Archives

Dr. Royce and Waterfall

In 1970, Dr. Winston Royce wrote the paper that defined Waterfall.  It was probably beig done by others at the time, but the paper is considered definitive. Here is the paper: http://agileconsortium.pbworks.com/w/page/52184647/Royce%20Defining%20Waterfall He identified 5 things that must be added to reduce most of the risks of doing waterfall.  And I will comment on how Scrum […]

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Scrum vs Waterfall : How do they Compare?

Scrum vs Waterfall I have recently been asked for advice on how to compare Waterfall (WF) and Scrum VS Waterfall.  This is a hard question in some ways: the best way to compare will depend on the person you are talking to.  Another problem is that few people do ‘pure’ waterfall in actual practice. And […]

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Agile Transformation – 1

I was leading an Intermediate CSPO course last week in Winston-Salem. There were some good questions. One theme was about the agile transformation. The idea is simple, and has many names.  One way to say it: Only by transforming the culture and many of the current ‘ways of doing things’ can a firm realize the […]

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2011 State of Agile Survey

Below is the 2011 Survey by Version One.  The state of agile.  One might like yet better participants in the survey, but still I think it is generally indicative of the main trends, because many participated. http://agileconsortium.pbworks.com/w/page/51511217/2011%20State%20of%20Agile%20Survey  Some key points to me: * We have a long way to go * Too many people “rolling […]

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Who should fix Impediments?

In the Certified ScrumMasters LinkedIn group, Michael asked: Who should fix impediments, the SM or the Team? His answer was: Both. And then he discussed.  This topic has drawn a fair number of comments.  Here is one of mine. *** 1. Michael is right. Who should fix the impediments and how much the Team should […]

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We must have working software at the end of the Sprint!

This is a common failing (we don’t have working product or working software at the end of the sprint).  Jeff Sutherland has said this is the biggest problem in the Scrum community — too many teams don’t have working software at the end of every Sprint. If we include cases where 1 or more PBIs […]

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Business Value Engineering framework

I am about to do another BV Engineering workshop. In Orlando, Feb 23-24.  Preceded (appropriately) by an Intermediate CSPO (Product Owner) course. Feb 21-22. In this post I wanted to explain the workshop from a different angle that I have done before. First, what is the BVE framework? Scrum is a framework.  Not a full […]

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Are managers evil?

Managers, they say, are often bad in the US, and in the world. And there is some justification for this. And, of course, most managers are not evil.  Although, like many of us, many might be badly trained. Some background Peter Drucker worked on this problem of managing.  W. Edwards Deming had his ideas, and […]

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Product Owner & the Team

Is the product owner a member of the team?  Yes, fully and completely. What is the biggest problem that most teams face? At the high level (value) or the low level (details), they don’t understand what the customer wants well enough. Who is mainly responsible for managing the flow of this ‘business information’ into the […]

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Public Impediment List !!! – 2

There is a good Scrum trainer who thinks that a public impediment list is not important.  So, if he can misunderstand, then we all can. Here is a better explanation of why it is important, I hope. I find the lack of a public impediment list is a prime indicator of a lack of focus […]

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