Vitality Chicago Among Top Agile Leadership Blogs

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Vitality Chicago had been named one of the top 20 Agile Leadership blogs of 2020 by Feedspot. Yes!

Wait, what does that actually mean?

With so many great blogs out there on a variety of topics, I could not help wondering who else was on the list, and what criteria was used to pick the blogs on the list.

Who is on the List of Top 20 Agile Leadership Blogs?

Drum roll please…and the winners are…

1. Leading Answers
2. ACEsense
3. Center for Agile Leadership
4. Agile Socks
5. AgileSparks
6. Agile For All
7. Vitality Chicago Inc (this blog)
8. SolutionsIQ
9. agile42
10. Maurice Hagar
11. Agile and Scrum blog
12. i.am.agile
13. Agile Strategy Lab Network
14. Deeply Agile
15. Crisp
16. agilityIRL 
17. The Agile PMO
18. 101 Ways
19. MacIsaac Consulting
20. Lean Agile Training

Hmm, I see some familiar names but mostly names that I don’t recognize. Let’s take a quick look at how these top blogs were selected, cross-check the list against other popular lists, and then dive into a little more detail on each blog.

Ranking the Top 20 Agile Leadership Blogs

I reached out to Anuj Agarwal, the founder of Feedspot to understand their selection process. Anuj said that the editorial team at Feedspot extensively searched Google and social media websites to find the best Agile Leadership blogs and ranked them based on:

1. Blog content quality
2. Post consistency
3. Age of the blog
4. Average number of shares on social sites of the blog posts
5. Traffic of the blog and more..

Not that long ago, there was an Agile Scout list of top 200 agile blogs maintained by Peter Saddington and Marcus Riley. That site is gone now, I am not sure why. The nearest replacement I could find was a  2017 list of 100 Top Agile Blogs by Luis Goncalves.

Though the Goncalves list is from 2017, it still provides us a quick reference point to check the Feedspot list against. (BTW, I commend Goncalves for his good taste to not include this blog in his list!) Goncalves used the site Alexa ranking to compile the top 100, which factors in traffic, reach and pageviews.

A Short Profile of Each of the Agile Leadership Blogs

What follows is a short profile of the 20 Agile Leadership blogs of 2020 as named by Feedspot. It provides a brief thumbnail sketch of each blog and identifies the thought leader or leaders behind it. It also provides the Domain Authority score (higher is better), the Alexa score (lower is better) and it notes if the blog was included in the list of top 100 Agile Blogs by Goncalves.

#1 – Leading Answers

Mike Griffiths is the thought leader behind Leading Answers. Mike has been around for some time and I think his name is pretty well-known.

Mike is probably most famous for his PMI-ACP exam prep guide. I’ve recommended that study guide for years to participants in my training classes who are preparing to take the PMI-ACP. Coincidentally, one of my former students Amy emailed me today with this comment:

“Long story short, I pulled out my notes from our class, re-read my Mike Griffith’s book, and did some online supplemental work – and passed my PMI-ACP exam this morning (above target in all).”

— Amy L.

I’ve been a subscriber to Mike’s Leading Answers blog for a few years. Leading Answers has a domain authority score of 22, and an Alexa score of 3,900K. It ranks #62 on Luis Goncalves list of top blogs. You can find Mike on LinkedIn or Twitter at @AgileMikeG.

#2 – ACEsense

I have to be honest, I’ve never heard of ACEsense or Yeo Chuen Chuen. It looks like her blog was just started in 2020 and features 8 posts. That said, her most recent 5 blogs feature her interviews with leaders, primarily from the Asia Pacific region. If she continues to produce interviews at the current pace, I think this will be a great resource.

The ACEsense blog was not featured on the 2017 top agile blogs list because it wasn’t around then. The blog has a domain authority score of 15 and an Alexa rank of 4,100K. You can connect with Yeo Chuen Chuen on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter at @yeochuen2.

#3 – Center for Agile Leadership

I was not familiar with the Center for Agile Leadership or their blog which dates back to 2017 and includes about 70 posts.

Brian Rabon is the founder of the Center for Agile Leadership. I’ve not heard of him but from what I can see on their website, this guy has some great shirts.

Rikki Schwartz is listed as the President and she is the author of the most current blog posts.

The Center for Agile Leadership Blog has a domain authority score of 21 and an Alexa ranking of 4,600K. It was not included on the 2017 list of top 100 agile blogs.

You can connect with Brian on LinkedIn, Rikki on LinkedIn, join the Center for Agile Leadership newsletter here, or follow them on Twitter @CenterAgileLead.

