Knowing When an Agile Project is Done I meet a number of new-to-agile folks who worry that an agile project might never be done. They use air quotes around the word “project” when they refer to agile projects. Just beause you use iterations or kanban for an agile project doesn’t mean it doesn’t have release […]
I use a form of personal kanban inside one-week iterations to finish my work and notice what I am not doing. I do this to maintain a cadence of blogging and to finish work. Did you notice that word, finish? Sidebar: For those of you who don’t know what “kanban” is, it literally means “card.”
Why a Project Charter Works Do you know what the vision of your project is—the goal of your project? You might know your iteration’s goal. You might know what each feature needs. But do you know the goal for your project? There are two necessary pieces of information in a project charter: the vision and
I am going to be in London, May 16 and 17, 2013. I am offering two interactive public workshops, one on starting your agile project right, and a master class on coaching. See the detailed syllabus and signup page for Starting Your Agile Project and Coaching Master Class here. The syllabus for Starting Your Agile
Over on agileconnection, a user asked about a self-assessment tool for measuring agile maturity. That’s not exactly the right question, because agile transition is a journey, not a destination. But, I can understand why he asked the question. I tried to be helpful. I supplied a set of questions to ask. Maybe you can go
We’ve all read a lot about agile software development—the various flavors and methods sprouting up to tackle new issues in requirements, architecture, design, coding, and testing. But it’s rare to hear real, tangible, objective lessons based on the experiences of those who have tried some form of agile development and failed. Get ready to take
There are two sides of this conversation about telecommuting: the employee side and the management side. I hope you stick around for both sides. You can yell at me at the end. Employees: You Owe the Company a Full Day of Work I’ve been thinking since Marissa Meyer’s announcement what I would say about the
In Organizing an Agile Program, Part 1, Introduction, I suggested you think about the communication paths of your programs. Instead of hierarchies, I suggested you think of networks of teams. In Organizing an Agile Program Part 2, Networks for Managing Agile Programs, I showed you how loosely connected networks might work. I explained how you
I have another management myth up on Stickyminds. This one is Management Myth 15: I Need People to Work Overtime. Managers, especially senior managers, want people to be “invested” and “motivated” to do a great job. Often, the only measure they have for that is to see people work overtime. Why? Because that’s what senior
I have a new article up on projectmanagement.com, Managing Programs with Agile and Traditional Projects. You know the problem with a program: you have some agile projects and some not-agile projects, and maybe some projects who suffer from an identity crisis. They might think they are one or the other. You might not agree with