Blog: Agile & Business

Agile is not like golf

April 10, 2007

We have to be careful with similes (or metaphors). If you have played golf, you know that any fool can hit the golf ball a few yards with any of the clubs. It is getting that tiny ball in that tinier cup that’s the problem. It is scoring near par that is hard, and mastery […]

Read More »

Agile is like golf

April 8, 2007

I went to New York last week to visit friends and to visit one of the greatest cities in the world. Wonderful energy. A fairly well-known joke line goes like this: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Answer: Practice, practice, practice. This is one of my main points as I watch The Masters golf […]

Read More »

Never send to know for whom the bell tolls

April 6, 2007

(See note on the title of this post below.) In my culture, this is the beautiful, daffodil time of year. When spring has sprung; and when Passover and Easter come to pass, yet again.  The long cold winter is over, and the stream of life bursts forth in joy; if just to be alive again. […]

Read More »

Getting Business Decisions Made – 2

March 31, 2007

A few days ago I posted on this subject — this is a continuation of that post. I had already discussed the first of Esther Derby’s six steps. (Again, I am trying to discuss something different from what she was going at, so naturally there will be differences.) Now, let’s discuss her second step: Step […]

Read More »

Carnival of the Agilists

March 28, 2007

We are honored to have been selected for the Carnival of the Agilists, in the latest “issue”. See Pete Behrens’s blog (post not only available) and Agile Alliance for the other blog entries selected. Agile Alliance has all the previous Carnival selections. “Carnival” I hope suggests the joyous creative side of Agile, and the variety […]

Read More »

Getting Business Decisions Made – 1

March 23, 2007

It is wonderful how we humans make decisions in life, and, in a certain way, it is even more wonderful how we make decisions at work. I do not wish to digress too much, but perhaps the first subject is the illusion of power. For example, perhaps most decisions in our business lives must be […]

Read More »

Judgment Under Uncertainty

March 21, 2007

Tom Peters’ blog has this post about Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, by Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic and Amos Tversky. They are psychologists, but Kahneman won the Nobel Prize in economics for prospect theory. The issue — making decisions in a world of uncertainty — seems quite relevant to Agile. For the customer, for […]

Read More »

Elements of Agile Style – 1

March 20, 2007

I have written a short handbook, called “The Elements of Agile Style.” (Current draft available in PDF.) What got into me? Well, I had to do it. We need more reminders of the basic stylistic elements before we move forward to work in our own individual style. This is the way with any art. You […]

Read More »

Face To Face Still Matters

March 20, 2007

Last Friday, Esther Derby wrote a blog entry that struck a nerve. Part of the reason I started this blog is because I see so many people worrying about costs without considering the benefits, or the means without considering (enough about) the ends. Esther’s entry is “Face to Face Still Matters,” and of course it […]

Read More »

Waste in projects…Working hard is not enough.

March 19, 2007

The second big idea in Lean is waste, or getting rid of waste (muda in Japanese). Seems obvious. Not many would say they are in favor of waste. First: Why do I want to talk about this? Many reasons. I meet so many development team members who are so gung-ho, they want to impress everyone […]

Read More »