Agile
Your Agile adoption needs to be agile
Agile adoptions stall for a number of reasons. On the surface, it may seem that there is a cultural mismatch, that people don’t like change, or that people just don’t have time available. Although those things must be addressed for change to take root, we have found that it’s often the process for getting people…
Read More6 Questions to ask when hiring your next agile coach
It’s safe to say Agile software delivery is here for good. With so many agile coaches in Chicago, where I live and out there in general, it’s helpful to understand the differences between them so you can make an informed decision when hiring one for a full-time role or a consulting engagement. What follows will…
Read MoreUse Scrum to manage your employees
If you’re new to Scrum and want to get the most out of a team of under-performers, you should try Scrum!! Used a certain way it can be the best form of 21st century micromanagement. Don’t worry about your teams resisting the push of Scrum. If you simply make the use of Scrum a company…
Read MoreLead Time vs Cycle Time: A Bedtime Story about Beer and Mustangs
My friend John is a delivery lead at a local Chicago software firm. He’s trying to get the hang of using metrics to help improve the performance of software development in his organization. He was originally looking at lead time and cycle time but was really confused after some internet research. It seems many people…
Read More5 Things Management Must Do for Successful Agile Transformation
Successful agile transformation requires significant changes in how an organization works. Those changes require altering the way people do their work every single day. Getting people to change the way they work is (theoretically) simple. You have to explain the change you want to see, get them to buy in, give them what they need…
Read MoreUse Scrum to Say Goodbye to Risk in Hardware Development
Companies who build hardware often ask if it’s possible to benefit from Scrum. In order to answer this question, I need to first introduce you to my friend Risk. Risk is a terrible friend. Risk likes to keep information about the future from me and show up when I least expect. Risk has a very…
Read More7 vital differences between Agile adoption and agile transformation
In my experience working with organizations that are transforming how they work, many people misunderstood what the goals of the transformation are. This is often the result of not understanding the difference between an Agile adoption and agile transformation. In this post, I’ll explain what an Agile adoption is, what agile transformation is, and seven…
Read MoreTackling the People Side of Technical Debt
Technical Debt There’s a concept in software development called technical debt that reflects the implied cost of additional rework caused by choosing quick and easy solutions over a better solution that could potentially take longer to implement. Technical debt comes with the obligation of interest similar to financial debt, but in the form of extra…
Read More5 Components of agile transformation that can’t be ignored
If your organization is adopting agile delivery, you are going through an agile transformation. An organization often begins agile transformation because it is a small company that grew up without much official process and structure and things are too chaotic or it is a larger company looking to replace Waterfall style delivery. In this post,…
Read MoreLet’s remove “Agile” from agile leadership
What exactly is “agile” or even an Agile leader? This is one of the biggest problems our industry faces. Ask a room full of people to answer and you may get as many answers. Common ones include “it’s a mindset” or “it’s a software methodology” etc… I think of this word “agile” as being synonymous…
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