Making Info Visible for Better Decisions
A key part of the ScrumMaster’s or Product Owner’s job is making information visible.* Whether that’s a product backlog, taskboard, cumulative flow diagram, or a…
Category: Tips
Be an Expert in a Year – Growing the Agile Way
The guys over at Expert Table Tennis had a great idea. What would it take to become an expert? Dedication? Heart? Perseverance?
Agile antipattern: Sizing or estimating bug fixes
Is the bug to the left a large bug or a small bug? It looks HUGE to me! Well, in reality it is probably between…
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…
Agile, scrum, lean and kanban blogs to watch in 2010
I’m going to be spending a lot of time in 2010 writing blog entries. Remember, I’ve committed to trying to write 4 blog entries per…
Agile pondering: How does a highly mobile agile team of 1 work?
In my last post I gave you insight into how I do my work as an agile team of 1. What I didn’t mention is…
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…
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. …
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…
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,…
New to agile? Get focused with a vision
Bear with me on this blog entry. It takes a bit of setup until I get to the main point. Lately I’ve been doing a…
New to agile? Don’t settle for mediocrity
James Shore recently changed the entire focus of his company. This blog entry gives his reasons why. The blog post really struck a chord with…
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…
New to Agile? Beware of the elephant in the room!
Like many other agile consultants I am often asked how agile adoptions could fail. This question has a myriad of answers. A search on Google…
New to agile? Remember to eliminate waste
When I teach any agile course I start out with the principles of lean that Mary and Tom Poppendieck have written about in their books. …
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…