Many people use an iteration approach to agile. They decide on an iteration duration, commit to work for that iteration and by definition, they are done at the end of the timebox. I like timeboxing many things. I like timeboxing work I don’t know how to start. I find short timeboxes help me focus on the […]
As I’m writing the agile project management book, I’m explaining how agile creates and manages WIP (Work in Progress) Limits. Iteration-based agile manages WIP by estimating what you can do in an iteration. You might count points. Or, you use my preference, which is to count the (small) stories. If you use flow-based approaches, you use kanban.
If you are wondering, “What do I do with the work I said no to?” here’s the answer. Use a parking lot. This is the image from Manage Your Project Portfolio. I recommend just four columns: the project name, the date you put the project on the list, any notes about value, and any other
My most recent post about how to Visualize Your Work So You Can Say No showing a couple of different kanbans was quite popular. Several people ask me how I use my personal kanban. I use paper. Here’s why I don’t use a tool: I am too likely to put too much into a tool.
Most people I know—even the people supposedly using agile approaches—have too much work to do. You have project work. In addition, you have support work, formal for customer support or sales, and informal for your colleagues. Let’s not forget the reports to write or file, time cards to fill out, or other periodic events. You
Understand Your Project Interdependencies Do you have interdependencies in your projects and programs? People on one team need something or someone from another team. Part of the problem is that we use the same word (interdependency) to describe two different problems. Teams can solve sequencing interdependencies. Teams need managers to solve specialist interdependencies. In Sequencing
When I talk about Minimum Viable Products or Minimum Viable Experiments, people often tell me that their minimum is several weeks (or months) long. They can’t possibly release anything without doing a ton of work. I ask them questions, to see if they are talking about a Minimum Indispensable Feature Set or a Minimum Adoptable
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke locally about Manage Your Project Portfolio. Part of the talk is about understanding when you need project portfolio management and flowing work through teams. One of the (very sharp) fellows in the audience asked this question: As you grow, don’t you need component teams? I thought that was
I have a new article up on projectmanagement.com, Continuous Agile Program Planning: Think Big, Plan Small. It’s about how to use rolling wave planning especially for an agile program. If you are a Product Owner or you are responsible for planning what when, and want to learn how to do this, join my PPO Workshop, starting
If you’re thinking about agile or trying to use it, you probably started with iterations in some form. You tried (and might be still trying) to estimate what you can fit into an iteration. That’s called “pushing” work, where you commit to some number of items of work in advance. And, if you have to