Stand up. Sit down. Which is better for the team, productivity, your company? The trend is stand up for a short burst of action and accountability among all types of business teams. A hall-mark of rapid software development (1990′s) and Agile (manifesto in 2001 onward) the stand up meeting has progressed rapidly beyond software, to… [Read more…]
November 6, 2011 by David Kohrell
In the midst of some infrastructure / application remediation work for a great client in Omaha (insurance company) the concept of YAGNI came to mind. There’s a couple of quick reads for you. First a sort of “anti hero” opinion piece from one of the early members of Borland (Mike Rozlog) who apparently still holds… [Read more…]
May 16, 2011 by Adrian Reed (UKAdrianReed)
On medium and large scale projects, requirements management can become a difficult overhead. Teams that rely on spreadsheet and word-processing software to create and manage requirements documents often find it difficult to maintain the traceability and inter-dependencies between requirements. We all know the value of tracing, tracking and maintaining our requirements documents, but until now… [Read more…]
March 1, 2011 by David Kohrell
The whiteboard. The dry eraser. The multi-color pens. The overbearing meeting participant. Those four things often come together when thinking of brainstorming. It’s a technique among multiple management nexus disciplines and at the heart of agile, business analysis and project management. It can produce great results from a team. The Business Analysis Body of Knowledge… [Read more…]
February 21, 2011 by David Kohrell
The tenth anniversary of Agile is upon us. We just concluded a 12 part review of the Agile Manifesto. Agile was a software development out to business, innovation. Or it could have been called “geeks to execs”. Now for a fast forward, to today. Emerging trends and practices include those that fuse business, design and… [Read more…]
February 15, 2011 by David Kohrell
The last principle of the Agile Manifesto provides for learning and adjustment by the team. This adjustment allows for continuous process improvement. Teams don’t allow themselves to become stagnant or stale – they change and become better. The manifesto doesn’t proscribe how often and allows some leeway. The definition of “at regular intervals” provides sufficient… [Read more…]
February 14, 2011 by David Kohrell
Agile manifesto – principles number 1 – 10 were ones I could embrace or at least accept. And yes I know it’s your 10th birthday this month. But really, number 11 is a difficult one for this control oriented, project management/ manager type to swallow. You’re saying that self-organizing teams can get it done? Yeah… [Read more…]
February 13, 2011 by David Kohrell
The tenth principle of the Agile manifesto may be my favorite one – simplicity, the art of maximizing the amount of work NOT done. Too often methodologies, frameworks and process improvements get mired down in heavy process and documentation. It’s a balancing act. It’s important to be neither too much, nor too little – just… [Read more…]
February 12, 2011 by David Kohrell
The ninth principle of agile brings in important aspects of enterprise architecture and system design. Technical excellence is a board term. it can be applied to hardware, software, network infrastructure, process management, project management, programming, release management, etc. I also think of enterprise architecture I hear technical excellence. While Agile is change driven, that does… [Read more…]
February 11, 2011 by David Kohrell
Sprint or marathon? 100 meters, 5k or 26.2? Slow endurance or high intensity interval workout (HIIT)? Anaerobic or aerobic? Rare combination of talent like Michael Johnson (pictured) who excelled at the 200 and 400 meters? If Agile were a workout it would seem to fit in the sprint, 100 meter, high intensity, anaerobic side of… [Read more…]
February 10, 2011 by David Kohrell
The seventh principle of the Agile Manifesto is the simplest and shortest one. Working software is the primary measure of progress. That simplicity belies a profound philosophy and modus operandi That is the outcome trumps the process. This philosophy grates and goes against the grain of conventional wisdom. Have a problem, add process.… [Read more…]
February 9, 2011 by David Kohrell
Face to face interaction provides for the most effective form of communication. The sixth Agile Manifesto principle advocates face-to-face conversation. A sticking point for adopting Agile is the dominance of virtual teams within an organization and among different organizations (in a vendor – customer relationship or within a supply chain for example). Bringing virtual… [Read more…]
February 8, 2011 by David Kohrell
Is it a radical concept, motivate, support and trust people? No. Not really. The Agile principle of building projects around motivated individuals is clearly a Theory Z , Y or Herzberg management approach — people want to achieve and when they do, advance that performance to even higher levels. It doesn’t fit well with the… [Read more…]
February 6, 2011 by David Kohrell
Steve McConnell (Borland, Independent, then Microsoft) and Philippe Kahn (Borland founder) are two notable software engineers from the late 1980′s to present day. They introduced the concept of a daily build and smoke test in the late 80′s while at Borland. Its ability to roll out cutting edge development tools (Turbo Pascal first, Paradox second)… [Read more…]
February 5, 2011 by David Kohrell
Re·quire·ment n. 1. Something that is required; a necessity. 2. Something obligatory; a prerequisite.¹ Among the twelve principles of Agile, that one that evokes a good amount of debate is changing requirements, even late in development. This contrasts from plan driven approaches to development that “freeze requirements” and lock those in through development and deployment. … [Read more…]
February 4, 2011 by David Kohrell
The four values of the Agile Manifesto (Individuals, Customer, Working Software and Change) are further elaborated in twelve principles. The first principle is “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. “ The first line provides the goal – satisfy the customer. That customer focus brings Agile… [Read more…]
February 3, 2011 by David Kohrell
One of my favorite movie lines is from the Princess Bride. In it the hero is told he must go back to the beginning. When the movie reaches one if its many climaxes – Indigo (hero) exclaims “I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have.… [Read more…]
February 1, 2011 by David Kohrell
We make stuff happen! Adjust some capital letters and you get WEMSHA (pronounced Whim Shaw)! That’s been a working term for us at TAPUniversity the last several years. A WEMSHA mindset helps keep focus among competing methodologies, approaches and flavors of the month – Agile/SCRUM, FDD, Lean, SDLC, RUP, Iterative, Incremental, Change or Plan… [Read more…]
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February 20, 2012 by David Kohrell
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