I was talking with a new-to-agile project manager, who said he needed take the first iteration to do design and estimation. I asked why. “Because our management needs to know exactly when the project will be done.” “Do you think your iteration of design and estimation will provide you a perfect estimate?” “Uh.” He paused.
I’m proud and pleased to be on the list of LiquidPlanner’s Top Project Management Thinkers. I’m thrilled, too!
I’ve been working with Gil Broza on our teleclass series, Prevent Your Agile Titanic, both on marketing it and on its content. And it never fails, we have questions for each other almost every day. Sometimes I’m developing something and it looks “funny.” So I ask for review. Sometimes, as with the content, we discuss
On mailing lists, when I speak, in email, people ask, “When did ‘some principle, approach, or whatever’ start?” A long time ago. Timeboxes have been around forever. I’m pretty sure that when the Pharoahs told their architects to build a pyramid, they said, “And do it by this-date! Or else!” I know that military projects
A client recently asked me how many people should be on his agile team. “I have a two-person project here, and a 23-person project there. Do I want two teams, one of 2 and one of 23? Oh, and how many testers do I really need?” I can believe there’s a small and short project
I’m yak shaving this week. When I returned from the Agile conference, my right ear didn’t clear. It’s all clogged now, and the left one isn’t totally clear either. I have vertigo. I’m moving slowly and look drunk when I walk. In the meantime, I have articles to write, proposals to finish, work to do.
I’m now the proud and happy owner of a new reservoir for our tankless hot water heater. (Tankless is a relative term, when it comes to hot water heaters.) A week ago, the reservoir part of our system finally broke. We had a new reservoir installed on Wednesday, and our lives have changed for the
The nice folks at SQE have posted my keynote from the Better Software conference, Lessons Learned in Project Management. Yes, some of the material is from Manage It!: Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. P.S. Thank you for telling me the link was broken originally. It’s now fixed. Sorry about that!
If you’ve never been a victim of Medieval software project management, wow, I’m impressed. You don’t have to read the rest of this post. But if you’ve ever tried to break free of a legacy product/project, and haven’t been able to, you are not alone. The problem is we can’t create a knowledge management system
I write a roughly monthly email newsletter, the Pragmatic Manager. I (finally) posted Refocusing: Emerging from the Split Focus Schedule Game. Yes, I’m working on the July issue now. Enjoy!