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…
Read MoreStop scaling Agile
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.
Read MoreAgile can never survive for long
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.
Read MoreBelief that Agile and data warehouses don't mix
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.
Read MoreVelocity and throughput are not organizational metrics
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.
Read MoreStop using user stories to calculate project % complete
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.
Read MoreHow to run a team huddle
In a previous post I wrote about the value of hosting a team huddle. In this post I’ll walk you through a few ways to facilitate a huddle. I’m not going to bore you with a bunch of exposition. Let’s get to it.
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