Archives

Fearless Change

Mary Lynn Manns is visiting Agile-Carolinas in Charlotte next week. As many of you will know, Dr. Manns is the co-author of Fearless Change, along with Linda Rising. This is a great book about getting people to adopt a new idea (eg, lean-agile-scrum). So, I wanted to take this opportunity, in thanks, to praise the […]

We can’t go any faster Captain!

With many Scrum teams, they reach the point of attacking all the obvious impediments. And the impediments, at least in their minds, are all fixed. And they say, in effect, “we can’t make it go any faster Captain!” As that actor with the Scottish accent would say in the original Star Trek. What’s wrong with […]

Release Planning & the Early Warning System

Building complex innovative products is, of course, hard. In that context, what is the purpose of Release Planning in Scrum/Agile? I will not provide a complete explanation here, but will give a few key ideas. A consensus view of the ‘same’ elephant. I want all the team members to see the whole product and to […]

Respect

I just led a course in Charleston mostly for people working in/on government or military projects. I was asked many good questions, and I was not able, in the time allotted (two days) to answer them all as well as the questions deserved. I have other clients who also have very difficult situations to deal […]

King of Anything

Sara Bareilles, whose music I have enjoyed, has a new song: King of Anything. I think you will like it. You might be asking: Why is he talking about this song here? And the answer: In work, we must recognize the importance of freedom and self-organization. For their own sake (these are human rights, after […]

Value of Training (CSPO)

What’s Scrum training worth? I am about to lead a Certified Scrum Product Owner course. (2 days in NYC and a bit later in Saratoga Springs.) The question comes up: What is this course worth? I explain this in more detail in the course, but here’s the summary. In the course we talk about many […]

A fourth Google video (Lean-Agile)

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

Adopting Agile (Lean Software Development – 4)

Brad Appleton, whom I mentioned in my last short post, also had this post linking to Agile Adoption as reported in the Agile Journal. This issue is talking about top-down Agile Adoption. My own view is generally that the workers deliver to the customers, and the managers support the workers. So, in line with that, […]

Lean Resources

Brad Appleton had this post with a LOT of Lean resources. I have not reviewed them all. I will endeavor to annotate them later.

Do we have to use the F-word?

OK, it’s a provocative title. I like to talk about two F-words: Feelings and Failure. This post is about failure and how to use it. I was working inside a firm recently and someone said: “We can’t talk about failure around here. That would hurt our careers.” Ummm. First, let me (apparently) change subjects completely. […]