In my last post, I highlighted some of the common problems around estimating the size of upcoming projects. Today, I’m going to think through WHY we are facing these problems. Over the last several months, I’ve been thinking more and more that THE underlying principle in all of management and leadership is “balance”. From Ken … Continue reading »
Let me clarify. Sure, all the self-organized team estimation techniques work fine when your planning work for a single team. However, I’m finding more and more that single-team techniques break down when applied to large programs and portfolios. I know this, because I learned it the hard way. Continue reading »
I’ve had it. The other week I heard the umpteenth person make some misguided, mistaken declaration about the rules of Scrum. I hear it way too often. “Scrum says this” or “Scrum says that”. There is a ton of misunderstanding out there about what Scrum is and what it isn’t, and it’s driving me crazy. … Continue reading »
Just a quick note to say I’m speaking tomorrow evening at the Baltimore Chapter of the IIBA. I often get asked “What is the role of a BA in an agile environment.” Much like a project manager, a business analyst carries a set of expectations and is legitimately interested in how that changes when we change … Continue reading »
This post was originally published (p28) as part of my recurring “Agile Project Manager” column in PM Network, PMI’s membership magazine. Other installments can be found here. It drives me crazy. I heard an agile consultant this week say, “We’re trying to force the client to track progress they way we want her to”. Really? Good luck with … Continue reading »
I will be presenting at the AgileDC conference next month on October 23rd. I’m really excited to be a part of the event this year. AgileDC has established itself as THE place to be for Washington DC area agile practitioners to trade tips, tricks, and war stories about getting work done better. Open this post to learn more and get a special discount code. Continue reading »
Agile experts tell us fixed price projects are immoral and declare that agility can only be delivered on a slippery schedule and budget. But what about the real world? What about fixed deadlines and fixed budgets? What about projects that are selected based on schedule and cost? How do you agile that? This post contains slides and webinars that will help you learn key principles for achieving agility in a fixed-price environment. Continue reading »
The most dramatic cause of project overruns is that we are doing more work than is absolutely necessary to achieve the high-level scope statement. But you can be the exception. Do not simply accept the project plan handed to you. Facilitate true innovation, which is delivering the most valuable business results from the least amount of work. Continue reading »
Today, the Scrum Alliance has announced its “intent to transition the Certified ScrumMaster post-course test from pass-only to pass/fail on September 1, 2012.” The rest of the announcement follows below: After monitoring the results of the current pass-only test over the past several weeks, we are confident in our decision to transition to the pass/fail … Continue reading »
One of the stereotypes for agile approaches is that they only work for small projects. Ten or 15 years ago that might have been the case, but things are vastly different today. Agile techniques now are used as part of the day-to-day project operations of major organizations around the world. Here’s how they do it. Continue reading »
