An Alternative to Scrum for Non-Tech and Novice Software Teams
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“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Most agile teams using Scrum hit a performance plateau and keep running sprints anyway. Agile Lineout offers a different approach — a framework built from first principles using Systems Theory, Behavioural Science, and Lean, designed to restore the culture of continuous improvement that Scrum often loses once it becomes routine.
What this book is about
Like a rugby lineout, which adapts its structure in real time based on what the opposition is doing and what plays are available, Agile Lineout is a contextual framework — one that uses the team’s actual situation to shape how it works, rather than prescribing a fixed set of ceremonies and artefacts.
The book is structured as a coach’s handbook: guidance for the people responsible for helping novice software and non-software teams develop agile working practices, with specific attention to the cultural conditions that enable continuous improvement versus the cultural conditions that cause it to stall.
Key themes
- Why Scrum teams plateau — and what to do about it
- Building a framework from first principles: Systems Theory, Behavioural Science, and Lean
- Contextual agile: adapting the framework to what the team actually needs
- Coaching novice and non-software teams: the specific challenges and how to address them
- The culture of continuous improvement — and why it is harder to sustain than to start
- Using the lineout metaphor: reading the situation and adapting in real time
Who it’s for
Written for coaches and team leaders working with non-software or non-tech teams — operations, HR, finance, customer service, procurement, legal — who want to work more adaptively but for whom Scrum’s software development origins create unnecessary friction. Also relevant to coaches of novice software teams looking for an alternative starting point.
Related services
- Stakeholder Mobilisation: The Volunteer Army Sprint
- Dynamic Skills Strategy & Workforce Redesign
- Culture Canvas & Intent-Based Leadership Coaching
Get the book
Get Agile Lineout on Leanpub — PDF, iPad, Kindle formats available.