Getting Started with Agility: Essential Reading
As is the case with many of the people who actually know what they’re talking about, I’ve come to shudder when I hear the word “Agile,” at least until I can figure whether the person who uttered the word actually knows what they’ve just said. More often than not, they don’t. The word Agile has…
Read MoreImprovement Boards
The original version of this post had the tag #NoRetrospectives in the title, but I got tired of the flak and removed it. My intent was to be a bit provocative and to get people thinking about how we can do better than a biweekly retrospective. That is, This article is not advocating that we…
Read MoreKPIs, Velocity, and Other Destructive Metrics
"It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it—a costly myth." –W. Edwards Deming The Deming quote at the top of this post is often twisted into something worthy of Frederick Taylor: "if you can't measure it, you can't manage it." Deming would disagree. You can—in fact, must—manage things…
Read More#NoStandups
The traditional daily stand-up meeting as generally practiced ranges from merely ineffective to a colossal waste of time. It's a band-aid that's hiding ineffective communication. First, some history. The 15-minute "stand-up meeting" is de rigueur for many Agile shops. It's been a standard practice from very early. JJ Sutherland told me the "first standup happened…
Read MoreThe Wrong Questions about Agile
When it comes to Agile, people often ask the wrong questions. I’ve used the term “wrong question” before, and it brought out the trolls, so let’s start with that. The trolls usually scream: “there is no such thing as a wrong question,” and then they launch into a discourse on why I’m an idiot.
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