and changes in the work force
How we take decisions without managers and teamleads
We don’t have any middle management at sipgate. There is still a boss – bosses even, plural – and we look to them for strategy and long term planning, but they are not involved in day to day decisions. In our ~12 product teams no one is the boss of anyone else. This often prompts… Continue reading How we take decisions without managers and teamleads
Mistakes were made – 3 things not to do when going agile
There are many awesome practices we do at sipgate that I love to share with others. But we’ve also gotten some things very wrong, especially in the beginning in 2010. Let me spill the beans about 3 “do not recommend” things for a change 🙂 Double duty Scrum Masters All the first Scrum Masters were… Continue reading Mistakes were made – 3 things not to do when going agile
And what else?
Have you ever had to broach a difficult topic? You prepare, you make notes and you head for a 1:1. You start by talking about various smaller topics. You avoid the big fat whopper of a topic that you’ve been worrying about. Time is ticking by. You’re stalling. Then at the end of the –… Continue reading And what else?