Product Backlogs Are Not Backlogs
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Product Backlogs Are Not Backlogs

A product backlog is not a backlog, as it mostly consists of ideas. Only the part where you’ve committed yourself to completing the items should be called a backlog.

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We’re reorganizing our team
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

We’re reorganizing our team

We are fully equipped for the new year and welcome any ideas for experimentation. If you have fresh ideas to take maximum advantage of the unFIX model and help us grow this brand, reach out, and we will explore the possibilities!

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Don't Lose Your Annual Budget; Plan to Kill It.
Insights Jurgen Appelo Insights Jurgen Appelo

Don't Lose Your Annual Budget; Plan to Kill It.

Yearly budgets are a symptom of an unhealthy organization. Use your budget now by spending it on good medicine. Lead by example. Start the change from where you are. Introduce new ideas in the organization that, someday, will result in the dismantling of the archaic annual budgeting process.

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Middle Managers Should Stop Coordinating
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Middle Managers Should Stop Coordinating

There's no need for middle managers to do any coordination. You just need a quick and civilized way for people to get together across the enterprise to coordinate decisions about a variety of topics.

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Sometimes, You *Don’t* Want Focus
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Sometimes, You *Don’t* Want Focus

One exception to the idea of keeping focus is when you're working with a portfolio of options. Investors don't want focus; they want diversification to balance their portfolio.

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Breaking Bad Dependencies (Not Good Ones)
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Breaking Bad Dependencies (Not Good Ones)

The idea of end-to-end responsibility is that nothing is blocked in this value stream. But autonomy is an illusion, and it’s impossible to break all dependencies. The problem is that many dependencies are not valuable.

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Is Reteaming Something for You?
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Is Reteaming Something for You?

Resourcing is moving people around projects like cattle in a barn. Reteaming is people choosing to work in different contexts in a voluntary, autonomous, and self-organized manner.

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I Don’t Do Sprints
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

I Don’t Do Sprints

It makes no sense to trigger all my processes with the same cadence. I don’t have one cadence. I have many.

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Horizontal Scaling with Turfs
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Horizontal Scaling with Turfs

You can scale a small unit to multiple teams without adding a management layer by using the Turf Types patterns: Teams of Teams, Product Areas, Business Units, and Houses. Any of the four Turf Types mentioned in this pattern set may help grow your Base while your Crews remain small.

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Draw your Base(s) with the unFIX Plotter
The unFIX Company The unFIX Company

Draw your Base(s) with the unFIX Plotter

Do you remember the time when you wanted to draw your first Value Stream Crew? Do you also remember the feeling when reality kicked in, and you’ve realized that they expect you to copy and paste shapes from bloody PowerPoint slides? Well, I remember too… That was the point when I swore to resolve this once and for all, by coming up with a digital tool which can plot my organization to a canvas. And that is when the unFIX Plotter was born.

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Six Steps in Goal-Setting
Jurgen Appelo Jurgen Appelo

Six Steps in Goal-Setting

Goal-setting only happens when there is a process for it. The unFIX model defines six different patterns (or steps) for this process.

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