In the dynamic world of Agile Project Management, adaptability isn’t just a virtue but a cornerstone that defines the essence of being Agile. As teams dive into the swirling currents of project deliverables, customer expectations, and market trends, the ability to morph strategies…
I get it. You have some Agile teams and things worked out not too bad. But now you have some big projects that must be done, you know, an enterprise project. Some Chief Whatever Officer decided that it was a good idea to stake the entire company on the successful implementation of a gigantic software solution. The Agile leaders (you’re probably one of them) decide it’s now a good idea (hint: it’s not) to “scale” Agile.
Agile, of Agile Manifesto fame, can never survive on its own. It will forever fall victim to the forces of entropy that exist in all things throughout nature. To make matters worse, Agile succumbs to the will of authoritarian managers who lurk in the corridors of all organizations.
There seems to be a belief among information technology (IT) teams that a data warehouse team can’t be Agile. However, you really can build data warehouses using Agile methodologies. Stop and think about what it means to be Agile. Agile is nothing more than a way of working. There’s nothing special to Agile other than people working collaboratively to solve business problems. That’s it. That’s Agile in a nutshell. When someone says a data warehouse team can’t be Agile, what they are saying is, “A data warehouse team can’t collaborate to solve business problems.” In this article I will lay out where this belief comes from and what organizations must do to eliminate this belief from data warehouse teams.
One of the most difficult things for managers to do is to figure out how best to measure their organization’s performance. Everyone knows that metrics are designed to measure performance, but more often than not, the metrics managers choose don’t measure what they think they measure. When you introduce Agile into an organization, managers crank their confusion to 11 and really struggle with how to measure the performance of their changing organization.
Managers need the ability to see how far along projects are within their organizations. Managers use this information to make strategic decisions about their companies. However, many managers forget (ignore?) the fundamental difference between Agile organizations and non-Agile organizations—work is about outcomes, not output. In this article I will address how measuring projects based on the percent of user stories completed is a terrible idea, and I will argue why this is bad for your sanity, and the sanity of your Agile teams.
A new study highlights what most people already know. Businesses that spout rhetoric about national politics is not good for morale.
Many adults look down at the concept of play. One only need look to a married couple; one in which one spouse plays video games and the other does not to see how “playing” is viewed as an immature pastime. Play, however, has existed throughout the history of society. The reason for play’s lengthy existence is its ability to inculcate societal values and teach the individual proper rights and behaviors that are important to the societal group.
I have to admit things are getting easier. Perhaps they get easier before they get harder. I don’t know. I still don’t know what I’m doing half the time.
Such is the nature of starting a podcast.
People are quickly finding out that being isolated from the rest of the world kinda sucks. Yes we have social media, but traditional forms of social media lack presence. The method of communication in social media is asynchronous—you say something and it could be hours or days before I read what you said. Video games provide a way to reduce feelings of isolation and build community even when separated by half the world.
A very good friend and I are starting a new podcast! We’ve recorded a couple of episodes to work out various technical hurdles and practice holding a conversation for a listening audience. So far I’m having a blast doing it. This is an opportunity for me to work on something creative, talk about issues I find important, produce something to send out into the world, and spend quality time with one of my best friends.
A few weeks back I was a speaker at a local conference called Agile Arizona. I gave a talk about virtual teams where I looked at virtual teams through an Agile lens. It was a difficult presentation because I wanted people to come away with new information they could use in their daily jobs. It was also difficult for another reason:
Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters and the film is quite divisive. You either hate it or you like it. There are some folks who love it, but it appears that the majority of people who enjoyed the film fall into the “like it” category rather than the “love it” category. I could be wrong, it’s just my initial reading of fans. But I digress.
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a conference about the power of virtual teams. I used several examples I’ve learned from video gamers to make various points about working in virtual teams. To my surprise, the majority of my audience was interested in the relationship between video gamers and virtual teams.