Thoughts
YOU COULD NOT STEP TWICE INTO THE SAME RIVER
A collection of writing on agile principles, coaching, and leadership. A place to explore the connections between our everyday world and work life. Rarely is there truth here - as my thinking and perspective evolves.
When You’re Up to your ass in Alligators
“Of course the best solution to the problem of how to effectively drain the swamp is to prevent the swamp from forming in the first place.”
Pragmatic Moneyball
"Baseball team owners think in terms of buying players. Your goal shouldn't be to buy players but to buy wins and in order to buy wins you need to buy runs."
Applying the Dreyfus Learning Model to Focus your Coaching Approach
“We've discovered (as the model predicts) that skipping this stage of learning can lead to problems absorbing and implementing the philosophies and principles of the agile manifesto.”
Agile at the Masters
“They seem to place more value on what has been accomplished for certain rather than what the potential for the future might hold.”
Thoughts on ‘Potentially Shippable’
“Ideally it is simply a business decision whether there is enough value to actually warrant shipping.”
Spike… Do the Right Thing [Redux on Aug 30 post]
“Of course this is all just semantics ... Story, Task, Spike, Backlog Grooming ... what's the big deal? The answer to this lies in the fact that we use words to communicate intent …”
Golf, Poker and Software
“… they tend to revert back to old, less than desirable ways. For most people this transition of skills to procedural memory takes disciplined, directed effort.”
It’s ALWAYS been the Problem
With this context, the team is much better equipped to be able to produce solutions appropriate for the target personae and any decisions … can be made in the context of the user and the business value.
Self-Organizing Teams at Quarry Bistro
“Naomi has often said that the reason is that the team has an innate ability to do two things: prioritize their work and look out for each other.”
The Fifth Element
Build projects around motivated individuals.
Give them the environment and support they need,
and trust them to get the job done.
But WHY, Dad?
“Asking 'why' is perhaps the most valuable of all questions both in life and software development / product management.”
Mis-Adventures in Offshoring
“… have generally missed the mark by NOT actually off-shoring development ... just off-shoring some element of the development process; usually testing.”
Adventures in Distributed Agile
“Practicing iterative/incremental development in a distributed environment requires modifications to some of the basic agile techniques.”
Games of Incomplete Information
In the end, it's the experienced teams and card players that are able to raise their stakes and their games as they are able to continually adjust their plans mid-play.