“If you don’t know where you are going, you probably won’t get there.” – Yogi Berra The pager tones sounded at 2 AM. It blared “Squad 86, car accident with personal injuries on Highway 268 west of Pilot Mountain.” I don’t know how much research went into the tones, but when they sound, they can […]
Tag Archives: improving processes
What Does an Agile Coach Do?
Every so often I meet someone who asks, “Don, what do you do?” Over the years I’ve found the best way to answer this question involves asking what that person does, and then share part of my coaching experience that relates to what they do. You see, an agile coach does many things. What I […]
Agile Principles Shine Light on Development Projects
I settled into the visitor’s chair across the desk from Nate. Looking at Nate I said “So tell me about your project.” RULE II: START WHERE THE SYSTEM IS1 Nate smiled and wistfully said: “Well, I’m the project manager and ScrumMaster. John will be the Product Owner. He works in our North East office. He […]
Effective Agile Retrospective Workshop
In Better Process, Better People I talked about retrospectives as a process for learning and improvement. My colleague Esther Derby and I will be conducting two one day workshops on Effective Agile Retrospectives. If you want to make the retrospectives you lead more effective, we would enjoy having you participate in the workshop. We’ll be […]
Is it done yet?
One of the great questions in software development revolves around “Is it done yet?” And since the answer is usually “No” the follow on question gets asked, “Well, when will it be done?” I recently chatted with a ScrumMaster looking for estimating training for his teams. The teams work on a 4 week sprint cycle. […]
Boomerang Measurements
You can tell a lot from how a story starts. If you hear “Once upon a time …” you’ll probably hear a fairy tale like “The Three Little Pigs” or “The Little Red Hen”. Around camp fires, kayakers like to tell stories that begin with “No kidding, there I was …” and a tale of […]
Frederick P. Brooks, Jr – Agilista?
Hear me out. It may not be as far fetched as it may first seem. I’m not going to say how long I’ve been around, but I have two copies of The Mythical Man-Month. I have the Anniversary Edition and the 1982 edition of the original 1975 book. I’m not sure why someone on Amazon […]
Better Process, Better People
The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement. Officially author unknown, but I heard it from my mother, more than once. Reading Better People, Better Process may make it seem like I’m one of those touchy-feely “people over process” types. I confess I have a fondness for people but I’m also a […]
Beating Brooks’ Law
Joe Little does a marvelous job recruiting speakers for the Agile-Carolinas meetings. This month was no exception. Israel Gat from BMC Software discussed “Leading the Disruption”. This presentation focused on releases 2.3 and 2.4 of their distributed system management software. Near the presentation’s end Brooks’ Law was mentioned and the question posed, “Does Brooks’ Law […]