Your Free Agile Playbook
Introduction
Every organization I've worked with that successfully transformed had one thing in common: a solid agile playbook. Not theory. Not borrowed frameworks that didn't quite fit. An actual playbook that teams could use.
Here's the problem I kept running into. Each time I joined a new organization, I had to recreate everything from scratch. Workshop guides. Facilitation tips. Best practices. The whole thing. And when organizations tried to transform without these resources? Things got messy fast.
So I'm sharing what works. These are the playbooks that have guided successful transformations across multiple organizations. Take them. Use them. Adapt them to fit your teams.
What You Get
Complete workshop guides covering core agile events and practices:
-
Sprint Planning, Review, and Retrospective
-
Daily Stand-ups that actually help
-
Story Refinement and Elaboration
-
Value Stream Mapping
-
Kaizen and Continuous Improvement
-
Operations Reviews
-
And more
Each guide includes:
-
Clear purpose and outcomes
-
Step-by-step facilitation instructions
-
Best practices and common mistakes
-
Preparation checklists
-
Reflection prompts for improvement
How to Use These
These documents are comprehensive by design. Some will feel long because I wanted to include everything you might need. Here's what I recommend:
Copy and adapt. Take what works for your context. Remove what doesn't. Adjust the language to fit your organization.
Share with your teams. If you're building a Lean Agile Center of Excellence, make these available. Better yet, create editable versions teams can customize themselves. That ownership increases adoption dramatically.
Make them yours. You don't need to credit me. You don't need permission. Just use them. If they help, send me a note on LinkedIn. I'd love to hear how it goes.
The Format That Works
This playbook format builds on work I started with Phil Rodgers at publicagile.org. Phil was brilliant at this stuff, far smarter than me, and together we created something valuable. I've expanded and refined these documents over time based on what actually works in real organizations.
Each guide follows the same structure, which makes them easy to scan and use. Teams know what to expect. Facilitators can prep quickly. Everyone gets aligned faster.
Start Using It
Pick one event your team runs regularly. Grab that guide. Try it in your next session. See what works. Adjust what doesn't. Then move to the next one.
That's it. No complex rollout needed. Just practical guides you can use starting today.
Program
Release Readiness Review
Comprehensive assessment where development teams, operations, business stakeholders, and leadership evaluate whether a major release is ready for production. This ceremony systematically checks technical quality, operational preparedness, and business readiness before committing to release dates.
Program
Architecture Review Sync
Technical coordination meeting where system architects and technical leads align architectural decisions across multiple teams. This session ensures design coherence, resolves technical conflicts, and manages architectural dependencies for programs with multiple development teams.
Program
Program Planning
Strategic planning session where multiple agile teams coordinate their individual planning efforts into a cohesive program-level plan. This ceremony aligns teams around shared business objectives, manages dependencies, and establishes realistic delivery commitments across teams.
Program
Program Risk and Impediment Review Facilitation Guide
Proactive session where teams and leadership identify, assess, and address risks and blockers that could impact program success. This ceremony creates transparency around challenges spanning multiple teams and ensures leadership can make informed decisions about risk mitigation.
Enterprise
Portfolio Sync / Lean Portfolio Review
The complete guide to running effective story refinement sessions. Transform messy backlog items into sprint-ready stories your team actually understands. Includes facilitation scripts, common mistakes to avoid, and techniques that work for teams of any size. Whether you're a Product Owner prepping for your first refinement session or a Scrum Master looking to level up your facilitation game, this guide gives you everything you need to make refinement sessions productive instead of painful.
Program
Program Retrospective
Cross-team reflection session where multiple agile teams and leadership examine systemic patterns, dependencies, and organizational impediments that individual team retrospectives cannot address. This ceremony focuses on program-wide improvements that require coordinated action.
Program
Cross Team Sync (Scrum of Scrums)
Regular coordination meeting where representatives from multiple agile teams share progress, manage dependencies, and resolve blockers. This ceremony keeps teams aligned on shared objectives while maintaining their independent sprint cycles and delivery cadence.