Improving the world with software
Better software. Better questions.
Essays on software development, teams and the craft of building things that last.
Essays, page 4
314 essays in the archive
-
All the Conferences and talks about #NoEstimates in 2015
Are you talking about #NoEstimates at a local or global conference during 2015? Email me at [email protected]. I’ll collect all the #NoEstimates talks and conferences that include the topic right here! Agilia 2015, Brno, Czech Republic Speaker: Henri Karhatsu Topic: #NoEstimates – Going Beyond Estimates Date: March 23rd, 2015 Agile India 2015, Bangalore, India …
-
A Scrum Master Podcast is born!
Me and Luis Gonçalves, my partner at Oikosofy, will be premiering our Scrum Master Toolbox podcast this month! This is a Scrum Master podcast, where we interview guests from all over the world, and they share what they have learned in their careers. Today you get a first sneakpeek at the show! 🙂 Below is …
-
The Top 50 Agile Conferences of 2014, including Lean, Kanban or Scrum (and yes, also XP :)
Every year many Agile, Lean, Kanban or Scrum (and even XP!) conferences are organized throughout the world. So many that it is hard to choose from such a large number. That’s why I decided to create the list of the Top 50 Agile Conferences for us who work in the IT field. I’ve decided to …
-
ScanAgile 2015 submissions are open!
Just a quick note today to let you know that the Call for Sessions for ScanAgile, the Agile Finland annual conference is open for submissions. You can read the whole call for sessions here. You will find the submission form in that page as well. For me the most interesting tracks are: Off-Piste: interesting lessons …
-
5 No Estimates Decision-Making Strategies
One of the questions that I and other #NoEstimates proponents hear quite often is: How can we make decisions on what projects we should do next, without considering the estimated time it takes to deliver a set of functionality? Although this is a valid question, I know there are many alternatives to the assumptions implicit …
-
Lean Change Management: A Truly Agile Change Management approach
“I’ve been working in this company for a long time, we’ve tried everything. We’ve tried involving the teams, we’ve tried training senior management, but nothing sticks! We say we want to be agile, but…” Many people in organizations that try to adopt agile will have said this at some point. Not every company fails to …
-
The No Estimates principle: The importance of knowing when you are wrong
You started the project. You spent hours, no: days! estimating the project. The project starts and your confidence in its success is high. Everything goes well at the start, but at some point you find the project is late. What happened? How can you be wrong about estimates? This story very common in software projects. …
-
The Release Paradox: releasing less often makes your teams slower and decreases quality
Herman is a typical agile coach. He works with teams to help them learn how to deliver high-quality software quickly. Many teams want to focus on design, architecture, or (sometimes) even on business value. But they are usually not in a hurry to release quickly. Recently Herman conveyed a story to me that illustrates how …
-
How to create a knowledge worker Gemba
I am a big fan of the work by Jim Benson and Tonianne Barry ever since I read their book: Personal Kanban. In this article Jim describes an idea that I would like to highlight and expand. He says: we need a knowledge worker Gemba. He goes on to describe how to create that Gemba: …
-
How to choose the right project? Decision making frameworks for software organizations
Frameworks to choose the best projects in organizations are a dime a dozen. We have our NPV (net present value), we have our customized Criteria Matrix, we have Strategic alignment, we have Risk/Value scoring, and the list goes on and on. In every organization there will a preference for one of these or similar methods …
-
Hierarchies remove scaling properties in Agile Software projects
There is a lot of interest in scaling Agile Software Development. And that is a good thing. Software projects of all sizes benefit from what we have learned over the years about Agile Software Development. Many frameworks have been developed to help us implement Agile at scale. We have: SAFe, DAD, Large-scale Scrum, etc. I …
-
What is an Estimate?
If you don’t know what an estimate is, you can’t avoid using them. So here’s my attempt to define what is an estimate.The “estimates” that I’m concerned about are those that can easily (by omission, incompetence or malice) be turned into commitments. I believe Software Development is better seen as a discovery process (even simple …
Nothing matches that yet.
Keep the conversation going
The essays work best in company. Join the community to keep the questions coming.