Agile

I recently read the book ‘The Lean Startup’ by Eric Ries.  I was really impressed. First of all, it’s not just for startups!  Eric defines a startup as anyone working on new products or services in an environment of extreme uncertainty.  In today’s business world, where...

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I was speaking to some fellow Agilists at an event recently about an Agile training course that I do that can accommodate up to 200 people at a time and they were pretty skeptical that it could be done. Later, I realized my path to creating the course ...

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I can't operate effectively without some kind of goal. Let me clarify that. Without some kind of goal I am directionless. I'm easily distracted from any focus I might have started with by other things that crop up. I end up flitting from one thing to another, multitasking. I become anxious and...

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The challenge when dealing with people from different backgrounds, with different experiences, qualifications, roles and domain knowledge is speaking the same language. When we face together a problem or opportunity, or given a certain need, we talk about what and how - what is the solution? How...

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The PMBOK v5 Guide Exposure Draft opens for public review today – so you can now read it and submit your recommendations for changes. The Exposure Draft is the first open access version to the latest version of the PMBOK...

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photo by fyuryuWe do a lot of training here at LitheSpeed, and our exercises are consistently among the most popular parts of our courses. We’ve had many requests over the years from participants, coaches and other trainers to use some of these exerc...

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Agile projects are successful three times more often than non-agile projects, according to the 2011 CHAOS Manifesto from the Standish Group. The report goes so far as to say, “The agile process is the universal remedy for software development project failure. Software applications developed...

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This is a guest blog post from Alex Adamopoulos, CEO of emergn Since the signing of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, Agile as a software development methodology has entered the mainstream and is not only used in several of the world’s leading companies, but is being applied in areas beyond...

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I suspect lots of decisions are made because they bring short-term benefits despite there being long-term risks. I've seen agile teams pushed for feature after feature with the business owner citing business value prioritization. Certainly there is commercial pressure for features but how many of...

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Because I’m so interested in estimating and planning, I always take notice when I see a new blog post or news group posting claiming, “Estimating is waste! Don’t do it!” The thing that never shocks me about these arguments against estimating and planning is that they never...

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No matter the name, the  intention of the role is to help teams learn new skills, continuously improve, and make the transition to a new way of working. Some people say it’s a technical role, others claim that the role is primarily facilitation. I say, there is no one-size-fits-all when it...

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When people are pooled in specialized silos more process is required to get things done. Responsibility gets diffused and transaction and coordination costs go up because there are more handovers and sign-offs as work is passed around; more meetings are needed to keep people involved and informed,...

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In the software world, budgets are mostly about headcount and capital expenditure. Headcount is managed by cost per unit, where a unit is a person considered to be more or less a uniform resource capable of producing fixed output. On a cost per unit basis maybe 100 people offshore are cheaper than...

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If anyone was thinking agile is old news, think again. As part of this blog, I monitor Google search volumes pretty closely, which gives a good indication of demand. And you know what? “What is agile” is still one of the biggest search terms around, and it’s still growing! In my...

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One particular chart in the State of Agile survey for 2011 tells a familiar story. Have a look.

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Today I’m at ThoughtWorks Live in Sydney, a one day invite-only event aimed at executives.  The theme is Continuous Delivery, and how organisations need to constantly adapt in order to innovate and ultimately survive.  It’s a really exciting agenda, but there are three bits I am...

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The ideal agile team is made up of specializing generalists – but what does that really mean?  The goal isn’t to prevent functional silos of expertise, it is to allow people to cover for each other. Great Conversation Elena Yatzeck (@eyatzeck) posted a comment on an earlier article...

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Hi all.  Apologies for this brief commercial interlude.  I am looking for a new sponsor for this site.  The sponsor ad position appears right at the top of every page, alongside my logo.  Currently I’m getting about 50,000 views per month, of course all focused on the subject of agile.   If...

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I was talking recently with a friend about separate retrospectives for sub-groups. They were worried about thing devolving into separate silos, with a retrospective for programmers, a retrospective for testers, a retrospective for analysts, …. I would be worried if that happened, too, but I can see...

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Some teams that struggle with choosing the best ScrumMaster decide that an appropriate strategy is to rotate the role among all team members. I don’t advocate this, as I don’t think it demonstrates an appropriate respect for the challenges and significance of the role. In my family, we rotate who...

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