Just in time resources for internal products
Consultants are fond of using the phrase “it depends” when asked how to solve a specific problem. Many think consultants use that response when they don’t know the answer, or don’t want to provide it for free. In reality the consultants use that phrase to indicate the huge influence context has on how to address …
When I put together the posts for this week’s newsletter, I picked posts that take a bit of a contrarian view point. Although in some cases, the contrarian view point is the perspective that teams should have. The Outcome over Output section has two articles that highlight the disturbing trend among many organizations to loudly …
The start of 2017 seems like a good time to get into the swing of things with a weekly newsletter. Don’t consider it a new year’s resolution – that increases the chance that I won’t keep it up. Think of it instead as my way of getting more done by doing less. In this case …
What is the Risk Management Game? The risk management game is a collaborative way for your team to identify risks that you face, categorize those risks based on impact and probability, and determine which risks to address first. The game was originally created by Ken Clyne based on Steve Bockman’s Team Estimation game. Here’s an …
What It Is The problem statement is a structured set of statements that describe the purpose of an effort in terms of what problem it’s trying to solve. An Example Since the most important part of this technique is the conversations that occur rather than the end product, I’d like to relay a story about …
At dsmAgile2016 Jodi Jones and I led a session titled What do Scrum Masters Really Do? And Do We Need Them? During the session, we asked the attendees to discuss in small groups the things Scrum Masters do. Then, Jodi and I shared some experiences we’ve had in different situations in order to distill some …
I facilitated a version of the Product Owner Value Game at IBADD2016 . Dojo Breddels and Paul Kuijten created the Product Owner Value game to use during their coaching efforts to help people become more value driven. They presented the game at Agile2015 where they shared the rules of the game and provided some thoughts …
When I facilitated the Product Owner Value Game at IBADD2016, I asked the participants to suggest some things about the activity, or product ownership in general that puzzled them. One of the items was one word written on a sticky note.“Dependencies”. There is a lot involved in that sticky note. Dependencies have always been an …
When I facilitated the Product Owner Value Game at IBADD2016, I asked the participants to suggest some things about the activity, or product ownership in general that puzzled them. A couple of the Puzzles brought up were: The math behind exploration & reward of doing so When to commit to deliverable vs additional research To …
When I facilitated the Product Owner Value Game at IBADD2016, I asked the participants to suggest some things about the activity, or product ownership in general that puzzled them. One of the puzzles was “How to Anticipate Quality of Estimates.” I suspect this item was inspired by the characteristic of the game that introduced a …
“What is the Role of a Business Analyst in Agile?”I see this question asked quite a bit. I’d like to suggest that rewording the question may be a bit more instructive. Instead of wondering what is the role of a business analyst in agile, you may want to ask the question “how can people who …
I am preparing a presentation called Inconvenient Truths in IT Projects where I plan to discuss some aspects of software development that are prevalent and need to be discussed, but people don’t like to talk about in polite company. Some of the topics I’m throwing around: No matter how hard you try, your estimates will …
Last fall I worked with Addison-Wesley Profession to create a set of LiveLessons to provide additional coverage of the techniques described in Part 3 of Beyond Requirements: Analysis with an Agile Mindset. Analysis Techniques for Product Owners LiveLessons is a video training course providing methods for understanding project stakeholders, the organizational context in which a …
Beyond Requirements shows how to transform analysis into an important activity teams use to build shared understanding.
I’m writing this as I fly home from the Agile2015 conference, or what Jake Calabrese rightfully calls “summer camp.” I headed into the week planning to focus on sessions related to product ownership or one of it’s related fields, as I described a couple of weeks ago. As a result I found myself attending several …
