Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

by Jeff Sutherland

Scott says that people who work too many hours start making mistakes, which, as we’ve seen, can actually take more effort to fix than to create.

When we don’t have any energy reserves left, we’re prone to start making unsound decisions.

but your capacity to make good decisions diminishes.

those bad decisions impact productivity.

So go home at five. Turn off the cell phone over the weekend. Watch a movie. Perhaps, most important, have a sandwich. By not working so much, you’ll get more and better work done.

at the root of flow is discipline.

And take a vacation.

Plan Reality, Not Fantasy

that planning itself becomes more important than the actual plan.

I call this standard that must be met a “Definition of Done.” Everyone knows when something is done or not;

prioritize the work.

What will bring the most value to the project?

sort them by priority.

to figure out the really important things and work on those first.

Organize by value,

how much effort, time, and money the project will take.

Estimating as a group in this manner gives us a far more accurate estimate than we could come up with alone.

If someone’s physique was rated highly, so were his leadership skills. And his intelligence. And his character.

if someone is good-looking, everyone assumes that they’re also smart and trustworthy.3

only the people doing the work know how long and how much effort it will take.

Motivation colors everything.

So before you prioritize what needs to be done for your business, you need to define the character, the user, the customer—the

Imagine the story about Amazon.com: As a customer, I want the world’s biggest online bookseller so that I can buy any book I want at any time I want.

You need to break it down. Really down.

Remember, the team decides how the work will be accomplished, but what will be accomplished is decided by business value.

Small. The story needs to be small enough to be able to estimate and plan for easily. If it is too big, rewrite it or break it down into smaller stories.

when things will be done, because we now know how to measure what the team is actually doing.

what is keeping you from going faster?

that getting rid of waste was the key to accelerating teams.

but it showed what can be done if the will is there

We were able to make a new culture.”

death experience continues). They’ve

pushing their bodies, minds, and spirits to the limit. That’s when they were the happiest, when they experienced true joy.

But if we get rewarded only for results, not processes, we’re going to be pretty miserable.

to empower people, to change their lives for the better, I had to change myself.

And that to be joyful is to take the first step toward success.

Empowering people would never work in their worldview.

Happy people simply do better—at home, at work, in life. They make more money, they have better jobs, they graduate from college, and they live longer.

Happy people sell more stuff, make more money, cost less, are less likely to leave their jobs, are healthier, and live longer.

they’re successful because they’re happy. Happiness is a predictive measure.

even small gestures can have great impact.

Just one thing at a time, and you can actually change the world.

How do we make ourselves, our employees, and our fellow team members happy? How do we channel that happiness into greater productivity and revenue?

they sit down and think about what went right, what could have gone better, and what can be made better in the next Sprint.

To be effective, this meeting requires a certain amount of emotional maturity and an atmosphere of trust.

It is crucial that people as a team take responsibility for their process and outcomes, and seek solutions as a team.

the rest of the team has to have the maturity to hear the feedback, take it in, and look for a solution rather than get defensive.

The method exposes what is most important to each team member, and what they think is most important for the company.

We tripled productivity simply by asking what would make people happier.

All I had to do was start asking the team, “What would make you happier?” and then deliver on it.