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Johanna’s Books
Tag Archives: iterative planning
Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 5
So where does all of this get us with budgets and dates? In many ways, estimating project budgets or dates for agile projects turns out to be irrelevant. If you have a ranked backlog, and you finish features, you can … Continue reading
Posted in project management
Tagged agile, estimation, iterative planning, kanban, team, timebox, transition to agile
15 Comments
Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 4
In Part 3, you had some knowledge of the team’s velocity. This is the option of when you do not have knowledge of the team’s velocity, because this team has not worked together before, or has not worked on a … Continue reading
Posted in project management
Tagged agile, estimation, iterative planning, kanban, team, timebox, transition to agile
1 Comment
Estimating the Unknown: Projects or Budgets, Part 3
You have options for estimation, once you have met the preconditions. If you don’t have the feature set in a ranked order, you are in trouble. That’s because if you use any lifecycle other than an agile lifecycle, the feature … Continue reading
Posted in project management
Tagged agile, estimation, iterative planning, kanban, team, timebox, transition to agile
3 Comments
Estimating the Unknown: Projects or Budgets, Part 2
So now that you know why it’s so difficult to estimate what do you do when someone asks you for an estimate? Preconditions for Estimation First, you ask a question back: “What’s most important to you? If it’s 3 weeks … Continue reading
Posted in project management
Tagged agile, estimation, iterative planning, kanban, team, timebox, transition to agile
3 Comments
Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 1
Almost every manager I know wants to know when a project will be done. Some managers decree when a project will be done. Some managers think they can decree both the date and the feature set. There is one other … Continue reading
Posted in project management
Tagged agile, estimation, iterative planning, kanban, team, timebox, transition to agile
12 Comments
Similarities and Differences in Project Management
I’m in Las Vegas waiting to get on a plan to Los Angeles to go to New Zealand for SDC. I led a workshop yesterday for real estate project managers about how to define success and manage some of the … Continue reading
Resorts Aren’t Necessary for Strategic Planning
I’m sure you’ve read of the AIG scandal by now. (Here is the Fox News story and here is the CNN story.) Shame is too small a word for those executives. I would love to know where their entitlement comes … Continue reading
Moving Team Members from Being Controlled to Taking Initiative
I spoke recently with a (new) Scrum Master with a team who’s new to Scrum. One of the team members is a little stuck. He doesn’t feel comfortable going to the task board to take a task when he’s done. … Continue reading
Fund Projects Incrementally
One of the big problems in organizations (IT or product-shipping) is how to fund projects. I don’t believe in ROI (Return on Investment). I learned how to lie with ROI back in 1988–I can make the numbers be anything you … Continue reading
Posted in agile
Tagged feedback, iterative planning, project portfolio management, project success
5 Comments
Traceability Matrix and Agile
I received two questions this week about how well does agile allow you to do traceability matrix. Very well is the short answer. Here’s why. If you commit to implementing features (not chunks of architecture) based on user stories in … Continue reading