#4 – Agile Socks

Agile Socks is the creation of Stephanie Ockerman. Stephanie has been writing for about 4 years and produced about 60 blog posts. She tends to be heavily focused on Scrum which of course is the single most popular agile framework.

I like Stephanie’s response to the question about whether a person should be a member of more than one Scrum team, a common and annoying byproduct of project focused organizations. I learned from her a better way of framing my own response to this question.

The Agile Socks blog has a domain authority score of 37 and an Alexa rank of 1,000K. It is not included on the Goncalves list of 100 top agile blogs.

You can subscribe to the Agile Socks newsletter, connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter at @thetravelchica.

#5 AgileSparks

AgileSparks is an Agile consulting firm based in Israel with offices in India and the US. It has been around since 2008. Their blog has been around since 2011 and boasts an impressive 112 posts.

Various authors contribute to the company blog though I only recognized one of them and that was Yuval Yeret. I met Yuval last year in a Scrum.org class in Boston. He was smart, funny and engaging. In addition to being a Professional Scrum Trainer for Scrum.org, Yuval is one of two stewards of the Professional Scrum with Kanban course and a certified SAFe trainer. I was hoping to take my SAFe certification courses from Yuval this year before the COVID situation.

 

The AgileSparks blog has a domain authority score of 38 and an Alexa rank of 1,300K. It is not listed on the top agile blogs list by Luis Goncalves. You can visit the site to check out the blogs and register to get email notifications via a popup on the site.

You can connect with Yuval on LinkedIn at Yuval Yeret or follow him on Twitter at @yuvalyeret.

#6 Agile For All

Agile for All is an Agile Consulting firm based in Castle Rock Colorado that boasts an impressive lists of agile thought leaders including familiar names like Bob Hartman, Rob Myers, Richard Lawrence, Peter Green,  Jake Calabrese, Steve Spearman, Henry Dittmer, and, Tricia Broderick. Most of these thought leaders have their Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) certification from Scrum alliance as well as various coaching credentials.

The Agile For All blog has been around since 2007 and with 419 posts, they are covering all the bases when it comes to agile and Scrum. The site has a domain authority score of 47 which is great. Sadly though, with an Alexa score of 518K, they are not included in the Luis Goncalves list of top agile blogs.

You can sign up for their newsletter here: Subscribe

#7 Vitality Chicago (this blog!)

We are honored to be included in this list! The Vitality Chicago blog has been around since 2015 with me (Anthony Mersino) as the primary author and Hazel Fernando as the primary illustrator and designer. As noted, we are not on the Goncalves list of top agile blogs, but we are willing to be.

#8 SolutionsIQ

Anyone working in the agile space has heard of SolutionsIQ. They have been in the technology, systems integration and testing space since 1979 but then moved to focus almost entirely on Agile consulting. Since being purchased by Accenture in 2017, they’ve become a global powerhouse.

The SolutionsIQ blog has been around since at least 2007 and boasts a massive 1,016 blog posts from a variety of employees and guest authors. The SolutionsIQ blog has a domain authority score of 47 and an Alexa score of 361K – putting it on the Goncalves list of top 100 agile blogs.

You can sign up for the SolutionsIQ newsletter here: Subscribe. You can also follow the company on LinkedIn here: SolutionsIQ, or on Twitter at: @SolutionsIQ

#9 agile42

Agile42 is also a global agile consulting firm with a strong presence in Europe. The Agile42 blog has been around since at least 2008 and they boast about 90 posts currently authored by a variety of employees including Alessio Bragadini, Marion Eickmann, Giuseppe De Simone, and Dave Sharrock.

Topics on the agile42 blog include agile transformation, teamwork and agile leadership of course. It also included training and certification on Organic Leadership. This was brand new to me. From the site:

ORGANIC agility provides a new leadership approach, models for cultural change, insight into complexity thinking and addresses topics that are important to every leader in any organization.

— agile42, https://www.agile42.com/en/certified-organic-leadership/

With a domain authority score of 44, and an Alexa score of 942K, agile42 made the list of top 100 blogs list by Luis Goncalves.

#10 Maurice Hagar

Maurice and I just recently connected on LinkedIn. Prior to that, I am not sure I had heard of him. His blog has been around since at least 2013 and he has about 60 posts.  Maurice also has podcasts and Youtube videos. His topics include various agile leadership-related subjects like culture, transformation, results, and psychology. I found his tagline interesting “Agile + Psychology = Results“.

Maurice has a domain authority score of 7, and is unranked on Alexa. He was not included in the 2017 list of top agile blogs.

You can follow Maurice on Linkedin or on Twitter at @mauricehagar.

#11 Agile and Scrum blog

The Agile and Scrum blog is authored by Zuzana (Zuzi) Sochova, a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and certified coach based out of Prague. Her name is familiar to me perhaps because we are both fans of Large Scale Scrum (LeSS).

