Stories are the raw materials of development. They should stay in a raw form until needed. Or, as stated by the third “law of development physics”: The value of requirements increases as its production release becomes imminent. Or, you know what you need when you see it, until then, make up a good story.
In my post, What’s so Wrong with Pushing, I showed by analogy how Time Blocked Iterations, Story Points and Burn Down Rate enabled a superior pull mechanism over traditional management for development teams. In this post, I’ll quantify how to maximize results from that pull system. There are three, sometimes opposing objectives in maximizing the …
If you have not already read the philosophies of 37Signals' development, it is time well spent. You can read Getting Real on-line. It overviews the software development ideas that created such programs such as Ruby on Rails and Basecamp. Using simple language and numerous case studies, they layout understanding that agile advocates should have as background. Here's a teaser from their introduction: …
In agile development, much emphasis is rightfully placed on burn down rate, the number of story points completed within an iteration of development. I’ve never been fully satisfied with explanations for why this measure and control of it is so critical. In reality, burndown is only meaningful when story points are limited in a time-blocked …
Is the cost of software defects driven more by time than the stage of its discovery?
I am moderating a panel discussion in June and am looking for panelists interested in participating. It is for a BusinessAnalystWorld Symposium Conference and is titled The Role of the BA in an Agile Environment on June 9, 2008 from 9:45-11:00am in Denver. I would like to get perspective from practitioners in organizations of different sizes …
Business Process Management (BPM) application suites push the power of design, execution and improvement of processes toward business users. You've invested a bunch of time, energy and money on your enterprise systems over the years. As soon as those implementations were complete, perhaps even before, something changed in your business. Immediately, the systems you put …
Many organizations looking to Agile methodologies to gain better results more quickly at lower costs are taking on the question of what is the role of a Project Manger (PM) on Agile Projects. It is common for a traditional PM to take scrum master training and then assume that role for agile development. But, how …
This blog will share mostly professional thoughts and learning, but occasionally, I will throw in some personal insights and ideas just to keep things lively. Topics will incldue: Applying Agile, Leadership, Business and Technology Strategy, Process Optimization and others that come to mind. Thanks for tuning in.
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