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Year-End appraisals, done right

It is time for the Year-End appraisals again. I as an (Agile) manager always hated them and this is why: - Appraisals in general do not work. - As a true Agile manager, you let the team organize itself as most as possible. Evaluating on an individual level, conflicts with this principle. - You can have a team that performs at the cost of individual goals or individuals that perform at the cost of team goals. Often they are not aligned. - But most of all: many aspects of what makes a good team are incredibly hard (if not impossible) [...] Read more »

What is Agile

It is disturbing how much the term Agile is misused nowadays. So what is Agile again? And where is it about? It is NOT a brand, it is NOT a methodology, it is NOT a framework, it is NOT a (set of) rule(s). What is it then? It is an adjective to describe a certain ability: ag.ile adjective able to move quickly and easily Agile is a word commonly used in the field of software development to define a certain mindset to be able to move quickly and easily. This mindset is captured in manifesto’s, frameworks, roll definitions, skill sets, best-practices, etc. [...] Read more »

What is the role of a good Agile manager?

It is a time where a lot of thought and writing is going on about how Agile teams could work best. And with results: beautiful frameworks, guidelines, best-practices… Whole books are written about it. But how it all fits in existing environments and how these environments can best deal with all of this? That seems to be a rather unexplored area. For example: traditional company policies (such as individual appraisals), hard marketing deadlines, conventional accountancy evaluations and quality management systems. There are numerous examples of things that provide the necessary areas of tension on (self-organizing) teams. A lot of articles and […]

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