So you have a team with a velocity of 85 points per Sprint and you decide they could do more. So you set them a stretch target of 100 points for the next Sprint. What happens next? Because you get what you measure, you might get 100 points. This is the worst possible thing thatContinue reading “Stretch Targets in Agile Teams”
Category Archives: Process
You Get What You Measure
This is a phrase that should pop into your head whenever you are thinking about introducing a metric to a team. You get what you measure. It really is that simple. Most good-natured people are trying to determine whether the team is being effective or whether they are improving over time. This can seem quiteContinue reading “You Get What You Measure”
Your Agile Process is not a Template
I spend a reasonable amount of time on discussion groups talking about agile process. Nothing will make you think more about the Agile manifesto and the twelve principles of Agile better than being presented with problems and contexts that you haven’t encountered first hand. I have encountered my fair share of issues, problems and painsContinue reading “Your Agile Process is not a Template”
Solve Role Confusion with Group Role Visualisation Technique
I talk to a lot of teams and role confusion is common. If you haven’t come across role confusion (lucky you) or have, but didn’t know it had a name (unlucky you), Role Confusion is where people aren’t sure where responsibility lies because there is a lack of clarity or context. You can tell whenContinue reading “Solve Role Confusion with Group Role Visualisation Technique”
Agile Boards Rows vs Columns
Take a look at your Agile boards and count the number of columns. Is it more than three? I would like to challenge your board if you have more than three columns; “To Do”, “Doing”, “Done”. A common fourth column is the “Testing” column, but if you have one of these you should consider removingContinue reading “Agile Boards Rows vs Columns”
Programmer Anarchy Opinion Piece
Programmer Anarchy, a term coined by Fred George, has been described in many different ways including “post-agile” amongst other giddy and gushing terms. I just wanted to clear up a little about what it is, what is new, what isn’t and where I think it is headed. Firstly, one lesson that definitely hasn’t been learnedContinue reading “Programmer Anarchy Opinion Piece”
Relative Sizing Technique
If you read my recent note on Estimating With Time And Relative Sizes you might be interested in this method of generating relative sizes. Firstly, some important ground rules. You want a group of people to generate a size simultaneously and you don’t want to let anyone say numbers out loud, or undermine another individualsContinue reading “Relative Sizing Technique”
Drawing On Carl Rogers for Agile
You could say humorously that coaching a team on Agile principles and practices is very much like being a therapist. Beneath this flippant comment, though, lies a little wisdom. In particular, I am reading a book by Carl Rogers titled On Becoming A Person, in which he describes some “Significant Learnings” from his long andContinue reading “Drawing On Carl Rogers for Agile”
Estimating With Time and Relative Sizes
If you are estimating work, the chances are that you are on a gradual philosophical journey that starts with time-based estimates. Estimating how many hours, days, weeks and months a task will take is what I like to call “novice estimating”. Almost everyone knows how long these units of measurement are, which makes them veryContinue reading “Estimating With Time and Relative Sizes”
Time to Say Goodbye to Chickens And Pigs
So the famous story goes that a chicken and a pig decide to open a restaurant and the chicken suggests to the pig that they call their establishment “Ham and Eggs”. The pig responds, “That would mean I would be committed but you would just be involved.” Cue canned-laughter and widespread adoption of chicken andContinue reading “Time to Say Goodbye to Chickens And Pigs”