Tag Archives: Business
Planning for product success
There is no recipe for product success, but these things might help. Be clear in the objectives and priorities. Keep the portfolio’s performance balanced. Continuously research and clear out unknowns. Keep shipping and monitoring production. Adapt the plan along the way. And if possible- have fun! Continue reading
What’s going on?
When I ask someone “How’re you?” the response I usually get is, “fine”. If I ask “What’s up?” the response is, “not much”. These questions prompt rote responses. I can detect a little of how someone really feels in the inflection of the answer. There’s a subtle but important difference between “not much…” and “not much!”, but I am interested in knowing more than if you might be bored at the moment. For me, “What’s going on?” is the question that garners more than a habitual answer. In most instances, it triggers someone to tell me like it is. Not … Continue reading
What do you think the INVEST acronym is for #Agile User Stories?
This is a question I asked recently of a newly-formed Scrum team in a User Story Writing workshop. It occurred to me to not just blurt it out and to let them offer suggestions instead. They were very willing to contribute and I’d like to share the answers they came up with: I Improve, Innovate, Integrate, Intent, Invent, Interesting, Initial N Navigate, New, Novel, Negotiate V Viewable, Viable, Value E Effective, Easy, Evaluate S Stable, Scope, Simple, Satisfied, Success, Scalable T Testing, Time After a couple of rounds of shout-outs I asked if they’d like the answer, and they kept … Continue reading
Inside the #lsmsf Lean Startup Machine
For the first time since snowboarding for a living, I once again love my job as an Agile coach. Sometimes I wonder if working with transforming large enterprises would be easier if I invested some time working with younger people attempting newer concepts in smaller companies. I got my first chance to test that theory the weekend of 16 Jan by joining The Lean Startup Machine in San Francisco. The picture to the left links to a book we were all given as homework to read for the event. While I did skim it, along with the Lean Startup Machine … Continue reading
Death by Scrum Meeting
I recently received an email from a senior-level manager, who raises a valid question about all the meetings associated with Scrum. This particular instance of Scrum has over 50 people working in more than one locale. When yet another meeting was created, he raised a valid question: 90 minutes every week for backlog hygiene? And that is on top of all other scrums, scrum of scrums, business reviews, can we ship, planning etc. meetings and scrums? I am getting seriously concerned about our state and efficiency. If we need to spend 90 minutes on this weekly, than, IMHO, someone is … Continue reading
Kanban Ground Rules Example for a Specific Team
Kanban System for Software Engineering Kanban System for Software Engineering – KSSE Introduction Definitions Roles Acronyms Metrics Queue sizes Process Getting Things into TIP and on through to production Self-organization Get Things Done Releasing Constraints Other Interesting Work Kaizen Generating and Verifying Acceptance Criteria Stand-up Measures of Success Visual tracking Tradeshow For Finished Features Retrospective Regular Cadence Whole Team Incentives Introduction Kanban (in kanji where kan, means “visual,” and ban, means “card” or “board”) is a concept related to lean and just-in-time (JIT) production. Kanban is a signaling system. As its name suggests, Kanban historically uses cards to signal the … Continue reading
Naked Planning Explained – Kanban in the Small
While attending Agile2007 I kept finding myself in the company of Arlo Belshee, especially as he was going through his implementation of a Kanban System at BlueTech LLC. The conversations became for me one of the stand out ideas discussed at the conference. This process might have started when Arlo really got in to the lean literature and looked around for waste in the Scrum system. He believed he found it in estimation. The amount estimated to work always differs from actual amount worked, is therefore supposition and only a guess, so this estimation was declared muda. There are a … Continue reading