"But this just isn't Agile!  Why can't we just keep Sprinting?".
"We don't have time for this, we've got too much work to do!".
"Planning together is worthless because everything changes soon afterwards."
"It is boring and a waste of my time, I'm here to write code".

These are just some of the things we regularly hear from clients who are learning the Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®). The part of SAFe they seem to struggle with most is the IP Iteration (sometimes called the 'bridge') that handles the switch between two adjacent PIs (Program Increments). This is probably the most misunderstood part of SAFe and the one that is abused the most in practice.

Let's start by unpicking why SAFe works like this - because there are good reasons that cannot be trivially dismissed.

The Plan Do Check Adjust/Act (PDCA) Cycle

First of all, most Agile methods are based on the PDCA cycle. (Note that there are alternatives to PDCA such as John Seddon's Check-Plan-Do.  However they are all ultimately variations on the same activities, just with different emphasis.)

PDCA is a basic improvement cycle that can be applied individually, to a team, to a programme or a wider organisation.

Planning - planning work/activity to do.
Doing - doing the work/activity.
Check - evaluating how we did.
Adjust(/Act) - improvement actions to get a better result next time.

Sports work like this. Before the game, we plantactics and strategy. Then we play the game (do).  After the game, we review our performance: what went well and badly and why (check).  Finally, we take learnings from this review and work to improve for future games (adjust/act).

This is a guest blog from Phil Dexter, Senior Project Manager at Torchbox. Phil recently attended one of our ICAgile courses where he got inspiration for this blog post. You can find Phil’s original article here.

Great coaching leads to great performance.

I’ve been reflecting on the role of coaches and their influence - both in sport, and at work. Specifically, I’ve been considering the difference between coaching and teaching - something focused on at an Agile Coaching course that I recently attended.

As per the course definition, teaching is explaining something to someone. It is the natural reaction that all of us have - someone asks us a question and we give them an answer. Perhaps we go the extra mile, and teach them - “here’s the answer, and here’s how I got to it”. The problem is solved and the knowledge passed on… kind of.

Are the roles of the Scrum Master and Project Manager the same?
I’m a Project Manager; can I be a Scrum Master?
What’s the difference between a Scrum Master and a Project Manager?
Does Scrum make the Project Manager role redundant?
What is a Scrum Master?

These are likely to be frequently asked questions for Project Managers who are new to Agile, considering a career move or involved in an Agile Transformation within their organisation.

Come along to Portugal to attend one of the best events in the Agile Space .

We are excited to announce that Radtac are co-organising the eXperience Agile 2018 Conference with IDC, eXperience Agile will be held in Lisbon, Portugal on the 1st and 2nd of October, aiming to bring leaders from around the world to share industry best practices and strategies that can be applied across a variety of industries.

The history of eXperience Agile

Previously, eXperience Agile was known as Scrumday Portugal, where chairman Hugo Lourenco was bringing top Agile leaders to share their ideas on innovating Agile and increasing awareness of Agile practices in Portugal. However, after 3 years of successful events, the team decided that the event deserves to become a global one. At the same time, the organisers decided to extend the focus from just Scrum to other Agile practices.

 Expanding our British roots into the US: Radtac launches office in the US

‘Radtac’ - if there’s an American way to say it, then please imagine it now. Why? Well, you might need it.

Because we’ve always loved our American cousins, we’ve decided there’s no better way of showing that, than by effectively marching in there. Ok, what we actually mean is by expanding across the pond.

You’ve read that right. As of now (well, actually a little while ago, but we’ve been busy debating ‘color’ and ‘colour’, ‘organisation’ and ‘organization’), British roots have extended to the United States of America.

At the moment, you can find us in the tech hotbed that is Silicon Valley, California, with our office located near San Francisco. Come say Hello if you’re around - we’ll treat you to some tea!

*This post is part of the series ‘SAFe Practice Tips’, which aims to offer helpful advice to anyone using SAFe.

Continuous Deployment

This is the final part to the CI/CD blog series where I discuss continuous integration, delivery & deployment, and the differences between them but also how they relate to one another. You can find the first and second part, discussing Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. The last  practice we discuss is  Continuous Deployment (CDep).

On the 14th of March 2018 Peter Measey, Laura Powers and Stuart Young all attended the Business Agility Conference held in New York. - They are all key contributors to the Radtac Business Transformation practice.

Last year we announced that we had joined the International Consortium for Agile (ICAgile) as a Member Training Organisation (MTO). 

The ICAgile learning roadmap provides clear paths for professionals and organisations who want to start or continue their Agile journey. If you’d like to understand the roadmap and pathways available, read our blog here.

We're always on the lookout to add new certifications to our course portfolio that can help advance your career. Our team have been developing a number of new courses that are aligned to the ICAgile Coaching Track: Agile Coaching and Agile Team Facilitation.

*This post is part of the series ‘SAFe Practice Tips’, which aims to offer helpful advice to anyone using SAFe.

This is the first part to the CI/CD blog series where I discuss continuous integration, delivery & deployment, and the differences between them but also how they relate to one another. This blog will help with enabling a smooth continuous journey for your team. The first practice we discuss is Continuous integration.

Where do I start?

First of all, CI/CD is not one thing.  When people start using the term "CI/CD" they are merging different things together, and while they are related (you can't have CD without CI) they are quite different in scope.  The CD acronym further complicates things by being ambiguous (see below).