Labor Day
Happy Labor Day! Enjoy!
Aug
31
2019
Aug
29
2019
What the Team Can Do — The Art of the Possible
Scrum instructs teams not to dwell on what can't be done... instead, teams must think about what can be done. What can we build in an iteration and how it can be done with the available resources. Refer to the film clip from the movie Apollo 13 in this website -- 'The Art of the Possible'
Aug
28
2019
Aug
27
2019
Delivery Rate Versus Throughput
Try this: Order a meal via the drive through of a McDonald's restaurant...note of the start time the moment you place your order ... and the end time the moment you get your order (the delivery point). That is the Lead Time -- the time it takes to complete something of value. End to end. In this example, say 5 minutes. Assume, at that time, that they (Macdonald's service providers) have 5 work orders in process (WIP). Delivery Rate ((DR) = WIP divided by Lead Time (LT) DR = 5 orders / 5 minutes DR = 1 order / minute…
Aug
26
2019
What is the Most Important Aspect of Scrum?
With Agile, everything is transparent... as such, it will be very hard to cover up incorrect expectations that you establish with your customer. Therefore, with regards to correct expectations, it is wise to keep things -- work, dependencies, risks, impediments-- visible and open for inspection. Then we can work closely with the customer during development based on what's really happening -- not spending time to cover up -- and adapt accordingly. No surprises ... the customer must collaborate with developers because everything cannot be known in advance ... there will be tradeoffs to be made. Establishing an open and honest…
Aug
25
2019
The Demo — The Jerry McGuire Moment!
'Show me the money!' That's right... base milestones on an objective evaluation of working systems.... show it... demo it... show and tell ... that's where the money is...and the feedback...don't forget the feedback. Feedback on what has been shown goes both ways between the team and the customer. This allows the team to adapt according to the customer feedback ... and for the customer to adapt according to the work presented.
Aug
24
2019
Why?
Good question, 'Why?' Why transform from waterfall to Lean Agile? With digital disruptions everywhere in every second around the world... (blackberry or blockbuster anyone?)... the question becomes: ''Why not?' If 'Capital One' or 'Australia Post' can do it ... the question to you becomes: 'Why not you?' Think about it... let it sink in... then the question becomes: 'Why not now?' Start your transformation, today! Start with where you are... with what you have... right now! With Lean Agile, you can always iterate, learn, adapt, and improve. Just do it! Now!
Aug
23
2019
Obstacles and Scrum
Obstacles interrupt work. Scrum makes obstacle removal an objective... to free people to be productive, to do their best, by providing uninterrupted time when they can work. Although obstacle removal is everyone's responsibility, in Scrum, the Scrum Master is responsible for listening to obstacles and removing them. The Daily Standup (DSU) sets the tone of the day and also a perfect opportunity to identify obstacles to productivity... and plans are made to remove them. These obstacles are highlighted day after day until they are resolved. Hence at the DSU, the team is asked if there are any impediments to performing…
Aug
22
2019
Self-Organization
Self-organization is the ability of a team in figuring out how to live up to its commitments and the achievement of its iteration goal... the ability to figure out what it could do -- despite setbacks -- within the iteration and still meet its goal. Pragmatism and empiricism (the gift of Agile) could help a self-organizing team achieve its goal and live up to its commitments.
Aug
21
2019
Tell it With Stories
A concept or an idea wrapped in a story -- using your personal story if possible -- is powerful... it helps build the idea -- piece by piece -- in your student's mind. Follow that up with a metaphor to create that 'Aha!' moment. Your students got stories of their own that is related to the topic as well... have them go at it -- have them tell their stories to the class -- as part of their 'Teach Back'.
