hardScrum Blog

Better innovations under pressure, deadlines and conflicting goals

January 26, 2019October 30, 2021 Oliver Schönfeld Leave a comment

How does deadline pressure affect the quality of results? I often experience project teams being formed with the goal of developing innovative new ideas and technologies under pressure. In order to give the team a sense of urgency and to get results as soon as possible, management sets tight time limits.

Our companies represent the last medieval feudal systems of the western world

December 22, 2018March 14, 2020 Oliver Schönfeld Leave a comment

The good thing is that prisoners can quit! The bad thing is that today the feudal lords mostly don’t have fools who tell them the unvarnished truth. [Artwork: Creators of the Chronicle of Bishop Otto of Freising; Photo: AndreasPraefcke [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons]

The Organizational Model of Knowledge Work

December 16, 2018August 5, 2024 Oliver Schönfeld 1 Comment

Organizing Knowledge Work and Knowledge Workers is a big challenge in today’s complex and fast-changing work environments. But what is Knowledge Work actually? According to Peter F. Drucker, the 20th century management pope, Knowledge Work is defined as “work where the worker has to think”. Thus, they are “workers who are not paid for their…

The monopoly of projects

November 11, 2018December 5, 2022 Oliver Schönfeld 4 Comments

In today’s world of work, projects have become the standard means of organization for interdisciplinary collaboration. Sometimes I have the impression that many do not know any other option. In addition, the number of concurrent projects per organization has increased dramatically in recent decades. The project-per-employee-quotient today is 5-7 in the industrial sector, the peak…

Why agility is faster

November 4, 2018April 10, 2023 Oliver Schönfeld Leave a comment

Very often I hear the expectation that agile development equates to faster development. When initial experience is gained, stakeholders often find that development time is still about the same. An often-heard statement is that “at least we did not slow down, but the quality of the results and decisions increased.” In my view, that is…

Differences in the development of physical and IT & service products

October 28, 2018April 10, 2023 Oliver Schönfeld 1 Comment

When introducing agile frameworks and methods, I often hear that agile working in the development of physical products is not possible. I agree that some extensions are useful or even necessary, but the principles are very applicable. So, in this article, I’d like to take a closer look at the differences between the realities of…