All articles by Larry Apke

Agile Team, Blog, General Agile, Leadership

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and Why Agile Works

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In Daniel Pink’s bestseller Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, the author persuasively argues that what motivates people in the knowledge economy (of which software development is squarely seated) “is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world. ”

People are no longer motivated by the carrot and stick approach of past Tayloristic, manufacturing, assembly line business. What motivates new workers, and what has been supported by a wide range of scientific studies, can be summarized by the acronym AMP which stands for Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

As an Agilist, I am always curious why in one company an Agile implementation succeeds and in another it does not. While there are many reasons for Agile implementations to fail, one thing that many have in common is that they fail to take into account the three factors Pink describes in his book.

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Agile Development, Blog, General Agile

Recent Agile Speaking Engagements

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Boy it’s been some time since I have blogged! I have been busy with all things business, personal and have had a great number of recent speaking engagements with any free time I have been able to find. I am passionate about Agile and love the opportunity that speaking brings.

My most recent gigs included a bunch of talks when my body was suffering a annoying fall head cold.

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Agile Management, Blog

Are You a Scrum Master? Be a Gardener.

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I have recently been reading Jurgen Appelo’s book Management 3.0: Leading Agile Developers, Developing Agile Leaders. For those wondering what management’s role in an Agile organization should be then this is a good read.

In my current consulting gig I am coaching someone to replace me as a scrum master so we spend a great deal of time talking about Agile, Scrum and what it means to be a scrum master.

One of the things I have always used as a metaphor is the concept of Scrum Master (and managers) as gardeners. Though I may have heard it somewhere and forgot it or it may have reached my subconscious somehow, I came up with the metaphor of gardener because my in-laws live with me and are retired. They spend a great deal of time gardening. It is from their work bringing forth trees, flowers and mountains of vegetables that I took my cue.

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Blog

Product Versus Project Management

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I spent a great deal of time trying to find others who have written about product versus project management, especially as to how it relates to Agile. Unfortunately, it is not a hot topic. This is a shame – it should be.

I have had the pleasure of working with teams and organizations that are successful with Agile and others who are not that successful. Those that are not successful are those who cannot see a difference between product and project management. While the differences may be subtle, it can make all the difference in the world.

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Agile Transitioning, Blog, Scrum

What Agile Processes and Diets Have in Common

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I have spent a great deal of time lately reading blogs predicting the end of Agile. There are a lot of good people making a lot of good points but I think that there are some major problems the arguments predicting the end of Agile.

There is a very real tendency for people to confuse Agile (the philosophy) with Scrum (a process created to achieve the principles of Agile). Agile is only 16 statements – 4 values and 12 principles – nothing more. Of those 16 statements I am sure that there are some who would argue against them, but these would be a fringe element. Don’t believe me? Follow the links above and see which, if any, a rational software developer or business person would disagree with. You can disagree with them, but principles, in and of themselves, cannot fail.

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Agile Transitioning, Blog, General Agile

The Fourth Agile Principle

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“Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.”

I was in a backlog grooming meeting this morning when I was given reason to reflect on this, the fourth, Agile principle. The reason was that the team I was working with was struggling/arguing about the proper wording of a story. To a few on the team the absolutely precise wording of the story was of paramount importance. While I am a big fan of precision, the vehemence of the need to be precise was a bad smell. It took me some time to realize where the stridency came from.

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