Aug
20
2019
Teach Back
Teaching back a subject is the best way of learning it... and retaining it. Study it. Practice it. Teach it. I love teaching... the more I teach the more I learn... the more I study the more my practice is... and goes in circles snowballing into something huge and beautiful. Likewise for my students... they teach back... it is what you say and do that make the learning memorable and fun! Happy Back To School, kids!!! October 15, 2022: My new book, "SAFe Is Like ...", is now available on Amazon. What our students think about the Lean Agile Guru…
Aug
19
2019
NFRs are Constraints
NFRs -- Non Functional Requirements (qualities of a system like Scalability, Security, etc) are constraints of a system once built and in place. For example: Architecture team determines that Amazon Web Services (AWS) should be the one to go with (this is alignment with 'Scalability')... then they make this as one of their ASRs (Architecturally Significant Requirements). Once this ASR is in place, it constraints upcoming functional requirements that use web services ... AWS will be used instead of another web services from somewhere else. NFRs are part of the Definition of Done (DoD). NFRs are initially enablers along the…
Aug
18
2019
Personal Reflection
One of the things that I like when I am training folks is the part when, before the topic ends, to wrap it up, trainees get to reflect what they have learned from the topic that was covered... by writing it... by talking about it in pairs and then sharing it with the group... And there's more ... more ideas for reflection: Draw a face how you feel about the topic and share... explaining what the face represents Write down a question you still have about the topic Write down something you learned that is important to you that made…
Aug
17
2019
Kanban and the various Classes of Service (CoS)
Two establishments that I have seen and exploited their four Classes of Service (CoS) are: car shops, and fast food restaurants with drive throughs. Classes of service are: Expedited ... these are the 'Urgent and Important' things ... the cost of delay is high! Fixed date ... these are the 'important but not urgent'... but will be urgent soon Standard... these are the 'First In First Out' (FIFO) Intangible... not important and not urgent ... for now. At a car shop, you may wait for your car (they sort of work it in and expedite it for you); you may…
Aug
16
2019
The Four ‘If’s that Make Lean Agile Worthwhile, Part V
4: If you care... If you care about the outcome... the key results... the goal... the objective. To care is to be attentive... inattention to results is one of the five dysfunctions of a team. If you care about your teammates... be there to offer help in moving forward the team's iteration/sprint goal. If you care about the enterprise... ask what you can do for the enterprise. If you care about you... self improvement is the best gift that you can offer to your family, to your friends, to your teammates, to the enterprise, to the society. Imagine what a…
Aug
15
2019
The Four ‘If’s that Make Lean Agile Worthwhile, Part IV
3: If you stay... See things through... stay for a while... don't quit too early... transformation to Lean Agile takes time. Mindset / paradigm shift -- essential to Lean Agile transformation -- takes time. So... stay for a while... Watch this video ... till the tail end ...
Aug
14
2019
The Four ‘If’s that Make Lean Agile Worthwhile, Part III
2: If you try... If you have and idea, try it out! What's the benefit hypothesis of your idea?... then design it... build part of it... evaluate it (inspect it) vis-a-vis the hypothesis...then build the other parts or stop building depending on the leading (future potential) or lagging (past performance) indicators. A lot of ideas die in one's mind... all because of the lack of trying it out. Lean Agile is the innovator's friend; a friend of the enterprise whose future relies on new products, new services, new ideas. Try...you can always 'inspect' what you are creating and 'adapt' (pivot…
Aug
13
2019
The Four ‘If’s that Make Lean Agile Worthwhile, Part II
1: If you learn... Learn fast; fast feedback comes to mind. By collaborating, we learn. The 3Cs: Card. Conversation. Confirmation. We learn as we go through these 3Cs. Lean Ux Process is about learning. Continuous improvement by learning from your experiences and other people's experiences. Eliminate waste by learning about what is wasteful... value stream mapping. Agile is based on empirical process control model: transparency, inspection, adaptation...all geared towards learning... we act based on what we know. 'Inspect and Adapt' is my favorite in terms of applied learning. Study. Practice. Teach. If you can do these, then your learning is…
Aug
12
2019
The Four ‘If’s that Make Lean Agile Worthwhile
In this series ... we will explore the four 'If's that make Lean Agile worthwhile... To be continued...
Aug
11
2019
Technical Agility
One of SAFe's competencies is 'Team and Technical Agility'. The basis for 'Team Agility' is Scrum / Kanban. The basis for 'Technical Agility' is eXtreme Programming (XP). It supports one of the SAFe values -- 'Built-in Quality'. Hence you see a lot of 'ScrumXP' being mentioned in SAFe articles. 'Most high-performance teams use Scrum and XP together. It is hard to get a Scrum eXtreme velocity without XP Engineering practices' -- Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum' So ... what are the XP practices? Test Driven Development Coding standards Pair programming Refactoring User Stories Continuous integration Automated testing Simple design Collective…
Aug
10
2019
Student and Coaches
This day (Friday, August 9) is unique ... two coaches for my daughter for her preparation to tomorrow's recital; I find their coaching very apt as well for Lean Agile... I've adapted most of their piano coaching styles in my Lean Agile coaching.
Aug
09
2019
Fog of Uncertainty
This year, my family and I had encountered several heavy storms whilst in the car driving on a highway... visibility was extremely poor ... 25 feet was all that we can see... ... there was a 'fog of uncertainty'... however, it helped that we've always had a general sense of the environment, the terrain, and direction that we were heading. I surmise that if we could see 25 feet, then we could move forward ...we could drive for 25 feet more ... we could then see the next 25 feet... and so on... whilst constantly assessing the situation every second…
Aug
08
2019
Aug
08
2019
Aug
06
2019
Aug
05
2019
Aug
03
2019
Team Dynamics
Team dynamics are the unconscious, psychological forces that influence the direction of a team's behaviour and the achievement of their goals. Scrum provides teams an environment within which they can do their best...and can commit to a goal...and can self-organize to figure out how to meet their goal as best they can... and can self-organize to solve their own internal problems -- every individual team member has his/her own strengths and weaknesses and team members come from different backgrounds... you can anticipate prejudice, resentments, petty squabbles, and other negative attributes of human relationships. However, being focused on meeting their sprint goal leads them…
Aug
02
2019
What is Sprint Backlog
The Sprint Backlog is all of the work that the team identifies as necessary to meet the sprint goal.