Although I have talked about this topic before, I cannot write a series of blog posts about Agile planning without acknowledging one of the fundamental realities of software development that Agile so rightly embraces: sometimes your plans need to change. No matter how much time and effort you invest upfront trying to figure out requirements… Continue reading Incorporating new feedback
I will blog more about this soon but had to put it up as soon as I saw it. This is about Agile development at Spotify. I’ve got a link here to part 1 (of 2) but once you see the first part it gives you a link to the second. Maybe you’ve seen this… Continue reading An awesome and inspiring model
I spent some time today writing up goals for 2015 and for the next 5 years as part of my ‘end of year review’ for work. The goals flow from my performance review ending 2014 as well as from my reflections on what I would like to do and how I would like to grow… Continue reading Goals for 2015 and beyond
Way back in January I posted a plan to write about Agile planning (see the entry here: http://wp.me/p2BePD-3x). It was supposed to be a ten-part series that I hoped to complete in 3-4 months. The basic outline I wanted to cover in this set of posts was as follows: What’s so hard about Agile planning? The planning onion… Continue reading Regrouping on Agile planning
In my last post I stated that the goal of Agile sprint planning is for the development team to know what pieces of working functionality – prioritized by the business – they can commit to delivering with relative certainty at the end of the two-week sprint. I also wrote that the keys to planning are… Continue reading Doing sprint planning well
Early on in this set of blog posts about Agile planning I talked about the common image of the planning onion, in which there are different layers of planning that start with the widest strategic view and progress all the way to daily planning. So far I have written about strategy and portfolio planning in… Continue reading The goal of sprint planning
In my previous (long) post I talked about navigating potential conflicts that can emerge in Agile planning when a company has an inter-related set of products. I suggested that product owners have a valuable role to play in navigating these collisions by facilitating communication, articulating trade-offs, recognizing leverage opportunities, and offering a wider perspective. I… Continue reading So who decides when someone has to?
Groucho Marx once famously observed that outside of a dog a book is a man’s best friend while inside of a dog it’s too dark to read. We could use a similar analogy to talk about Agile planning and say that good planning does not happen in a vacuum because either it’s too dark, cramped,… Continue reading When worlds collide
It has been a little while since I’ve been in a good rhythm with my blogging but I am trying to get to one now. I want to work through the remaining posts in the current arc about Agile planning. Believe it or not I work hard to keep my blog posts concise. I think… Continue reading Summary on my next two posts
I recently heard someone at my firm lodge the following complaint about Agile: ‘The trouble with developing software with Agile is that it tends to be very reactive as we build to satisfy the most recent requests; instead we need a more proactive and long-term approach to thinking about our software development priorities.’ To offer… Continue reading The Agile planning onion
InTruthItsNotThatSimple 