Blog: Agile & Business

Delivering Solutions

September 27, 2007

As I was saying earlier, in all my clients there is this divide between business and technology. “I’m a business guy, not a technology guy.” “Oh, I work in IT; go ask the business folks that.” This is not a helpful distinction. The customer does not want business or technology or even a product. The […]

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Have Compassion

September 27, 2007

Today I was in a meeting with business and technology folks, and I started talking about customer collaboration over contract negotiation. (Many will recognize this line from the Agile Manifesto.) I talked about how there is distrust, tension and misunderstanding between the business side and the technology side. Well, at least on Day One, every […]

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Keeping with the Beat

September 19, 2007

Where would I go to find the latest information on Agile and Lean? What if you had a question and wanted expert advice? Try these “boards.” Sign up. They are free. ScrumDev Extreme Programming Agile Project Management Lean Software Development Industrial XP I am a particular fan of the last one. Its theme is applying […]

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Proposed Reading List

September 15, 2007

A teacher recently told me this: “To know and not to do is not to know.” We know from many teachers that we learn best by thinking a bit and then practicing some, and then thinking some more and practicing more. This is embedded, as one example, in the Deming Cycle. So, I have already […]

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Business Value: Some useful links…

May 14, 2007

Here are some related links you may find useful: I like these principles of Lean, especially the first one, about specifying value. And I like this HBR article by Womack and Jones on Lean consumption: See what they call the six principles of Lean consumption. I call ’em a pretty good summary of what people […]

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Business Value: What is it?

May 14, 2007

On Wednesday, I will lead a session on Business Value in Charlotte, N.C. The topic will be, “What is it?” This is Part 1 of the full session I will lead at Agile 2007. (Part 2 in Charlotte will happen on May 24, 2007.) My hypothesis is that we don’t know as much about Business […]

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Jeff Sutherland in Charlotte July 11-12

May 11, 2007

Jeff Sutherland will teach a Certified ScrumMaster course in Charlotte on July 11 to 12. See Jeff’s blog for some information. See here for specific information. Jeff includes a lot of ideas associated with XP and Lean in his practice of Scrum. (And equally, Kent Beck and the Poppendiecks have been influenced by Jeff Sutherland, […]

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Leaders, Managers, Bosses, and Administrators

May 4, 2007

This is another blog post inspired by the Poppendiecks, their books and their interest in Lean. In their book “Implementing Lean Software Development: From Concept to Cash,” the Poppendiecks talk, as one of their topics, about leadership. They raise several excellent points. A team needs leadership. Which is to say, vision. Someone to inspire and […]

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A fourth Google video (Lean-Agile)

April 24, 2007

Thanks to Artem Marchenko for mentioning the Poppendieck’s talk at Google, titled Competing on the basis of Speed.  

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Google, Agile and Business Value

April 21, 2007

Google announced on 4/20/2007 that it earned $1.002 billion in the first quarter. The Net was up 69% from 2006. The sales increase was not too shabby either. Maybe it’s a company we can learn from. (Or maybe they are just lucky.) Google uses Agile. As I hear, Agile isn’t forced on anyone, and many […]

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