Agile So Far – January 2015

Our 31st iteration started off with an Agile review meeting where we had an open discussion on what changes we’d like to make, ideas for the future and a few minutes from me on addressing reporting needs. Not a lot came out of it, surprisingly. I guess I was expecting more tweaks than I probably … Continue reading

Innovation – Creative Abrasion

Two things connected for me recently in a stars aligning kind of way. Years ago, 11 in fact, I purchased a creative abrasion training guide for my team thinking that it would a good tool when working with other teams or customers where the relationship was contentious to help us to get through combat to … Continue reading

Measuring for Success

I have read recently that one of the worst things that you can do when measuring the success of your Agile implementation is to use measures to influence people’s behavior.  Meaning instead of using your measuring processes to assess the overall success of your products, or as a feedback mechanism to find pain points or … Continue reading

January 2015 Goals

Projects Housekeeping Every year we take a look at all of our data warehouses reviewing not just the age of the data but also things that may have changed; business logic that may no longer be valid, old tables and stored procedures, and most importantly taking a look at performance to make sure that everything … Continue reading

Estimating with Agile

Why do you need to estimate well? Imagine that you’re a lender; you review loan requests, negotiate the terms and the repayment plan all up front. These are agreed upon and even signed off on by all parties, money exchanges hands, and you bask in the glory of a great plan. Along comes the first … Continue reading