Last week I was fortunate to attend the Agile 2012 conference in Dallas, TX. My experience there was very positive, with learning and great conversations. The biggest thrill for me was finally meeting in person many people whose work I admire. (A full review of the event is a different post.) I did note something […]
Evidence of Innovation and Creativity
Is it possible to find a company that does not say they are innovative? Is there any manager or VP that does not want more creativity? I’m sure such companies and people exist somewhere but I haven’t found one. We all want to foster innovation and creativity. Innovation In The Team Agile teams that are […]
Gaming The Penny Game
Last month I had the opportunity to provide an Agile and Scrum class to a private client. We had a great day learning and having fun. At one point a clever developer threw a twist into one of the exercises that had me worried. Let me set the stage a bit. The Penny Game The Penny Game […]
A Living Agile Product: The Hospital Patient
I recently had a sudden reason to do something I had not done since childhood. I went to the hospital as a patient. Surgery could not wait. I’m doing well now, moving on the road to full recovery. As I reflect back on the experience, I found things to learn about team work, skill boundaries […]
Agile Predictions for 2012
My friends at Integrum Technologies have a regular podcast they call The ScrumCast. Once in a while they invite me to hang on the microphones with them. Last January we did an episode of Agile Predictions for 2011. Well, we just had to follow-up this year to see how right (or wrong) we were and […]
The Power of Smaller Teams
The issue of team size comes up very often in my interactions and online. People are very anxious about this detail and for good reason. The size of a team directly effects the culture and work they do, for good or bad. Documents Say… The Agile and Scrum literature, including training classes, recommend a team […]
Velocity Moves Forward
Scrum and other Agile frameworks introduce the concept of “velocity” as a measure. Velocity a ratio of some work size (story points, ideal days, etc.) verses time measured as a sprint or iteration. So a team might say “We complete 26 story points per sprint.” Or a project manager might report “Our teams complete 224 […]
Teams Over Projects
A team I have been working with recently had a crisis. The customer of their project had put everything on hold. In other words, the project was cancelled. The company had plenty of other work to be done so they were not worried about losing their jobs. The biggest worry for the team was breaking […]
Limiting WIP: People, Organizations and Scrum
(It’s been a long time since I have posted. I’m back at it now!) I have seen a common thread all through my career. A problem experienced seemingly everywhere, at all levels, including with myself. This problem causes all sorts of dysfunctions and symtoms, from frustration and poor quality to wasted effort and missed deadlines. […]
Agile Events, Local and Costa Rica!
It has literally been months since my last post. I be predictable and say that I’ve been busy. While true, that is not the interesting part. I’m going to be even more busy in the next months! Let’s start with today and look forward. Startup Weekend Chandler Starting yesterday evening and going on today through […]
