Large organizations are often hesitant to replace very old legacy applications that have served mission-critical business operations for many years. In fact, they are reluctant to modify the applications at all. Why is that? Before answering that question, let’s answer this one: Who Cares? Looking back over the course of the “agile” movement, it seems to me that larger companies began to take a serious interest in “going agile” once the idea reached the Early Adopter phase of the diffusion of innovations curve, and looked as if it was not going to fizzle out. Since then, many large organizations have…

For starters, let me just say there’s no problem with story points. Story points are a way of expressing the relative sizes of stories. They can be helpful for short-term planning of software development activities. Unfortunately, sometimes people get hung up on the numbers, and they lose track of the substance. People can get into the habit of repeating the buzzwords and marketing phrases that go along with a particular named or branded Thing. I’ve noticed a lot of software development teams bring certain buzzwords into their everyday vocabulary and use them creatively (or carelessly). It’s cool for a team…

 This talk covers techniques and approaches to developing and communicating roadmaps to your organization. Balancing Agility and predictability in a roadmap is a challenge, and stakeholders require transparency in order to effectively drive organizations forward. Product teams that efficiently deliver value to market require the flexibility to make decisions using the latest discovery and learning, while giving their team time to plan for the product’s direction. Whether your team is a startup looking to define your product strategy, or an enterprise looking to remain competitive while coordinating across hundreds of teams, this event will deliver valuable insights and techniques…

In slide #9 of this deck about using cycle time analytics in forecasting, Troy Magennis shows that when four people plan to meet for dinner, there is only one chance in 16 that all four will arrive on time. Typical corporate management thinking would solve this problem by creating a Department of Dinner Planning and promulgating detailed procedures, based on Industry Best Practices, to ensure people arrived on time for each dinner. When that didn’t work (and it wouldn’t, of course), the typical response would be to tighten the screws. Make the procedures even more detailed. Limit the choice of…

I work with some really smart people. On a regular basis, they create and do things that challenge and inspire me. This morning I got up and read this post by Dave Nicolette. In it, Dave shares his thoughts on the relationship between Quality, Craft, and Value. He uses the metaphor of the impact a jazz solo has to explain the relationship between these things.  Because I have consumed an irresponsible amount of caffeine this morning—and because I love trying to connect music, art, and what we build… I’m Having All The Thoughts and They Must be Set Free Dave…