Trust and its impact on the definition of done in scrum
When a Definition of Done stretches to 30 items, most people stop reading it, stop respecting it, and stop improving it. The usual instinct is to make it shorter by cutting items — but the real problem usually isn't the list at all. It's trust, and until you address that, adding or removing items won't change much.
Addition of commitments to each artifact
The 2020 Scrum Guide elevated "commitment" beyond the artifacts themselves, attaching the Product Goal, Sprint Goal, and Definition of Done to give teams clearer focus and transparency. This post unpacks what each commitment really means, how they differ in "hardness," and why — when navigating complexity — striving toward a direction of travel matters more than guaranteeing an outcome.
What is organizational agility really? What should it be?
What does organizational agility actually mean — and who's responsible for it? Six months after writing a definition of agility designed to keep no one off the hook (not executives, not specialists, not teams), this piece argues something important is still missing: societal value. Most conversations about value stop at customers, end-users, and knowledge. But agility, the argument goes, also has to be about leaving the planet in a better place. Through the lens of a milk bottling company experimenting with recyclable glass, this article unpacks the different kinds of value teams can deliver, why sincerity from leaders matters more than slogans, and offers an updated September 2019 definition of agility — one that explicitly includes caring about planet earth, shared purpose beyond money, and the courage to make a stand.