Better teams, better software — one practice at a time.
Plain-English guides to agile ways of working, agile coaching and modern software development: Scrum, Kanban, retrospectives, CI/CD and more. Every guide links to its sources.
Articles
24 articles
The Agile Manifesto Explained: Values, Principles and Myths
Where the Agile Manifesto came from, what its four values and twelve principles actually say, and the common misreadings that lead teams astray.
Read · 6 min read →Agile FundamentalsScrum Explained in Plain English
A plain-English tour of Scrum as defined in the 2020 Scrum Guide: the three accountabilities, five events, three artifacts and the commitment behind each one.
Read · 6 min read →Agile FundamentalsKanban Explained: Visualize Work, Limit WIP and Improve Flow
How Kanban works for knowledge work: defining and visualizing a workflow, limiting work in progress, pulling work, and using flow metrics to improve.
Read · 5 min read →Agile FundamentalsScrum vs. Kanban: An Honest Comparison
How Scrum and Kanban differ in structure, cadence, roles and metrics, when each tends to fit, and how teams combine them without losing what makes each work.
Read · 5 min read →Agile FundamentalsUser Stories and Product Backlogs: A Practical Guide
How to write useful user stories, add clear acceptance criteria, check them against INVEST, refine a product backlog and split large stories into valuable slices.
Read · 5 min read →Agile FundamentalsEstimation in Agile Teams: Points, Poker, Forecasts and #NoEstimates
A balanced guide to agile estimation: story points, planning poker, relative versus time estimates, forecasting from throughput and the #NoEstimates debate.
Read · 6 min read →Agile FundamentalsSprint Planning, Review and Done: A Scrum Guide Walkthrough
What the 2020 Scrum Guide says about Sprint Planning, the Sprint Review and the Definition of Done, with practical tips for running each one well.
Read · 6 min read →Agile FundamentalsScaling Agile: SAFe, LeSS, Nexus and Scrum@Scale Compared
A plain comparison of four scaling frameworks drawn from each one's official material: structure, scope, added roles and what each asks of an organization.
Read · 6 min read →Agile CoachingWhat Does an Agile Coach Do? Roles, Stances and Scope
An agile coach helps teams and organizations get better at agile ways of working by moving between teaching, mentoring, facilitating and professional coaching.
Read · 6 min read →Agile CoachingAgile Coach vs. Scrum Master: What's the Difference?
The Scrum Guide makes the Scrum Master accountable for a Scrum Team's effectiveness. Here is how that overlaps with an agile coach, where it differs, and which you need.
Read · 5 min read →Agile CoachingRunning Effective Retrospectives: Structure, Safety and Action
A practical guide to agile retrospectives using the five-phase structure from Derby and Larsen, with formats, psychological safety tips and ways to follow through.
Read · 5 min read →Agile CoachingFacilitation Techniques for Agile Teams That Actually Work
Practical facilitation techniques for agile teams, including timeboxing, dot voting, fist of five, 1-2-4-All and silent brainstorming, plus how to handle dominant voices.
Read · 5 min read →Agile CoachingLeading an Agile Transformation: Start Small, Lead by Example
Why agile transformations stall, how to start small, what leaders must do differently, and a neutral look at scaling frameworks such as SAFe, LeSS, Nexus and Scrum@Scale.
Read · 5 min read →Agile CoachingMeasuring Team Health and Flow Without Gaming the Numbers
How to measure agile teams well: flow metrics, the DORA software delivery metrics, team health checks, and why velocity should never be used as a productivity score.
Read · 5 min read →Agile CoachingPsychological Safety in Agile Teams: What It Is and Isn't
What Amy Edmondson's research means by psychological safety, the common misreadings, and practical ways agile coaches and Scrum Masters can help teams build it.
Read · 6 min read →Agile CoachingCoaching Agile Teams Through Conflict: Levels, Moves, Escalation
How agile coaches can read the level of a team conflict, choose facilitation moves that fit it, and recognize when to stop facilitating and escalate.
Read · 6 min read →Software DevelopmentContinuous Integration and Delivery Explained
What continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous deployment really mean, how pipelines and trunk-based development fit in, and why small batches matter.
Read · 5 min read →Software DevelopmentTest-Driven Development Explained
How test-driven development works, where red-green-refactor came from, how the testing pyramid fits in, and a balanced look at its benefits and criticisms.
Read · 5 min read →Software DevelopmentDevOps Explained: Culture, Practices and Measurement
A plain-English guide to DevOps: where it came from, the culture and practices behind it, how it relates to agile, the DORA research and its metrics, and CALMS.
Read · 5 min read →Software DevelopmentTechnical Debt Explained
What Ward Cunningham's debt metaphor originally meant, the different kinds of technical debt, how to make it visible, and how to pay it down within normal delivery.
Read · 5 min read →Software DevelopmentCode Review Best Practices for Healthy Teams
Why teams review code, how small changes and quick responses help, how to write respectful comments, and where checklists and automated checks fit in.
Read · 5 min read →Software DevelopmentPair and Mob Programming: A Practical Guide
How pair and mob programming work, the driver and navigator roles, when collaborative programming helps, tips for remote sessions, and answers to common objections.
Read · 5 min read →Software DevelopmentTrunk-Based Development and Feature Flags: A Practical Guide
How trunk-based development keeps integration continuous, how feature flags separate deployment from release, and the costs of flags that teams often underestimate.
Read · 6 min read →Software DevelopmentThe Test Pyramid: Building an Automated Testing Strategy
Unit, integration and end-to-end tests explained, with their trade-offs, published Google ratios, common anti-patterns and the pyramid-versus-trophy debate.
Read · 6 min read →Glossary
55 agile and software-delivery terms explained in a sentence or three — from acceptance criteria to WIP limits.