The blog has been around since about 2012 and has just over 100 posts. Key themes include agile and Scrum of course as well as Scaling Scrum, Kanban, ScrumMasters, Product Owners and Leadership.

The blog has a domain authority ranking of 22 and an Alexa score of 2,700K. It was not included on the 2017 list of top agile blogs.

Zuzana authored the book the Great ScrumMaster which you can get on Amazon. You can connect with Zuzana on LinkedIn or on twitter at @zuzuzka.

#12 i.am.agile

I love the name of this blog! I am agile is the brainchild of Stephanie Davis, a transformation agent that recently joined LeadingAgile as the VP of Product Excellence. Stephanie is based out of Tampa.

The blog has been around since 2012 and has about 92 posts. Common themes include not only leadership but agile transformation and Scrum. The blog has a domain authority score of 20 and an Alexa ranking of 4,600K. It did not make the cut for the 2017 list of Top Agile Blogs.

You can follow the i.am.agile blog by clicking the “follow” button on the right side of it. You can connect with Stephanie on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter @iamagile.

#13 Agile Strategy Lab Network

The Agile Strategy Lab Network has an interesting name – it reminds me a little of a mad scientist laboratory. Even their logo includes a little beaker which is cool.

From what I can tell, the strategy labs are aligned with universities like Purdue and Alabama, which is a great idea for equipping future technology professionals. The Agile Strategy Lab has also authored a book, Strategic Doing.

The blog has been around since 2016 and features nearly 200 posts. Common themes include agile strategy and transformation among many. Authors include Liz Nilsen, Ed Morrison and Scott Hutcheson.

The blog has a domain authority score of 24 and is not ranked on Alexa or included in the top 100 Agile Blogs list.

14. Deeply Agile

Deeply Agile was founded in 2018 by Verna van Schaik who is based in Auckland, New Zealand. There are about 77 posts on the site and the focus is on Agile Coaching with many posts on Scrum, transformation and teal culture.

Just quickly poking around her blog I noticed a series of post on why giving advice as a coach is a problem and I loved it! This is a blog I need to follow.

The blog has a domain authority score of 5 and is not ranked on Alexa or included in the 2017 list of top Agile Blogs.

You can connect with Verna on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter at @Vernav.

#15 Crisp

I would wager that most agile enthusiasts are familiar with the Crisp blog or at least with Henrik Kniberg, the founder and original thought leader. You can thank Henrik for the popularity of the Spotify Scaling model as well as for numerous well crafted videos and engaging graphics.

The blog has been around since 2006 and has a whopping 970+ posts. Crisp has an entire crew of thought leaders, many of which served as coaches at Spotify at one time or another. This includes Mattias Skarin, Jimmy Janlén, Max Wenzin, Yassal Sundman, Anders Laestadius, Henrik Kniberg, and others. After Henrik I am most familiar with Jimmy Janlen who produced this wonderful video comparing plan-driven approaches to agile approaches.

Agile Scrum and leadership are common themes. The site has an impressive domain authority of 57 and an Alexa score of 323K. They are included as 22nd on the list of 100 Top Agile blogs.

You can sign up for the newsletter on their homepage.

16. agilityIRL 

Agility IRL is a small agile consulting firm based in Minneapolis. The blog has been established since 2017 and has about 53 posts. The primary authors are Jeff Lee, Jim Ruprecht, and Mike Stuedemann.

Blog themes include leadership, agility and change. They have a domain authority score of 10. They do not have an Alexa ranking and they are not included in the top 100 blogs list.

#17 – The Agile PMO

Maria Alfredeen is the author behind the Agile PMO and she is based in Stockholm Sweden. Alfredeen was the PMO leader and now overseas digital development at SAS. Maria’s blog has just 23 posts dating back to 2016 and the common themes are agile, Kanban and PMO with some outsourcing sprinkled in.

 

The Agile PMO blog has a domain authority of 1 and with no Alexa ranking, it did not make the Goncalves list of 100 top agile blogs.

You can connect with Maria on LinkedIn or follow her on Twitter at @mariaalfredeen.

#18 – 101 Ways

101 Ways calls themselves a product-focused technology consultancy. They are not small – with nearly 60 employees spread across offices in London, Manchester, and Amsterdam.

As far as I can tell, Kelly Waters founded 101 Ways in 2013 and hired Zane Gambasin not long after. Them and their employees have created a massive 1,587 blog posts since then on agile and Scrum related topics.

The 101 Ways site has a domain authority of 45 and an Alexa score of 4,200k. It has been included as #57 on the Goncalves list of top 100 agile blogs.