Category Archives: Key problems

Commonalities and Differences

What is unavoidable — in Teams we work with people. And we work also with people outside the Team.  But let’s discuss that topic in another post. The next obvious thing to say is that people are complicated, each person by herself or himself, and in a Team of seven then, we get a lot […]

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Agile Carolinas: Requirements with Agile – How to become better

Agile Carolinas meeting: May 17, 2022 – at 5:30 pm.  IN-PERSON. We may try to also broadcast via Zoom.  ie, Hybrid.  (We need someone to help with that.) [Links to be added]   *** Unclear requirements are always a problem.  Always hard in a way. So, let’s discuss how we are doing “requirements” in an […]

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More, Better…

Goethe wrote at the very end of Faust: Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis Das Unzulängliche, hier wird‘s Ereignis Das Unbeschreibliche, hier ist‘s getan Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan (For those drawn to this quote, see: https://rvgeiger.blogspot.com/2015/01/das-ewig-weiblich-zieht-uns-hinan-or.html)   So, what makes us want to accomplish more?  What will make your Team want to accomplish more? […]

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An Agile Approach to Requirements

Below is the first draft on this topic.  With a big need to be shorter.  I eventually wrote something shorter. *** An Agile Approach We propose that we discuss this for an hour. INTRODUCTORY THOUGHTS When we start working on a product, there are many unknowns, often including: What is the real problem? What is […]

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Agile Requirements Process

The following is a proposal I made to one client.  Might be useful for you. REQUIREMENTS DISCUSSION We propose a 1-hour discussion of the following practical suggestions. NEEDS (I am guessing; these are common.) we need an agile, adaptive solution part of the adaptation is to the specific people and situation of each Team we […]

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Postponing the Sprint Start?

Question: Can a PO postpone the start of a Sprint?  Does the PO have the power to do that? *** Answers: First, why would the PO want to do that? It is important to keep the Team and others (esp the Business Stakeholders) on a regular, consistent rhythm.  Do not let them get used to […]

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Webinar: What should an Agile Manager do?

Webinar: What should an Agile Manager do? Let’s discuss what our current thoughts are. We will propose 8 actions, a small set, of things a manager might start by doing. They are: Set a Goal Check your financial situation Resolve that you want lasting stable Teams Identify the Work for the Team Resolve that you […]

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Iterative and Incremental at 3 Levels – #1 “the what”

THIS IS A DRAFT.  (Comments welcome.) I will try to express two big thoughts. Hopefully these are formed well enough that as I talk about them clearly, you can use them in your situation. * Background So, the two ideas are basically these questions: How do we coordinate at the 3 levels on “the what”.  […]

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Agile-Carolinas Mtg: Waterfall vs Agile – key discussion points

Agile started as a reaction to Waterfall (cf. definition of waterfall in Dr. Royce’s paper). Perhaps not so much a reaction to Royce’s Waterfall, but to how Waterfall was being played in the wild. The reaction was expressed many ways, but a simple short explanation is in the Agile Manifesto (4 lines) and the Agile […]

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The illusion of control

Daniel Mezick has a good post in LinkedIn today: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/danielmezick_the-command-and-control-military-gets-agile-activity-6761443011659370496-itMo About the illusion of control, and the idea that control is an emergent property.  (There’s that darn word emergent again.)  See the article he links to: “The ‘Command and Control’ Military Gets Agile.” https://www.infoq.com/news/2010/06/c2-military-gets-agile/ *** Some quick thoughts. Of course it is an illusion that […]

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