I noticed at the recent agile conference that there were lots of people who billed themselves as agile coaches, and several sessions on coaching. Seemed like more of both than in past years. I consider myself a coach, too, though not with a capital C. I usually coach managers or teams, and sometimes coaches. Mostly, [...]
Jurgen Appelo, the wildly popular Dutch blogger, makes lists, among other things. His latest is the Top 100 Agile Books. He’s worked out a formula that takes into account reviews, average ratings, and continued interest. Not perfect, but I’m not going to complain, because I made the list–twice! Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management [...]
On Friday August 13, I accepted the Agile Alliance’s Gordon Pask award at the Agile 2010 conference in Orlando.
I wasn’t even aware that I had been nominated, so when David Hussman called me at home shortly after 7:30AM on Tuesday August 10 to tell me that I had won, I was beyond surprised. Gobsmacked? Flummoxed? Yes, . . . → Read More: On Winning the Gordon Pask Award at Agile2010
I’m a big believer in 1:1 meetings on manager-led teams. It’s a way to connect with people, stay in touch with progress, learn about problems early, coach, work on career goals, offer feedback. But if you are the manager for a self-organizing team, you need to adjust the way you do 1:1 meetings. First, unless [...]
At Agile 2010 I will be leading a session on building an learning culture on your agile team (Wednesday at 3:30 in Asia 3). I have done this session before but have reworked it significantly to add more interactive activities. I think it will be a lot of fun and … hopefully you will learn [...]
This model is good for people to consider when doing an Agile-Lean Transformation. I use a process based on this model when working with clients, although the reality of work on the ground often means not following this model perfectly. Without further ado, here is the model: Step One: Create Urgency What is the critical [...]
What do you do when you’re a product manager (for web applications and tools) who has started a new job, assigned to an existing team who are just about to embark on the development of a range of new products and product features? We’ll whatev…
I was asked to present, at an interview, on how I see the role of the product manager working in an agile scrum environment. The key areas that I highlighted were:Scope and responsibilities of the product manager in scrumTypical product management acti…
“We can’t automate everything. It costs too much.”
I’ve heard that concern—that test automation costs too much—multiple times when talking with folks in the middle of an Agile transition.
They know that automated regression testing is important in an Agile context. But they’re concerned about the costs. And they can’t even imagine getting to a point where all . . . → Read More: Why Test Automation Costs Too Much
I was being interviewed for a Product Managers position by a Chief Operating Officer (COO) who used to do the job that I was interviewing for. The company has adopted and really embraced scrum so naturally expects the Product Manager to take on many of…