Blog: Agile & Business

Referral Program

April 26, 2012

We have introduced a referral program. The idea is simple. We want to provide a token of thanks to those who refer a person to one of our classes. The token is a $25 Amazon gift card (we can substitute other gift cards of the same amount). So, it is not a huge referral bonus, […]

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Public Impediment List – Again

April 26, 2012

I wrote the following post to a Scrum group. Perhaps you will find it interesting. It is lightly edited. And it is in response to another person’s post. *** Let’s talk about the impediment list more. Along the way I will mention some of the problems I see in real life. I find that most […]

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What cocktail parties teach us

April 24, 2012

The title above is the title of an article today in the Wall Street Journal.  The subhead is: “Brain Is Wired to Focus on Just One Thing; Which Tasks Are Easier to Combine” It’s all about how we humans are built to focus. Multitasking is, well, inhuman.  A few monkeys can pretend to multitask, but […]

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Refresher Attendees: new program

April 23, 2012

We have just started a new program:  having prior attendees of my courses attend the same course again.  Almost for free.  Well, not exactly free.  You have to pay a much-reduced fee. People need this. they have forgotten they have mis-remembered they have not used certain skills or knowledge they have seen and grown accustomed […]

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Release Planning: Vision

April 22, 2012

[This is one in a series on Release Planning.  The series starts here.] This is the first of several posts on my suggestions for the details of doing better agile Release Planning. The first step is Vision.  We define the vision, and make sure that all the right people see the same vision and “agree […]

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Minimum Definition of ‘Agile’: Scrum-Butt Test

April 15, 2012

First, let’s assume that we believe that our firm needs a good agile transformation to achieve important business goals. Perhaps these goals are: (a) faster time to market, (b) more creativity in the product, and (c) greater productivity.  (In any case, not ‘Agile’ for agile’s sake.) One method to achieve more success from the agile […]

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Why add a Workshop Day to the CSM course?

April 13, 2012

Apparently I am one of the few Scrum Alliance CSTs (Certified Scrum Trainers) who always adds a Workshop day (or 2) to the CSM (Certified ScrumMaster) course. Why do I add the workshop day? The simple reason is because the attendees demand it. Honestly, before they have taken the course the attendees don’t really know […]

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Kanban Question

April 9, 2012

A colleague asks:  “We are an out-sourcing firm and have a client who does not have a Product Backlog. In fact, they often can’t prepare enough items (stories) for even a full Sprint Backlog. (2 week Sprints).  He is not used to Scrum or any other Agile approach. I am thinking of using Kanban with […]

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Why Do Scrum?

March 25, 2012

If we hear about Scrum and want to convince some managers to do it, how should we present the benefits of this approach? The 2011 Agile Survey by Version One gives some ideas.  See it here: http://agileconsortium.pbworks.com/w/page/51511217/2011%20State%20of%20Agile%20Survey Typically the biggest idea is: faster time to market.  And this is a very powerful idea. But it is […]

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Dr. Royce and Waterfall

March 24, 2012

In 1970, Dr. Winston Royce wrote the paper that defined Waterfall.  It was probably beig done by others at the time, but the paper is considered definitive. Here is the paper: http://agileconsortium.pbworks.com/w/page/52184647/Royce%20Defining%20Waterfall He identified 5 things that must be added to reduce most of the risks of doing waterfall.  And I will comment on how Scrum […]

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