Idea debt
I read a really interesting article the other day called "Kill Your Old Ideas So You Can Be More Creative" by Nick Douglas. Nick was discussing how proactive it can be to have a clear out of old creative ideas and how this has helped his creative processes, specifically with…
Visualising change
I recently spent a pleasant evening in London talking to Gez Smith about all things Agile/Lean supposedly so he could interview me on Why Agile Transformations fail. A few days before I scribbled some pictures / mind maps in a trusty notebook in an attempt to clarify my thoughts. I…
Six signs your iteration is waterfalling
Signs Changing thought patterns and approaches is one of the harder aspects of a Agile way of working. This is especially true of Scrum which on the surface looks very simple. Indeed you can read the guide in half an hour or so and if good at retaining information probably…
Knowledge vs Understanding
I have some knowledge of gravity. I see it in action every time I drop my phone. I however have very little understanding of how or why it works. With gravity that's OK. It's going to work regardless of my understanding of it. With Scrum however this can causes some…
Onion Bhaji
Everyone likes an onion bhaji, even people who don't like onions seem to love them. So why not make your own? It's not that hard. You will need to get down the shop or look in the cupboard for: 4 Large onions (red or white) 2 Cloves of garlic Enough…
Something is rotten in the state of a refactoring sprint
When a technical team demands a sprint just consisting of refactoring you know there is some fairly hefty dysfunction hiding somewhere in your process. It is questionable if this would be a sprint at all, yes there may be a potentially shippable product at the end but to the product…
So many trees but where is the wood?
It is far too easy for developers and other technical resources to get caught up in the technical solution and processes at the expense of the objective they set out to achieve. People lose track of the value that was envisioned by the business. They can become blinkered and inward…
The right level of quality : Project Cake
One of the key points of developing a product is getting the correct level of quality. Too much and you waste money on expensive resource gaining no benefit. Too low a level and you spend money fixing the issues or paying down the technical debt. As ever I like to…
Practice, practice, practice.
I read a very interesting article this morning in regards to learning methods and specifically skill improvement through practice in relation to top athletes. Practice has been distilled by Angela Duckworth into four main categories: Intentional Practice. To achieve optimal skill development we don’t practice randomly. Practice has to have…
Travel Points not Story Points
Story points as a term has always worried me. To customers who have not had involvement in Agile projects it can seem as if it’s a way of scoring the value of a story. Points as we know mean prizes or at least a positive connotation. Admittedly it also has…