On an early weekend morning I found myself going back to my origins in Scrum and watching this video where I finally could prove that Jeff Sutherland was inspired in his service days…anyone who wants to really understand the origins of Scrum should watch this… Continue reading »
Nov 082011
Jul 162010
Mike Cohn’s latest post got me thinking about how essential analysis is even in so-called Agile teams. It describes a common situation where backlogs contain ‘add this’ and ‘delete this’ stories.
I really believe this can be helped by a good analyst who understands value and patterns. My comment on Mike’s post goes onto explain that I would add a ‘create this’ story first.
I’ve found that it’s difficult to add or delete some ‘thing’ that doesn’t yet exist. (Shockingly this holds true in real life also).
This simple step is also pretty negligible in time to a seasoned (aka lazy) analyst and provides our customers with more choice, clear direction and what’s more it can be used at all levels of organisational analysis!
Jul 142010
Look it up in the dictionary. Transformation.
trans·form
1.to change in form, appearance, or structure; metamorphose.
2.to change in condition, nature, or character; convert.
3.to change into another substance; transmute.
The use of words like convert and change appear in the various online dictionaries, and when these are applied in the context of change there is likely to be an overwhelming subconscious reaction from most humans.
A really important thing to consider is how change is perceived by all the people involved. Fear can be one of our biggest impediments to helping people achieve their potential and we often only hear the headline…”agile transformation” .. it sounds like resistance is futile.
In the sprit of keeping it simple I suggest we abandon
“transformation” and “transition” into gentler, non-command based verbs, possibly “renew” ;-) or even better something that is meaningful to the team or teams themselves.
