Agile Complexification Inverter

 My friend and colleagues have released their new book:   Software Profit Streams(TM): A Guide to Designing a Sustainably Profitable Business And it has me thinking about what it means to be a sustainable business.  My best definition of a sustainable business would be to look at the lifetime longevity of the business .  My guess is that a family business would be the most sustainable model.  One could include a monarchy in that class of business model (looking at the  House of Windsor ).

Imagine two tribes, the first tribe is referred to by anthropologist as the Slackers .  The anthropologist refer to the other tribe as the Overloaders .  These anthropologist are a crafty bunch, they have devised various methods to study the tribes without the very observant members of the tribes realizing that they are the subjects of experiments.  In fact if we asked the astute tribal people if the anthropologist exist, the people would say no.  They would look at you funny and step away from you, giving you just a bit more personal space.  From the slightly safer distance the people may ask you, why would any tribe wish to have anthropologist.  What happiness could they bring to the tribe? Never-the-less, we know the anthropologist exist because we, dear reader, are pan-dimensional super intelligent creatures that do not live confined to the bounds of this page. These tribes collect berries of all types around their villages and transport thes...

What do these phrase have in common - what is their inherent consistent meaning? Zero Defects Take the time to do it Right Repeatability and Reliability Process Maturity Model Measure twice, cut once Six Sigma Rework is Waste, Lean processes remove Waste They are ironically consistent in their purpose to reduce variability.  Don Reinertsen will attempt to convince us that in the domain of product development (unlike other domains) variability may not be the enemy of good.  He will argue that it is the economic payoff-function of this outcome that is of upmost concern in design. Voltaire 's aphorism :   Perfect is the enemy of good. I'm in a group at work that is reading books on Agile software development topics to what purpose... well to learn I hope.  After Lyssa's book on Coaching Agile Teams  we turned the knob up to 11 with Don Reinertsen's Principles of Product Development Flow .  Since it's such a tough read, a dense book with so m...

Polish Poet and Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska on How Our Certitudes Keep Us Small and the Generative Power of Not-Knowing “Whatever inspiration is, it’s born from a continuous ‘I don’t know.’” By Maria Popova  - BrainPickings Purely for the fun of it, Maria Popova drew Wisława Szymborska’s poetic island in a map inspired by Thomas More’s Utopia. Polish poet Wisława Szymborska (July 2, 1923–February 1, 2012) "explored how our contracting compulsion for knowing can lead us astray in her sublime 1976 poem “Utopia,” found in her Map: Collected and Last Poems ( public library )" -- Maria Popova UTOPIA Island where all becomes clear. Solid ground beneath your feet. The only roads are those that offer access. Bushes bend beneath the weight of proofs. The Tree of Valid Supposition grows here with branches disentangled since time immemorial. The Tree of Understanding, dazzlingly straight and simple, sprouts by the spring called Now I Get It. The t...

First, allow me to lay out some ground rules and a touch of the backstory... I'm not a professional book reviewer, nor paid in any way to read.  But if I could get that gig... I'd be a happy camper.  I've never written a book, but I've hacked out some code, a few articles, some of which might be considered book reviews.  I've worked in the Agile industry for more than a decade (but who's counting), and so - I may be a little close to the topic to have a proper literary impartial bias.  In fact, let me just go ahead and be explicit - I've done this, been there, got the t-shirt; I shit you not - this shit is for real! Agile  Noir  by Lancer Kind Now the ground rules...  I think this review will be written ... what's the word... while I'm reading, at the same time, without much delay in the reading-writing phases.... in situ .... iteratively... oh I give up... So don't be surprised - dear reader - if I just drop off in the middle......

In the practice of Scrum many people appear to have their favorite method of calculating the team's velocity. For many, this exercise appears very academic. Yet when you get three people and ask them you will invariability get more answers than you have belly-buttons. Velocity—the rate of change in the position of an object; a vector quantity, with both magnitude and direction. “C alculus is the mathematical study of change.”  — Donald Latorre  This pamphlet describes the method I use to teach beginning teams this one very important Scrum concept via  a photo journal simulation. Some of the basic reasons many teams are "doing it wrong"... (from my comment on Doc Norton's FB question:  Hey social media friends, I am curious to hear about dysfunctions on agile teams related to use of velocity. What have you seen? mgmt not understanding purpose of Velocity empirical measure; teams using some bogus statistical manipulation called an average ...

Derek "QuikDraw" Lane & I proposed this session (2 sessions actually) for the Agile2017 conference (it wasn't accepted - oh well next time maybe).  Wonder if you'd like to come play in the OK Corral with us? SlideShare Deck Here's how it might go down...   Agile2017 Submission # 5835 And if you're interested... comment on this slide deck...  it's not the final answer.  In fact we may be sneaking bigger guns in to the corral under our dusters... SlideShare deck Abstract: Leadership Style Shoot Out :: Which style best works for this context - how will you recognize it? Where do you Stand Let's survey the audience's Leadership styles/preferences - we will use a standard reference tool (or maybe just make it up on the fly). Getting the participants up and moving and interacting with each other and the sub-set of leadership styles described on the four flip charts in the corners of the room. We will play a few rounds of the gam...