Two Truths and A Lie About Agile - Mike Cohn

About this episode

The episode discusses common misconceptions about Agile through a game of Two Truths and a Lie.

Let’s play a quick round of Two Truths and a Lie . Here are three statements about agile. Two are true. One is false. Read them over and see if you can spot the lie before I reveal it. Agile teams should be willing to change their plan for the sprint if they discover a better way to meet the sprint goal. Estimation in agile is most useful for helping teams forecast and make trade-offs, not for holding individuals accountable. A team that consistently finishes every planned story in every sprint is demonstrating a healthy, predictable agile process. The lie is #3. That statement sounds responsible, disciplined, and maybe even a little impressive. Which is exactly why it fools people. It reflects a common misunderstanding of agile: the idea that a good team is one that is always comfortable, always certain, and always exactly on plan. But healthy agile teams are not defined by perfect adherence to a prediction. They are defined by how well they pursue outcomes, adapt to what they learn, and make sensible decisions in the presence of uncertainty. Let’s look at each statement. A sprint plan should guide the team, but it should not trap the team. At the start of a sprint, the team…

People in this episode

Host: V. Lee Henson

Guest: Mike Cohn

Topics covered

• Agile methodology
• team dynamics
• sprint planning
• truth and lies
• adaptability

Keywords

• Agile
• sprint
• team
• planning
• estimation
• truths
• lie

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