Team Agility / Scrum Support System

team This page was built by Net Objectives prior to their acquisition by the PMI. While Team-Agility is not exactly the same as Disciplined Agile Scrum, the two are very consistent. We have kept this available with the intention of helping both our Disciplined Agile partners and for those who are struggling with Scrum and need some assistance.

This system is designed for all Scrum practitioners and includes many extensions we’ve made to Scrum as described in the Net Objectives approach to Scrum. We believe that since Scrum is a framework and can be used everywhere, a support system must include practices and artifacts that will be particularly useful for those using Scrum in software development (either product or IT). This support system is designed for any Scrum team members but includes much of what a Scrum Master will need to understand to become proficient.

Are you on the right path?

Determining if Scrum is applicable to your team.
The Question Isn’t ”Scrum Vs Kanban?” or Even “Scrum and Kanban?” But Rather “What Works?”
Introduction to Team Agility. Presents how teams can be effective based on Lean Thinking. Can provide alternative practices to those in Scrum.
Scrum as Example. Views Scrum 100% based on the Scrum Guide as a starting point. You can use this by having Disciplined Agile’s Choose your Way of Working to default to Scrum practices and then change them as needed.
Scrum training for teams should be different from Scrum training for Scrum Masters as they do different things and need different skills Include practices from other methods that would be useful to the team.

Core principles / practices

Going deeper

Detailed Templates. These are used to provide checklists for teams and Scrum Visit Overview of templates that describe what is available.
Reading path for Scrum. This guides you through what Scrum is and how to use it.
Reading paths for all Agile roles. These are readings and videos for people to learn at their own pace (premium content).
Case studies. Some case studies of how Lean thinking helped companies improve their Scrum when more than one team was involved.
Blogs on Scrum. Here are some timeless blogs on Scrum that will help you understand how to use it better.

Overcoming challenges

Value Stream Impedance Scorecard (VSIS)

The Value Stream Impedance Scorecard is a qualitative method of determining if a change to your system will be an improvement or not. It is used to predict whether a speculated “to be” state will be an improvement over the current “as is” state.
What is flow? Flow is the ability to produce value in a continuous manner. “Flow thinking” is using a collection of principles that can be used to reasonably predict when an action will have a positive or negative impact on flow.
Using the theory of flow to find your impediments. The best way to measure the impact of delays is reflected in Don Reinertsen’s mantra – “If you quantify one thing quantify the cost of delay.” When making a decision on a workflow improvement experiment, we can gauge its potential effectiveness by anticipating what will happen to our cost of delay. We can then see what actually happens to see if we got improvement or not.

Other Resources for Team Agility / Scrum Support System

A Learning Path To Becoming a Disciplined Agile Trainer
Agile Coach (Basic): Coaching Tips
Agile Practices Every Developer Can Do To Help Their Team (Article)
Guardrails for the Team and Agile Coach (Scrum/Kanban Master) (Article)