I’m a member of a panel Jul 23 for the Boston Agile Bazaar meeting, and am attempting to articulate my two-minute position statement to the question: How would you characterize your approach to handling people problems on agile teams? My problem is that I don’t do anything any differently for agile or non-agile teams. I
In the Small Steps and Plunge In posts, I said projects should transition to agile all the way. But does it work the same way for the entire organization? Nope. I recommend a gradual approach to moving to agile. Not all project teams are ready for the self-discipline agile requires. But, even more importantly, too
A few colleagues have had this experience. They get a call about a job. It looks like a great fit. They apply. They go through all the interviewing. It takes forever. And, they don’t get the job. One asked, “Is it ok to ask why?” Sure, it’s ok to ask. Just don’t have a fight
I love it when my readers challenge what I’m saying, as in Plunge In or Dip Your Toe? (for Projects). I do believe in small steps for projects. I’ve long been an advocate of inch-pebbles, of standup meetings, of iterations and incremental development. I love knowing what done means, for the project and for features
I’ve been teaching a variety of workshops recently, some of which are Scrum. One of the questions people have is: Can we do this partway? No, not Scrum or any other agile lifecycle. You either do it all or you’re not doing agile. You can work in timeboxed iterations. But if you haven’t gotten to
I have a column up at PM Boulevard (free registration required): Manage Your Project Portfolio and Stop Thrashing. Enjoy!
I just read Most Likely to Succeed: How do we hire when we can’t tell who’s right for the job? by Malcolm Gladwell. He talks about how a football recruiter agonized over his decisions: …“This guy threw lasers, he could throw under tight spots, he had the arm strength, he had the size, he had
In yesterday’s Boston Globe there was an article, Start-ups stifled by noncompetes, which had a wonderful quote (go to the second page): Luckily, we have an academic here in Massachusetts who has dedicated the past few years to looking at the impact of noncompetes. Matt Marx, who recently joined the faculty of MIT’s Sloan School
I’ve been teaching workshops for much of the past few weeks, and I’ve noticed an interesting pattern. I get great comments (and usually good numbers) from people who participate in the workshop. I don’t get many comments, and I get substantially lower numerical grades from people who leave their laptops open during the workshop. These
I have a new article posted on ganthead.com: Point Play. You can comment there. I think you have to have a (free) registration to post a comment.