Mike Cottmeyer asks “are you more concerned about adopting specific agile practices or doing what it takes to build well functioning teams?“. In a world where consulting organizations sell tools and services to help you become Agile, Mike’s underlying question brings to the surface the real reason and the benefits of going Agile. Make sure to focus on the real desired outcome and not on the intermediary steps. The latter will get you “Agile-certified” but will not get you the benefits you are looking for.

Olga Kouzina has an interesting post (Do You Really Need a Deadline?) on a topic I already covered: time boxing software development. Although she raises a good question, I felt she is confusing the need for deadlines (time box) with the inability to properly plan.

Dean Leffingwell added a 5th post on the Agile Product Manager in the Enterprise.