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What cocktail parties teach us

The title above is the title of an article today in the Wall Street Journal.  The subhead is: “Brain Is Wired to Focus on Just One Thing; Which Tasks Are Easier to Combine” It’s all about how we humans are built to focus. Multitasking is, well, inhuman.  A few monkeys can pretend to multitask, but […]

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Refresher Attendees: new program

We have just started a new program:  having prior attendees of my courses attend the same course again.  Almost for free.  Well, not exactly free.  You have to pay a much-reduced fee. People need this. they have forgotten they have mis-remembered they have not used certain skills or knowledge they have seen and grown accustomed […]

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Release Planning: Vision

[This is one in a series on Release Planning.  The series starts here.] This is the first of several posts on my suggestions for the details of doing better agile Release Planning. The first step is Vision.  We define the vision, and make sure that all the right people see the same vision and “agree […]

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Minimum Definition of ‘Agile’: Scrum-Butt Test

First, let’s assume that we believe that our firm needs a good agile transformation to achieve important business goals. Perhaps these goals are: (a) faster time to market, (b) more creativity in the product, and (c) greater productivity.  (In any case, not ‘Agile’ for agile’s sake.) One method to achieve more success from the agile […]

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Why add a Workshop Day to the CSM course?

Apparently I am one of the few Scrum Alliance CSTs (Certified Scrum Trainers) who always adds a Workshop day (or 2) to the CSM (Certified ScrumMaster) course. Why do I add the workshop day? The simple reason is because the attendees demand it. Honestly, before they have taken the course the attendees don’t really know […]

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Why Do Scrum?

If we hear about Scrum and want to convince some managers to do it, how should we present the benefits of this approach? The 2011 Agile Survey by Version One gives some ideas.  See it here: http://agileconsortium.pbworks.com/w/page/51511217/2011%20State%20of%20Agile%20Survey Typically the biggest idea is: faster time to market.  And this is a very powerful idea. But it is […]

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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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