Archive for category agile

My Lean Startup Interview

Posted by David Bland in agile on October 13, 2011

The folks at DZone were kind enough to invite me over for a chat during Agile2011 to have a conversation about agile, kanban and lean startup.

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Kanban Kickoff

Posted by David Bland in agile, kanban, user stories on September 15, 2011

Release and Iteration kickoffs can be challenging. Luckily for us, some of the same techniques we use to manage the flow of work within a Release or Iteration can be used to help us with our kickoffs.

Kanban 101 reminds us to:
- Make Work Visible
- Limit Work In Progress
- Help Work to Flow

Kanban Story Sizing:

Create 3 columns before beginning your story sizing exercise. Label them Ready to Size, Sizing and Sized. Place all of the stories you wish to size in the Ready to Size column. Pull the stories through each column as you progress. Since I’m usually planning with one team, I only put a WIP limit on the Sizing column and keep it at 1.

I use Index Cards for this exercise, but you could project your Agile Lifecycle Management software up onto a wall or Skype it and accomplish the same thing… [Read More]

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Rewind Your Mind

Posted by David Bland in agile, user stories on September 1, 2011

rewind“A good engineer thinks in reverse and asks himself about the stylistic consequences of the components and systems he proposes” – Helmut Jan

This advice is not limited to engineers. It also applies to many of us who want to produce software that actually matters to people.

Thinking in reverse, yet leaning forward can yield innovative results. This can be especially helpful when you feel as though you’ve become stagnant in your day to day activities.

Applied to Lean Startup

As the Lean Startup movement continues to gain momentum, one has to be careful not to blindly speed through the Build -> Measure -> Learn loops.

As Eric Ries stated in his Mixergy interview, even though you act in… [Read More]

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I’m Speaking at Agile2011

Posted by David Bland in agile, agile2011, kanban, speaking engagements on July 28, 2011

David J Bland Agile2011 SpeakerFor those of you who are attending Agile2011, I’m giving a Lightning Talk on Wednesday August 10th at 4:00pm on kanban.

This talk will be similar in content to what I’ve written previously over at Planbox and DZone.

I won’t have much time for Q&A during the session, but feel free to find me afterwards if you’d like to ask any questions about applying work in progress limits within an iteration.

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Stop Blaming Waterfall

Posted by David Bland in agile, lean, waterfall on July 19, 2011

waterfall sadfaceI’m here to let you in on a little secret, waterfall isn’t the reason your project failed. Waterfall isn’t the reason you were fired. Waterfall isn’t the epitome of evil in the world of software development.

Blaming waterfall for all of your woes is not unlike blaming the screwdriver you used to paint your wall. It isn’t the screwdriver’s fault you chose the wrong tool for the job.

Waterfall works well when both the problem and the solution are known.

Since I always get chastised for this statement, let me clarify that I’m not the first person to state this and also let me clarify that we never fully know anything.

So if I were to rephrase this for the word police, it would be:

Waterfall works well when both the problem and the solution are mostly known.. … [Read More]

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