Opinions on leadership and management
I started Agile-Mercurial to help me improve my writing. I make simple mistakes. I rush through to get it done and use “Their” instead of “They’re” more often than I care to admit. I get a bit wordy and go off in random directions sometimes; you should read […]
Orientation Trust Building Goal Definition Commitment Planning Implementation Reassess and Renew Most people have some familiarity with Tuckman’s Model – 5 Stages of Team Development. It’s simple and easy to understand, but it may not show the whole story and sometimes it is nice to have a bit of […]
You have a big project coming up that seems like it may take months or even years to complete. You know generally what you want, but you aren’t quite sure yet how to get there. The path seems long, complex, and things may change along the way as […]
One of the reasons user stories are used over a traditional requirements list is that they can become part of a persona for the users of the end product of the project. It helps the project manager, developers, and other members of the project and other stakeholders view […]
Pair programming is two developers working together on the same code at the same time. One writes the code, the other watches. The theory behind pair programming is that it reduces mistakes and technical debt. It is often associated with Agile software development, although Agile specifically does not […]
Is there room for a Project Manager in Agile? Agile on its own does not define any roles. Scrum Master and Product Owner are Scrum roles, not Agile roles. Even within Scrum, duties often considered Project Manager duties still need to occur (Who is the Project Manager in […]
Earned Value Management (EVM) is comprised of several formulas that provide an analysis of a project and its current state regarding budget and schedule. EVM provides a way to measure the project in a quantifiable way using project metrics. It may not always be ideal and it may […]
Stop using Agile as an excuse for your failure to plan. There is nothing about Agile that means or implies that you do not plan. You must make the plan loose enough to be adaptable but detailed enough to be useful. You must still plan. You may even […]
The first thing I want to do is wish you good luck. I have been involved in trying to do some of this using technology solutions to help streamline processes, you may be in for a rough time. Here they are, in no specific order (because it may […]
We can get away with having lazy communication practices in a co-located team or single building environment. In a co-located team we have accidents and chance encounters that help fill in the gap that exists without a proactive communication plan. In a single work building, we can expect to […]
Complexity Theory is primarily made up of 4 different theories that are used for modeling and analyzing complex systems. These complex systems can include both the natural world, human/animal relationships, as well as the organization of businesses. From Complexity Theory, there have emerged several ideas that try to […]
The short answer – yes they do. Within Agile there is a heavy stress on servant-leadership, self-organizing teams, and emergent leadership. The belief is that through the use of those things, management is unnecessary. The manager of the past has a negative association with authoritarian leadership that dictates […]
User story creation should not be a difficult process. You may encounter the occasional “what do I do here?” situations, but generally, the process should be fairly easy as long as you have the right people helping with understanding the requirements. At times through your project or product […]
An osmotic event is a failure or breakdown in communication that could have led to issues but was averted by pure accident or coincidence. It occurs when a company either lacks a plan for handling certain communication, the plan is not followed, or the plan is inadequate. (What […]
You don’t need to have iterative and incremental development practices, or even a project, to be Agile. Don’t focus on what the Agile frameworks say, focus on what is the best way. Iterative and incremental don’t always make sense – Agile doesn’t actually require iterative and incremental. Even […]
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