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

February 2014 Goals

2014 Release Planning I am about 75% there! Most of the plan is done and we are currently working as if it is set and stone. However, I have one customer that pushed back our meeting and our organizational overview was schedule for the end of this month. I’m not expecting a lot of changes … Continue reading

Weekly Wrap Up – Zicam, User Stories, Intersect

Five Things I Accomplished Next week I am conducting an Agile user story workshop for a large group of newish product owners. I’ve only done this type of training for developers/project leads so reworking it to fit folks who aren’t used writing up requirements was an interesting exercise on its own. This year my team … Continue reading

January 2014 Goals

2014 Release Plan We have a multi stage process for determining what projects will be worked on every year.  The first stage is a general wish list developed by the actual IT team; this includes all the projects that really don’t have much user value, such as upgrading servers or cleaning up libraries.  Next we … Continue reading