Similar to the idea of continuous improvement in Agile Development, we believe that we constantly need to broaden our Agile knowledge. These 12 Agile blogs are the ones that I personally follow and read frequently (with no particular order). For me, the good point for reading other sources is that I can learn to be more adaptive – if I stumble in my current way of doing Agile, I can learn from other people’s experiences and try to adapt it into my own development.
#1 Mountain Goat Software
Mike Cohn’s blog – Succeeding with Agile provides definitive, realistic and actionable guide for individuals and teams to start with agile and scrum. What I like about this blog is that it focuses on specific problems that teams may encounter when implementing agile and gives detailed recommendations with simple language. Besides, the author interacts with the readers in the comments section which generates more information and insights.
#2 SCRUMstudy
As compared to Cohn’s agile blog, the SCRUMstudy blog is more generic and theoretical. It provides a wealth of information about why Agile (with strong emphasis on scrum) should be implemented and how to do it with. Thus it is a good starting point to accumulate more knowledge of agile and scrum to before adopting it.
#3 The Odd-e Blog
Odd-e is a company we hold close to our heart. Working with Stanly from Odd-e was a transitional change for Titansoft when we just started adopting Agile a few years back. A good platform that we gleaned insights from was from the core authors of Odd-e Blog. We identify with Bas Vodde’s idea of CoP and agree with key points mentioned in this blog that are aligned with Titansoft’s direction for continuous improvement.
“If you can constantly get done by the end of Sprint, you become comfortable again.” Lv Yi’s post to create discomfort for continuous improvement struck a chord with us. We adopt Scrum and Kanban methodologies that constantly initiate change. Beyond the sense of achievement upon completion, we question ourselves, are we short-changing our abilities? That is when we remind ourselves that if we are getting too comfortable, it’s time for change. Read these thought-provoking entries that might just spark off that little discomfort for you to seek improvement!
#4 Michael Lant
Michael Lant is good at blending through theoretical knowledge and personal experiences to develop frameworks and guidelines for readers to follow. For example, in Five simple steps to Agile Risk Management – he proposed a process of measuring and managing risks for Agile projects and explained the model using vectors, colour codes and scales.
#5 Know Your Company Blog
Know Your Company Blog talks about leadership, company culture, business, and open and honest communication. A blog with perspectives of Claire Lew, CEO behind Know Your Company, a software tool that helps business owners to uncover company insights. The blog gives fresh, interesting perspectives on leadership and advice for leaders to avoid blindspots in any company.
#6 ThoughtWorks
Thoughtworks is described as a community of passionate individuals whose purpose is to revolutionize software design, creation and delivery, while advocating for positive social change. This blog shares stories on varied topics ranging from agile project management, experience design, software testing, big data analytics, new technologies, organisation transformation and many more. Their “Year in Review” articles published at the end of each year are especially insightful in rounding up developments in the technology landscape and hit trends to look out for in the new year. One of my favorite articles by Thoughtworks discusses about the concept of Agile Fluency, and how they use it as a framework to help their teams understand their current position and develop an individual road map.
#7 All About Agile
Other than the insights on Agile Development and Scrum, what is particularly interesting about this blog is they also discuss about transitioning into Agile Development. Not only good for beginners in Agile thinking, I found the posts are very easy to read and understand; pointing out each main point and explaining the context in great detail. Some of the posts actually talks about failure – what had happened that considered a failure and suggestions on how to try to encounter that problem.
#8 Fun Retrospectives
This site is less of a blog but more of a recipe book detailing activities and ideas for making agile retrospectives more engaging. It’s one of our favorite go-to-blog to learn new ways to facilitate a fun yet effective activity like team discussions, retrospectives, project kick-off meetings and more.
Tip: Use keywords in the tag cloud to explore similarly structured activities, e.g. “sequence” tags activity sequences that worked well, “postmortem” tags activities used in meetings/retrospectives held at the conclusion of projects while “recognition” tags activities fostering recognition
#9 Roman Pichler’s Blog
I chanced upon this blog while scouring for information about Product Owners. Life of a PO in Titansoft is interesting but we are always learning and broadening our perspectives to see how we can change things up. Founder and director of Pichler Consulting, Roman provides fresh ideas about product management. I love the clear information architecture in his blog that categorises insights on product management and visioning for easy navigation. Each post provides little nuggets of information that sparks off a little something to consider in our Agile journey.
#10 Lynne Cazaly’s Blog
Not limited to only posts about Agile, I find Lynne’s posts are always interesting to read. (And I love the infographics on Lynne’s flickr). Her posts talks mostly about leadership, doing collaborations, and communications – points that I think very relatable in Agile or Scrum environment.
#11 Luis Gonçalves’ Blog
Luis updates his blog very frequently with interesting topics, and he himself is a very active speaker in Agile and Scrum Conferences. The posts are written with personal experience as reference; 10 Lessons learned by an Agile Coach in 2015 is one of the good example.
#12 Scrum Alliance Member Articles
Open your door to experiences and ideas of Agile practitioners all around the world! Scrum Alliance Member Articles allows readers to enjoy an extensive collection of member-contributed articles to learn how others use Scrum in the workplace. Adopting Agile is not simply applying the most used practices into your organisation. I love how we can get a global perspective on Agile applications, learn from the case studies and helpful tips to find out what works for you!
T.8ytes by Titansoft 