Success Through Simple Principles and Clear Goals
Why Focusing on Core Principles Beats Following Frameworks by the Book
In my experience, the most effective teams don't rigidly follow a particular framework. They may have used frameworks in the past and learned valuable lessons, but they don't follow the rules by the book.
Instead, they rely on a few key principles that simplify processes and focus on what really matters-personal interactions and delivering customer value. They keep the customer at the center of everything they do.
For example, I worked with a team that operated with just one guiding element: a sprint goal. That was it. Everyone on the team had a deep understanding of that goal, and we spent a lot of time making sure it was worth pursuing. Once the goal was clear, the team collaborated seamlessly to achieve it.
This team didn’t:
Write all the user stories before the sprint began.
Insist that the sprint plan was unchangeable.
Estimate story points for every task.
We had a few stories to start with, but created many more as we progressed. Instead of adding up the story points, we estimated what we could realistically accomplish in the sprint. Our commitment was to deliver outcomes, not just complete features.
This approach made the team a high-performing team.
On the other hand, I've seen other teams become overly focused on following process to the letter - whether it's estimation, ceremonies, or other practices. In doing so, they sometimes lose sight of the ultimate goal and the value they are trying to deliver.
This is why Maarten Dalmijn's writings resonate with me. Working towards a sprint goal with determination and flexibility is far more valuable than getting caught up in debates about process details like the ideal length of a sprint review.
What I Read
As usual, I will list some of the best articles I read on the Internet. I will keep a list of the best articles (currently >800) at https://www.digital-product-management.com. These are today’s picks:
Why Tech Projects Still Fail Today: Common patterns in projects which fail, and how to overcome them.
Marily's map of AI, Algorithms & Applications: A map of different types of learning methods, algorithms, applications, use cases.
Days Since Last (DSL) metrics: Days Since Last (DSL) metrics measure the number of days since an event last happened.
This is a good example of how each team can adapt frameworks to work for them and use them to help them achieve the goals, rather than working for the framework and never completing anything at all!
I'd love to read the details, Benedikt!