Difficult decisions when you’re between a rock and a hard place
Over the last six months, I have been working with a client that is moving from “RUP” to Scrum. It’s unfair to describe their projects as using RUP because in truth they’re more waterfall than RUP. The project teams used RUP nomenclature and artifacts, but still worked within the waterfall lifecycle. One particular project that … Read more
The Thai Restaurant Model (and its applicability to Software Development)
Personal note: I started this article about 9 months ago. Although it’s quite a fun article, I have become increasingly critical of the use of analogies to describe software development. My feeling is that analogies lead to assumption that may, or may not, be valid. So, rather than talk about building a bridge, a house … Read more
Controling the flow of daily meetings with a team mascot
When introducing Agile/Scrum practices to a new team it’s common for the team to have very chaotic or drawn out meetings. Often the daily scrum will degenerate into a long conversation over topics that are of little interest to the team. Long daily meetings are insidious for Agile teams. If the the team spends more … Read more
Selecting ScrumMasters (Facilitators)
Many teams often ask who is the best person to fill the ScrumMaster role. The assumption is that this role is best filled by someone who was previously a project manager [or is the current project manager of a team]. Clients ask: “What’s the difference between leading a RUP (or Waterfall) team, and leading a … Read more
An Enterprise Strategy for Introducing Agile: Part 4 – Impediments: Teams, Management and Culture
[Update: This is part 4 of a four part series. Here are links to part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.] When initially introducing Agile practices to a team, the difficulties experienced by the team are all centered on the immediate adoption of the practices, and the consequences of that adoption. After some … Read more
