Yearly Archives: 2008

Business Value and Money: Killing Low Priority Projects

This topic is leading somewhere. It may take a few posts to fully get there. First, let me say that in my personal opinion (and Peter Drucker’s and many others’) business is not mainly about money. Money is a measure, but it is not why we run the race. Business is about delivering satisfaction to […]

The Nokia Test (2): Working Software

The second line in the Nokia Test says: Software must be tested and working by the end of each iteration. This is the second of three items that confirms the team (project) is “iterative.” There is a series of small tests (within the Nokia Test) if the team is really doing Scrum (in Nokia’s opinion). […]

Tell Her No

Yesterday, I was teaching a class where many of the attendees were from the same company. They had one major issue: At almost every Sprint, either the Product Owner or a Stakeholder would add one or more stories in the middle of the Sprint. I find this to be a common problem. Indeed, the new […]

5 Whys: To get better, ask why.

If you have a 2-year-old, or remember one; you are familiar with the word “why.” Repeatedly. Now, here is a more adult way to use that word. Lean tells us we should ask “why” all the time. In fact, the Five Whys to discover the root cause of a problem so we fix it once […]

The Concept of “Ba”

“Ba can be thought of as a shared space for emerging relationships.” This is a quote from Nonaka’s paper called (surprise): “The concept of ‘Ba.’” Why is this important? Takeuchi and Nonaka work at a famous business school in Japan. They have been working on New Product Development to understand how and why some firms […]