I’ve been working with several clients on their transition to agile approaches to their projects. They all have a common state: Many features to implement Huge technical debt Many defects They want to get a handle on all the work they have to do. I suggested they consider three backlogs, making sure that for a […]
I’m not a fan of ROI (Return on Investment) measures for software, except in the case where you have waste. Several of my clients have huge technical debt which creates waste for the development staff (not just developers, anyone involved with the development of the product). When you’re dealing with waste, user stories just might
I’m slow to post this one: Giordano Scalzo’s lovely review of Manage Your Project Portfolio is up at Reviewing Manage Your Project Portfolio. I love the part where he says: This book is a must read for everyone involved in IT world, from junior developer ’till C-level executive. As usual, Johanna Rothman uses a very
In their comments to my post, Agile and Remote People: Part 1, Telecommuting, Matt, Lisa, Pete, Abby all had great rebuttals. They successfully make their remote teams work. They have successfully built trust. They use a variety of communications tools that allow their team members to work together. Good for them. (I mean it. I am
A twitter follower was concerned with a piece of my post, Do What’s Effective For You, when I spoke of team bits. Was I saying you could not telecommute and do agile? First, let me explain what a team bit is. A team bit is a person or a group of people grouped by geography
At a prospective client, a senior manager asked me, “In agile, when does the spec freeze?” I said it either didn’t, or did at the end of any iteration in which people wrote a spec. He had a puzzled look on his face, so I explained that if you discuss how to design or what
I have an article up on PM Boulevard: Choosing the Strategically Important Work. Enjoy! (I think you need to register for this site too. Free.)
I’ve had a rough month. When I returned from Agile 2009, my right ear didn’t unblock from the plane. I couldn’t hear out of it, and it was blocked. I didn’t think much of it–I went to the doctor who said, “yup, you’ve got fluid. Take decongestants.” I did, and the vertigo got worse. Finally,
I’ve been working and speaking with whole bunch of people who want to “go agile.” They are not set up for agile. They have gates for approval. They don’t have teams that projects flow through; they assign people to whatever project whenever. (growl. People are not fungible. growl) They have geographically distributed team bits (I
I recently wrote an article on how to say, No: Such a Difficult Word, and a twitter follower wanted to know what to do when your manager can’t hear no. First, understand why your manager can’t hear no. Is it because the business pressures are so great that the cost of saying no seems insurmountable?