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Lead Time Leads To Feedback And Learnings

Lead Time Leads To Feedback And Learnings

First of all, what is "Lead Time"? Simply stated, "Lead Time" is the amount of time that passes from the start of a process until its conclusion. McDonalds Cartoon -- drive through placement (push), to order processing (pull), to order fulfilled (done). The shorter the Lead Time is, the better... meaning, we get feedback to what has concluded; and with fast feedback, we get to learn fast as well and use / invest that feedback -- and the "learnings" that came with it --  into something useful. Applications in real life: Continue reading
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Make your “Cost Per Story Point” stable. Why and how.

Make your “Cost Per Story Point” stable. Why and how.

In his book, "Principles of Product Development Flow", Donald Reinertsen wrote about the "Principle of Variability Pooling": "The Principle of Variability Pooling: Overall variation decreases when uncorrelated random tasks are combined. Variability pooling exploits a somewhat subtle mathematical characteristic of variability. When we sum two or more uncorrelated random variables, the variance of the sum is the sum if the individual variances." Bringing this principle to the home-front: Continue reading
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Relative Sizing

Relative Sizing

"Story points are relative, without a connection to any specific unit of measure. The size (effort) of each story is estimated relative to the smallest story, which is assigned a size of ‘one.’ A modified Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 20, 40, 100) is applied that reflects the inherent uncertainty in estimating, especially large numbers (e.g., 20, 40, 100)" -- Scaled Agile. Inc. Here is a guidance on Relative Sizing. Continue reading
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Lean Agile Guru Limited Offer

Lean Agile Guru Limited Offer

Greetings! At Lean Agile Guru Consulting LLC, for a limited time, we are offering discounted prices for our online classes. BUT we still deliver the same high-quality classes. At $495 per student per online class, which is a $500 discount from our $995 regular price, this is our lowest price ever and our classes go beyond and above the course hence making each class unique and invaluable! Your SAFe certification exam fee (first try only) is already included in the price. Register now! Limited online students per class! This is a limited Offer. Prices could change at any time. Enroll now to…
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Moneyball

Moneyball

Day 202. The movie ‘Moneyball’ has a scene that caught my attention. Apparently, some promising baseball players were overlooked because of Continue reading
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3 Quick Tips To Writing PI Objectives

3 Quick Tips To Writing PI Objectives

Day 183. For some reason, a LOT of people find writing PI Objectives hard: they struggle... they are unsure... and... after a lot of thought... they manage to write PI Objectives...the wrong way! They are writing PI (Program Increment) Objectives from the vantage point of "what they are going to do"... which is ABSOLUTLEY and TOTALLY WRONG!!! Well, if you are one of these strugglers, then you are in luck! Your struggle with "PI Objective Writing" ends today... but... only if/when you chose to apply the following tips: Continue reading
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Self-Actualization

Self-Actualization

Day 182. Bruce Lee it is the realization or fulfillment of one's talents and potentialities, especially considered as a drive or need present in everyone. Artist of life! This means that you are the artistic designer of your life! Can you actually design your life? Can you design your work? Answer to both is ... probably yes... you have to make some changes to make it work ! Start with mindset. Having and practicing a ‘lean agile’ mindset. What are the beliefs that you hold that are probably hindering you? Start there... ponder about it... just take one in and…
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Start With The End In Mind

Start With The End In Mind

Day 169. With Pi Planning, one of the outputs is a set of PI Objectives for each team on the Agile Release Train; the team will try their best to achieve both committed and uncommitted PI Objectives. They visualize the ‘End’... the desired outcome ... which is embodied by the PI Objective. What most people don’t do is this: Continue reading
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Result and Progress

Result and Progress

Day 167. Results is the name of the game! We need to measure our results to check on our progress... are we on track or off track? Is your team producing measurable results over a reasonable time? You’ve got to check! Is your team meeting their iteration goals? Continue reading
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Principle #10

Principle #10

Day 165. Simplicity ... is essential. Maximize the amount of work not done. iPhone’s design is a great example of simplicity; contrast that to the Blackberry phone. Steve Jobs looked at existing phones pre-iPhone ... and simplified it. Jobs said in an interview that ‘editing’ (subtracting) is the hardest thing to do. With subtraction, the iPhone was born... started simply... and it grew from there! Think about that when you are building anything: what is the simplest thing you can build? October 15, 2022: My new book, "SAFe Is Like ...", is now available on Amazon.  What our students think…
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Quality Questions Quality Answers

Quality Questions Quality Answers

Day 136. ‘Why are you fat?’ That is a low-quality question to a person — to a coachee — who is trying to lose weight. It is not a solution-oriented question... it makes the recipient defensive... it is low-energy question... has a negative vibe... it is a problem-oriented / problem-facing question... it is not exciting... lacks forward-looking possibilities. Another way of asking: ‘What is your reason for wanting to lose weight? How important is this to you?‘ Followed by: ‘Tell me about your typical day.’ Another example of a low quality question: Continue reading
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PO Synch

PO Synch

Day 77. Product Owner (PO) Synch is a SAFe program-level event. POs and Product Management (PM) meet on a weekly basis (could be more often as needed) to discuss any problems or opportunities with the current Program Increment (PI) and the features of the upcoming PI. Usually facilitated by the Release Train Engineer (RTE)... but could also be facilitated by the PM. In addition to POs, PM and RTE, SMEs and other key stakeholders may be invited. Continue reading
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Scrum of Scrums

Scrum of Scrums

Day 76. Scrum of scrums is a SAFe program-level event that is geared toward synchronization between scrum masters of the Agile Release Train; it’s facilitated by the Release Train Engineer. It is a scaled-up version of the team's Daily Standup.  At least once a week, SMs provide update to the group. Updates on:1) Accomplishments since the last SoS2) Goals between now and the next SoS3) Current and any foreseen Impediments between now and the next SoS  Other conversation points in the ‘Scrum of scrums’ are: Continue reading
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What Moves …

What Moves …

What moves a person? Knowing what moves a person could help one's cause. Napoleon knew it. "Men are moved by two levers only: fear and self-interest" -- Napoleon Bonaparte SAFe Principle #8 is a "self-interest" lever: Unlock the intrinsic motivation knowledge workers. Self-interest/intrinsic motivation such as: 1) the pursuit of mastery; 2) having autonomy; 3) a sense of purpose. Continue reading
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