Useful Resources for your Agile Journey: Issue 4

Ali Asl
Beyond Value
Published in
2 min readNov 4, 2019

The art of possibility

I was working with a very difficult team and they had gone through 3 Scrum Masters in 5 months. At the time, as their Scrum Master, it seemed like I was caught between a rock and a hard place however this video prompted me in looking at what was possible to change within the team.

I liked the video so much, I went out and bought the book and the audiobook. Every so often I watch the video and revisit the book because it is always good to be reminded of all the possibilities in your current situation.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

This video is by Patrick Lencioni, it looks at teamwork, the challenges the team faces and how a team can become better. I recommend you take the assessment at the end of the book. I have lost count of how often I refer back to this video.

A day of Mob Programming

I really like the idea of developers getting together and coding as a group, I have seen the benefits of pair programming and the concept of mob programming is really powerful. Woody Zuill’s video does a great job of showing you how a day of mob programming unfolds.

27 Sprint Anti-Patterns

This is a great list of anti-patterns by Stefan. There are lots to learn in this post, I have seen almost all of these over the past few years. Had I seen this article 12 years ago, it would have been very useful for me.

Darwin Was a Slacker and You Should Be Too

Send this to your manager, it is true you don’t have to work non-stop to achieve great things — this is why I love Agile. It is about quality and the value of what you produce rather than working hard and many hours.

Rethinking Diversity

I really enjoyed reading this article, these days we work with so many people and colleagues from all over the world and it is important to understand human dynamics, this article has captured an important part of that.

The Utter Uselessness of Job Interviews

I don’t fully agree with this article as a lot of this is to do with the interviewer. However, it is still a great read and the research is very relevant as you are going to be interviewed sooner or later.

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