#agile explained
Consequences of Thinking, Fast and Slow on User Interviews
This is the first (second?) post on a series on how my coaching and training style may change, based on the book Thinking, Fast and Slow.
What are you passionate about?
At Rally, Tim asked me this in my interview. And as we went through a recent company retreat, Jeff asked me this a few times. Here’s my answer. Continue reading
Consequences of Thinking, Fast and Slow – Blog Series
Have you read the book Thinking, Fast and Slow? Getting asked that occasionally I did little more that watch a video of it from AsapSCIENCE), so that I could nod vaguely as the person who asked me talked about it. Picking it up more than a couple of years after its release I made my way through it all, pausing frequently. Pausing because it’s information dense and I needed to process what I was reading. And as I processed, it made me think about what it means for how I teach and coach people.
dual track Scrum in brief
Coining the term “dual track” Desireé Sy‘s Adapting Usability Investigations for Agile User-centered Design(pdf) (2007) might be one of the first examples drawing out and labeling a process knows as dual track Scrum and stating, Although the dual tracks depicted (…) seem separate, in reality, interaction designers need to communicate every day with developers. This is not only to ensure that designs are being implemented correctly, but also so that we have a thorough understanding of technical constraints that affect design decisions
My response for a Project Manager trying to improve the use of Agile
tl;dr A Project Manager asks me at the end of a class how best to show progress in Agile projects, since phases can’t be checked off complete. My questions for him are: can measures like lead time, throughput, and defect rates be measured across any type of project? What tools are used to track the work from larger goals and initiatives through to smaller stories and tasks? He decided to have the tool vendors used demonstrate full system capabilities, from portfolio management to daily task tracking.
Certified ScrumMaster Slides Now Available
Certified Scrum Master Course from Aaron Sanders The following is a little story of how I came up with flow to this deck. And what you won’t find in it.
Making changes to Project Management during an Agile transition
What can you change right now At the end of my Certified Scrum Master class I ask people to reflect on what resonated with them in the class and come up with something to try at work tomorrow to make a little positive change. This last time as people went through their notes, wrote ideas down for action and discussed with others, a couple of people came up to run things by me.
The Weather Channel Lean UX Case Study Now Available
On September 17, 2013 Jeff Hutkoff and I presented a case study on a travel feature made for the iPhone application. Special thanks to Jeff Gothelf from Neo and Lauren Cramer from UIE for organizing the event.
Ten Tales of Positive Change – Conclusion and Acknowledgements
What do all of these tales have in common? They started out as an idea that led to a small change. These changes could be implemented easily, cheaply and quickly when there was complete buy-in from everyone that the change was necessary and for the better. Of course, I didn’t always find myself in a better place. One result had us building a product that became attractive for an acquisition, while our related labor cost did not. Many of us lost our jobs to promote the sale. Another consequence of success was having a senior executive in our organization determine … Continue reading
Allowing for Cross-Functional Teams
A home entertainment provider called me in to facilitate User Story writing followed by release planning. The business unit had not tried either activity before. Leadership had been replaced and the new General Manager and Vice President of Technology decided to invest in the group’s burgeoning Scrum effort. The organization followed a structured work breakdown approach with tasks functionally derived. People were willing to approach product definition in an Agile way and wanted to experiment with User Stories. We discussed the vertical nature of Stories and that teams were formed orthogonally, based on the architectural stack. A few people pointed … Continue reading