Bureaucratic Barriers to Agile

We have all heard of the Agile Manifesto, which lists agile principles. But what does this mean for your business? How can you move from thinking agile sounds like a good idea to actually reaping the benefits? Read More»

"Manage That Pipeline!"

OK, so for those of you that manage the Project pipeline, I'm sure that many if not most of you have experienced those Charters that don't get approved, or die. The documentation gets completed, it goes to the powers that be, but somehow even though it doesn't get an OK2GO, it doesn't die either. It seems to perpetually stay on hold, but it keeps on getting brought up during the Steering Committee meetings, and six months or a year after its initial pitch, it is decided that the documentation should be reviewed, updated and reviewed again by the team for... Read More»

It's a Training Issue

Training is a key part of successful project implementations. I've recently noticed an increase in solutions to software or technical issues cited as training issues. Those in the IT and customer support functions are well aware of the references and associated jokes to statements "it is a training issue". I have been deeply involved in building, selling, purchasing and supporting all facets of software projects and sometimes issues can most definitely be training issues; however, we don' want to cry wolf and rush to judgment on feedback received on our projects. It can be very frustrating to a user and... Read More»

Are we Agile?

I do a lot of teaching about Agile Software Development and the one question I receive time and time again is "How do I know when I'm Agile?". It's a rather simple question, and it's one that I have a simple answer for. First off, Agile is defined by a virtual piece of paper found here. If you follow the link and read what it has to say, you'll likely identify four core values listed in the middle of the page: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to... Read More»

How can one size fit all?

I've been discussing a lot of development philosophies lately, and I find it amazing how many people think that one methodology (theirs) is superior to all others in all situations. I agree that in the interest of efficiency and effectiveness there needs to be known structure throughout an organization, but is there really a methodology that is a "one size fits all"? I don't think there is. So, if we take a look at a number of Project methodologies (of which we have a quite few to choose from), let's consider Waterfall, Agile & RAD, Six Sigma, and JAD to... Read More»

Project Managers Anonymous

Hello, my name is Josh, and I used to put tasks on my WBS.

Whoah, it felt good to get that off my chest.

When I first began...

Read More»

Lessons in Setting a Project Schedule

Deadlines! They can be like quicksand. The harder we fight to meet deadlines, the more of them we seem to miss. The anxiety practically whispers in your ear, "you're about to miss another deadline." If your current project life is an anxious one where you feel like you're trying to swim out of quicksand, I can relate. I remind myself of what that felt like often so I don't forget the importance of a project schedule. When I've found myself in project quicksand it's usually because I didn't create a detailed, well thought out, and accurate schedule or because my... Read More»

I'm So Smart: An Agile Antipattern

It never ceases to amaze me that, while I've been "Agile" for so many years now, I still find myself occasionally falling back to old habits. What bad habit? The one where I think I know how to solve the team's problems better than the team. It happened recently, we were faced with a tough situation where I proposed the correct solution to the problem and we prepared to implement it. The trouble is that it wasn't really the correct solution at all, I was too far removed from the problem to have the correct answer. Fortunately, some team members... Read More»

Limit WIP to Identify Roadblocks

In a previous post I pointed out how limiting WIP helps to improve QA utilization. In this post, I'll discuss another area where limiting WIP can make your team more effective: Roadblock indentification. Roadblocks We all know that identification and removal of impediments is vital to building a hyper-performing Agile team, but how do teams go about identifying and removing them? If your team is like most, you rely heavily on the activities of the daily standup. The daily standup is the team’s chance to exchange relevant information about what they're working on and to raise issues that could risk... Read More»

Project Management Survival Tools - Part C (Planning Iterations)

As a project manager, you face many challenges in a project. Each of us can use all the help we can get. For this 3rd post on this subject, I'd like to focus on the value of iteration planning / iterative development. One of the most difficult parts of project planning is breaking the project up into appropriate-sized pieces or phases so that the team does both the right things and does things right. In the classic waterfall model, the first biggest challenge is to essentially fully understand and specify the system, then plan the execution, then execute. In many... Read More»