design

agile, MPD

Make Stories Small When You Have "Wicked" Problems

If you read my Three Alternatives to Making Smaller Stories, you noticed one thing. In each of these examples, the problem was in the teams’ ability to show progress and create interim steps. But, what about when you have a “wicked” problem, when you don’t know if you can create the answer? If you are

MPD, project management

Refactoring, Redesign, Time, and Transparency

I love it when my readers challenge and question me. Thank you, Sam and Paulo for asking the equivalent of “Huh?” for Refactoring and Redesign are Different. You asked great questions. Let me see if I can answer. For me, the time issue is the lack of transparency about the time required to complete the

MPD, project management

Refactoring and Redesign are Different

I’ve been working with people starting their transition to agile. They are all smart people—some of them scary-smart. And some of them are misusing some of the terminology. Some people are using the word “refactoring” to describe significant work, say, weeks or even months of effort of rework. Sorry, I call that redesign. To me,

MPD, project management

Design Documents Need Pictures

When I do assessments, I ask for lots of project documents and data. A few years ago, I was working on an assessment for a very large system, so I asked for an architectural picture. I was surprised–this million plus LOC system had no picture at all. No wonder it was so hard for the

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