Agile Quotes
“Scrum is the gamification of Product Development”
…Later I realized that Takeuchi and Nonaka said it right in the title of the first article on Scrum “The New New Product Development Game“
Rick Waters
“Follow the Boy Scout Rule. Leave the code better than you found it.”
‘Uncle’ Bob Martin
“If everything seems under control, you just aren’t going fast enough”
Mario Andretti
“If micro-managers are in control (backseat driving) you can’t go fast enough”
Rick Waters
“We pay more attention on knowing who to blame in case we fail, than in creating the conditions to succeed”
Yves Morieux
“If you think you need estimates, your box is too big. Make box smaller”
Chet Hendrickson & Ron Jeffries (AATC 2017)
“When short-sided reaction is mislabeled as continual improvement, you endanger much more than the next increment”
Rick Waters
“You insist you need a drill, but what you really need is a hole.”
Mike Marchi
“The most expensive way to test your idea is to build production quality software”
Jeff Patton
“If you reward fire-fighting behavior, you’ll hire an arsonist.”
Jon Jorgensen
“There’s this Oreo Cookie of Change Management. The CIO and Senior Management wants to, and is willing to, change. They’re the top of the Oreo. And the crunchy bottom is willing to change. And then the mushy middle that’s confused about if they are still part of the new cookie.”
Chet Hendrickson
“A group of 5 individuals, in close proximity to each other, working on related stuff, in short cycles does not make you a Scrum Team!”
Rick Waters
“Practicing Scrum with a project mindset is like playing hockey with a basketball.”
Rick Waters
On Business Agility Teams: “Independence is promoted, because dependencies will kill you!”
Mike Beedle
On Scrum in schools: “The biggest impediment tin High Schools is the bell schedule.”
John Miller
“The king of Hell is a Product Owner, Scrum Master and Manager at the same time. His name: B. Agile Zebub.”
David Saboe
“How many beer trucks does it take to destroy a team? One, if it hits the Product Owner.”
Mike Beedle
“The customer is the center of the universe.”
Steve Denning
On keeping Scrum going well: “… a coach, called the ScrumMaster, helps…”
Mike Beedle
“Estimates are like the best lie we can give you”
Mike Beedle
“Scrum is a professional way to play it by ear.”
Mike Beedle
“No amount of upfront planning can outsmart, or completely prepare you for, Nature.”
Rick Waters
“Trust should be the basis of all our moral training”
Robert SS Baden Powell (founder of the Boy Scouts)
“Scrum is a mirror.”
Alistair Cockburn
“Leadership is a trailing indicator of one’s beliefs, actions and reactions. Unfortunately, that indicator does not apply to all management styles.”
Rick Waters
“As soon as you solve your #1 problem, your #2 problem gets a promotion”
Jerry Weinberg
“If you follow 80% of the process, you get 20% of the results.”
Kent Beck
“What comes next need not look like what came before.”
Rick Waters
“There is never any better time, than right now, to change.”
Rick Waters
