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 develop how to maximize results from that pull system. There are three, sometimes opposing objectives in maximizing the …
Getting Real from 37Signals
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: …
What’s so Wrong with Pushing
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. To develop my perspective, let me step back and use analogy from manufacturing. I …
Cost of Software Defects
Is the cost of software defects driven more by time than the stage of its discovery?
Call for Panelists
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 …
Do You Need BPM?
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 …
Project Manager to Scrum Master
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 …
Horizon Line Group 