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    Category: Practices

    Office Hours and Conformity? – No. Delivery is King!

    During one of my CSM classes, I was discussing with a student that her company still has office hours and they are “required” to be…

    Peter 2021-04-19
    2 Comments

    New to agile? Remember a user story is more than a card!

    What’s wrong with the user story on the card?  It seems to have everything we need: a) short title, b) a size (in this case…

    Bob Hartman 2010-05-03
    5 Comments

    Agile antipatterns: Agile burn-down chart roundup post

    Do you want to see several different ways agile and scrum burn-down charts can lie?  If so, you are in the right place! This month I…

    Bob Hartman 2009-12-29
    1 Comment

    New to agile? Learn how to split stories

    In my last blog Agile antipattern: Taking on large stories I said I would give you some tips on how to split stories.  First though, it is…

    Bob Hartman 2009-12-10
    5 Comments

    Agile antipattern: Taking on large stories

    Earlier this week I posted a blog entry “Agile antipattern: Burndown charts that hide the truth” which dealt with one way a burndown chart could…

    Bob Hartman 2009-12-09
    5 Comments

    New to agile? Work at a sustainable pace

    Question:  Which is better: a) Working nights and weekends to meet iteration commitments, or b) Admitting the commitment was too much and working normal hours…

    Bob Hartman 2009-07-24
    5 Comments

    Agile antipattern: Using email as the primary communication tool

    Can I just be short and to the point for this one?  I hope so, because that is my intention! Email is LOW BANDWIDTH communication…

    Bob Hartman 2009-07-08
    11 Comments

    How to make a LOT more money using agile

    Yesterday’s blog post dealt with how to manage scope for an agile project.  Today I have to admit it was a bit of a setup. …

    Bob Hartman 2009-05-27
    2 Comments

    New to agile? INVEST in good user stories

    As a <user> I want <function> so that<value>. Above is a very simple user story template.  How can something so simple be so hard to…

    Bob Hartman 2009-05-14
    30 Comments

    New to Agile? Use a Rules of Engagement document.

    How do we work together? Seems like a simple question, right? How wrong you could be!  For an agile team, working together is vitally important,…

    Bob Hartman 2009-05-05
    10 Comments

    Agile anti-pattern: Going to longer iterations

    This is another common theme among teams just starting with agile.  It usually goes something like this: The team has an unsuccessful iteration. They determine…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-28
    2 Comments

    New to agile? Do the simplest thing that works – THEN STOP!

    As an agile trainer and coach I often see new teams struggle with a simple question: “How much to do on a user story?”  A lot…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-27
    0 Comments

    Agile antipattern: Code freezes during each iteration

    Over the past 18 months I’ve encountered a number of teams where it is standard practice to have a code freeze late in the iteration. …

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-23
    7 Comments

    Agile antipattern: Using manual tests

    In an agile environment manual testing is fine – except for when it isn’t!  In particular, everyone recognizes manual regression testing takes time.  When using a…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-16
    1 Comment

    New to agile? Tips for better daily stand-ups

    As an agile coach I have attended a lot of daily stand-up meetings.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve been in a meeting…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-14
    1 Comment

    Agile antipattern: Extending an iteration

    I had a previous blog post about stopping an iteration and how it was a really bad idea. Another blog post was about moving work…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-09
    1 Comment

    Agile Architecture – It is NOT an Oxymoron!

    Many companies adopting agile have a hard time with the architecture and design of their large systems.  They like the concept of agile, but can’t…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-06
    1 Comment

    Ten Ways to Improve Your Planning Poker Results

    People who promote the use of Planning Poker understand some of the main reasons why it is successful.  People like Mike Cohn have been very instrumental…

    Bob Hartman 2009-04-02
    5 Comments

    New to agile? Tools for distributed agile

    I’ve been working the past several weeks with some highly distributed teams.  Each team requires a way to track their project effectively (when you have…

    Bob Hartman 2009-03-26
    4 Comments

    New to agile? Remember one thing: Just enough, just in time

    If you lived through the past few decades you have undoubtedly heard the time “Just in Time” (JIT) as applied to manufacturing.  This is the…

    Bob Hartman 2009-02-23
    8 Comments
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    Forum Description

    If you lived through the past few decades you have undoubtedly heard the time "Just in Time" (JIT) as applied to manufacturing.  This is the lean breakthrough that allows companies to get rid of large amounts of inventory and unfinished goods.  In a nutshell it means that parts show up just in time for manufacturing, and production happens just in time for purchase.  This is the opposite of "Just in Case" manufacturing where production was at a given level and usually ramped up as high as possible.  Agile is based on lean, so you'd expect it to have similarities to JIT, but in my opinion it goes far beyond JIT! Agile is definitely based on JIT.  You can see this in many of the practices.  User stories are created when they are needed and not before.  Releases happen when there is appropriate value in releasing, not before and not after.  Each iteration has a commitment which is met on time.  I'm sure there are other examples, but these few suffice. What is missing in JIT is the answer to what is getting delivered or received just in time?  This is where the phrase "Just enough, just in time" comes in.  You don't simply want it in time, you want just enough of it - regardless of what "it" is!  Let's look at a few examples:
    • User stories - we don't need every user story for the release prior to the first iteration.  We need just enough user stories to get started.
    • Documentation - we certainly don't need "just in case" documentation, but I also believe it is a fallacy to think agile teams can be effective with zero documentation.  We need just enough documentation to make sure the team is successful.
    • Architecture - at the start of the project it doesn't make sense to build out a fancy architecture which is going to change anyway.  Agile teams should be striving to build just enough architecture to support the user stories in the queue.
    • Planning - at iteration planning we don't look at things outside the iteration.  We do just enough planning to make sure we can accomplish our goal for the iteration.
    • Collaboration - agile teams certainly have high levels of collaboration, but that is because that level is just enough to help them be successful.
    These are just some examples.  I am sure there are many more.  If you are new to agile and you remember "Just enough, just in time" you will be heading down the right path.  As a newbie you may went to err on the side of "not quite enough" at the beginning (take this as just a hint) because it is easy to do "just a little too much" most of the time.  Our old ways lead us down the too much path very easily.  You can be successful doing too much, but not as successful as being not quite enough and adjusting.  When we start at too much we tend not to change because we are still seeing some success.  Don't fall into that trap.  Keep scaling back and eliminating waste! Hopefully this blog post is providing just enough wisdom, just in time to get you going!

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