Part 1 was about how the PO needs to see the big picture and develop the ranked backlog. Part 2 was about the learning that arises from small stories. Part 3 was about ranking. In this part, I’ll discuss the product owner value team and how to make time to do “everything,” and especially how to change […]
When I work with clients, they often have a “problem” with product ownership. The product owners want tons of features, don’t want to address technical debt, and can’t quite believe how long features will take. Oh, and the POs want to change things as soon as they see them. I don’t see this as problems.To
In Part 1, I talked about the way POs think about the big picture and the ranked backlog. The way to get from the big picture to the ranked backlog is via deliverables in the form of small (user) stories. See the wikipedia page about user stories. Notice that they are a promise for a conversation.
Ryan Ripley and I spoke on his Agile for Humans Podcast, Agile Program Management with Johanna Rothman. We had a blast. We spoke all about Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization, estimation, value, and much more. I hope you listen.
In a recent workshop, a participant asked me, “What does agile mean? How do you know if you are agile?” He wants to use kanban to see the flow of work through his group. Someone told him he needed to use iterations to be agile. (I had a little rant about this in What Does Agile Mean
I sent my newsletter, Scaling Agile and Lean to Programs to my subscribers yesterday. (Are you one of them? No? You should be!) If you are trying to use agile for several projects that together deliver value (a program), you might be wondering what the “right” approach is. You’ve heard of frameworks. Some of them
Scaling Agile and Lean to Programs Using agile or lean for one project can be a challenge. What happens when you want to extend agile or lean to multiple projects or across the organization? Many people try frameworks. Frameworks assume you have the same context and challenges as other efforts–even inside your organization. You have
Feeling Alone on Your Agile Journey? Do you feel as if you are waving the agile flag and no one cares? You know what you, your team, and your management needs to do. No one seems to be able to put your suggestions into practice. Worse, sometimes, it looks as if no one cares, except
Over on Techwell, my monthly column is Agile Does Not Equal Scrum: Know the Difference. I wrote the article because I am tired of people saying “Agile/Scrum” as if Scrum was the only way to do agile. I use iterations, kanban, and the XP technical practices when I work with teams. I am not religious about
I met a team recently who was concerned about their velocity. They were always “too late” according to their manager. I asked them what they measured and how. They measured the burndown for each iteration. They calculated the number of points they could claim for each story. Why? Because they didn’t always finish the stories they