It seems as if everyone is talking about “scaling” agile. What they mean is a strategic collection of projects with one business deliverable: a program. We don’t have “best” practices for agile program management. However, you might find some reasonable practices help you use agile or lean even better. Think Product, Not System Sometimes, we […]
I like to be efficient. I like finishing my work quickly, without wasting time, money, or energy. But it’s also important to be effective—working on what matters most. One of the legacies of waterfall approaches is that too often, our focus is on efficiency and not effectiveness. Efficiency is how fast you can do something.
You’re working on a project or a series of tasks for some deliverable. Do you know why? The reason behind the project explains the value of your work. You might work on something just for the fun of it. Back before I had children, I bicycled, crocheted, and needlepointed. I made time for these hobbies
A number of my clients are attempting to use agile as they transition from a strict waterfall to a more adaptive approach to their projects. One problem the change artists have is this: The managers, product managers, and maybe even the customers want to define all the requirements up front. I have not found the
The discussion to now: Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 1: Seeing Your System Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 2: Effect on People Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 3: Managing Performance Resource Efficiency vs. Flow Efficiency, Part 4: Defining Accountability When you move from resource efficiency (experts and handoffs from expert to expert)
There’s a twitter discussion of what people “should” do in certain situations. One of the participants believes that people “should” want to learn on their own time and work more than 40 hours per week. I believe in learning. I don’t believe in expecting people to work more than 40 hours/week. My experience is that
As more of my clients transition to agile, many of them have a fascinating question: How do I assess who is doing what on my team? When I ask why they want to know, they say it’s all related to reviews, rewards, and general compensation. They are still discussing individual compensation, not team compensation. When
I’ve given webinars and talks about hiring for cultural fit for years. A couple of weeks ago, I was in Waterloo/Kitchener, Ontario. When I spoke for Communitech, I updated my talk, Hiring for Cultural Fit. It’s easy to get cultural fit wrong. It’s more difficult to get it right. I hope you enjoy the slides. BTW,
I had dinner with a colleague. While we were settling into our coffee, he asked me, “What does post-agile mean to you?” I was no longer calm and relaxed. “That’s a nonsense word. Post-agile!” Here’s why I reacted the way I did. We have known about miniature milestones, or inch-pebbles, since the 1940s. That’s how
In Hire for Cultural Fit: It’s Time to Add Women, Pt 1, I wrote about the need to add women to your team, and what you could do. But just hiring women isn’t enough. You need race and age diversity, along with personality diversity to get the best products out of your teams. Back when