After the article I referenced in Moving to Agile Contracts was published, there was a little kerfuffle on Twitter. Some people realized I was talking about the value of estimates and #noestimates. Some folks thought I was advocating never estimating anything. Let me clarify my position. I like order-of-magnitude estimates. I don’t hire people without […]
Marcus Blankenship and I wrote a follow-up piece to our first article, mentioned in Discovery Projects Work for Agile Contracts. That article was about when your client wants the benefit of agile, but wants you to estimate everything in advance and commit to a fixed price/fixed scope (and possibly fixed date) project. Fixing all of
Linda Rising gave a great talk last night at Agile New England. Her topic was problem-solving and decision-making. One of her points was to discuss the problem, out loud. When you talk, you engage a different part of your brain than when you think. For us extroverts, who speak in order to think, this might
People often ask me, “When is agile right or not right for a project?” I’ve said before that if the team wants to go agile, that’s great. If the team doesn’t, don’t use agile. That answer is insufficient. In addition to the team, we need management to not create a bad environment for agile. You
Marcus Blankenship and I wrote an article, Stay Agile with Discovery, to discuss how to help your clients see the benefits of working in an agile or more agile way. We have seen too many clients want “agile” and not want all the responsibilities that being a Product Owner or customer involves. If your client asks
I see a lot of confusion around velocity in new-to-agile teams. Too many people treat velocity as an acceleration measurement. That is, they expect velocity to increase to some large number, as a stable state. Velocity is a rate of change coupled with direction. When managers think they can measure a team with velocity, they
I had a great time with my previous version of the Non-Fiction Writing Workshop: Write Non-Fiction to Enhance Your Business and Reputation. I am offering it again, starting this August 24. I added another week, so you have the chance to practice more. I am also offering a personal accountability option. If you want, you can
Ryan Ripley and I spoke on his Agile for Humans Podcast, Agile Program Management with Johanna Rothman. We had a blast. We spoke all about Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization, estimation, value, and much more. I hope you listen.
I just posted the dates for the next Practical Product Ownership workshop: Deliver What Your Customers Need. It starts Aug 23, 2016. You need this workshop if: You are having trouble doing everything in your PO role, you might be trying to do too much. See Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst? You are having
Marcus Blankenship and I are conducting a survey of technical managers. If you are or have been a technical manager, please take the survey here: . Oh, and I was so curious about how many female/male managers there were, we had to ask that question. Yes, I said to Marcus, “We have to ask!” He laughed