Update: I titled it Predicting the Unpredictable. I have finished the content for Essays on Estimation. But, I need a new title. The book is more than loosely coupled essays. It reads like a real book, with progression and everything. I have a number of ideas. They are (in no particular order): Predicting the Unpredictable: […]
I have an article up on agileconnection.com called Common Misconceptions about Agile: There Is Only One Approach. If you read my Design Your Agile Project series, you know I am a fan of determining what approach works when for your organization or project. Please leave comments over there. Thanks! Two notes: If you would like to
For years, we bought the cone of uncertainty for estimation—that is, our estimates were just as likely to be over as under. Laurent Bossavit, in The Leprechauns of Software Engineering, shows us how that assumption is wrong. (It was an assumption that some people, including me, assumed was real.) This is a Gaussian (normal) distribution.
Many organizations create teams by their architectural part: front end, back end, middleware. That may have worked back in the waterfall days. It doesn’t work well when you want to implement by feature. (For better images, see Managing the Stream of Features in an Agile Program.) Pierce Wetter wrote this great article on LinkedIn, There is
Is there room for functional managers, such as development and test managers, in agile organizations? Maybe. It depends on whether they take the role of an agile manager. If you have organized as a feature teams-based organization, the functional managers (development, test, analysis, whatever) can take these responsibilities: Develop trusting relationships with the people on
As I write the program management book, I am struck by how difficult it is to estimate large chunks of work. In Predicting the Unpredictable and Manage It!, I recommend several approaches to estimation, each of which includes showing that there is no one absolute date for a project or a program. What can you do?
I have a new column posted at projectmanagement.com. It’s called Does Agile Apply to Your Project? (You might need a free registration.)
I read the Business Week opening remarks, How Optimism Strengthens Economies. See this quote at the end: the group of people who turn out to be most accurate about predicting how long it will take to complete tasks—and how likely they are to succeed—are the clinically depressed. Optimists underestimate how difficult it will be to succeed.
Years ago, I was the expert for two specific products in a small development organization. When it came time for my manager to divide up the work, I always got those products to add features to, or maintain. That was fine for a while, until I got bored. I went to my boss with a request for different work.
I have posted my most recent Pragmatic Manager newsletter on my site. Read Johanna’s 2014 New Years Tips. I have a question for you. I send the newsletter to my subscribers the last week of the year. I call them “this-year” tips. Some people ask me if I mean “the next year”. I don’t because it’s