Agile Complexification Inverter

Practice story estimation techniques with this exercise in dog grooming.  Then apply the principles of RELATIVE SIZING to your own backlog. Related Post: Affinity Estimating: A How-To by Sterling Barton. Dogfood David why I feel like an expert in the concept of eating one's own dogfood. Slideshare: Affinity Estimation - Size 60 Stories in about 20 Minutes . For each dog below, estimate the work effort (story size) required to groom the dog.  Assuming that you have the tools and experience to groom dogs.  Discuss with your teammates what grooming means ( in my book grooming includes washing, drying, combing, nail clipping, and hair trimming in some cases - etc. ). Start with the ever-popular: Golden Retriever (22-24 in, 50-90 lbs). The short-haired Dachshund (15-28 lbs). The Standard Poodle (15-18in, 40-80 lbs). Bernese Mountain Dog (25-28 in., 65-120 lbs). German Shepherd (23-26 in, 50-90 lbs). Yorkshire terrier (5 in, ...

Where does the typical engineering Buy vs. Build decision making process happen within Agile software development?  How does Agile's User Stories help us with this decision making process? Case Study In the late 1990s I worked with a talented group of people creating a product to deliver high speed Internet service via satellite download links.  The version 1.0 product was done and functioning well, venture capital was secure for version 2.0.  There was a window of opportunity to release a 2.0 product into the market place and we were racing to that market place with a competitor. Although we were not using any formal Agile process (the term had yet to be coined in Snowbird, UT), we were like many start-up companies using such a lightweight process that it had no name.  It is best to describe the development process as "just make good decision - and do it fast." One of the features for the 2.0 version was greatly enhanced product licensing.  The new ...

For some crazy (but interesting) reason the most popular blog post on my site is about Motivation and the Hertzberg Two-Factor Theory . So in keeping with the concept that if that is what people are coming to see - then maybe that is a topic of concern - here are some interesting links and info on Motivation. One of the best TED Videos on the topic: Dan Pink on the surprising science of motivation If then rewards do not work! Example: If you perform at a high level - you will get this reward. Social science knows that this does not work in cognitive skilled areas. Did you know this? See RSA's rendering of Dan Pink's speech. From the author of "Flow". "Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has contributed pioneering work to our understanding of happiness, creativity, human fulfillment and the notion of "flow" -- a state of heightened focus and immersion in activities such as art, play and work." Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi asks, "What makes a life wo...

A great boss knows that you do not schedule meetings during your work groups most creative portions of their day.  If you are a morning person - schedule meetings in the afternoon.  Bored, Lonely? - call a meeting. I have great ideas for blog post in the morning, by the evening they have dissipated into just mediocre and the motivation to write them has gone. What is required for those creative moments to produce fruit? "People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web." TED Talk:  Where good ideas come from - Steven Johnson Johnson relates the myth of Eureka moments vs the Slow Hunch - or the innovation process.  Why is the open forum (a network of people) where ideas are exchanged so important to the innova...

You want to make an Agile transformation in your work group.  What one action could facilitate that Agile transformation? I have a friend who's 5 year old son was learning to play card games. After learning a few games, she noticed that he had learned to stack the deck. No one had taught him, he discovered he could influence the outcome of the games if he ordered the cards in a "better" way. Shuffling is so old school. Would it be cheating if you stacked the deck? The most successful Agile transformations I've been a part of were rigged games.  The sponsors allowed the teams to hire new staff (programers, testers, team leads, coaches).  The staff they hired were not typical - they were Agilist. All you need to transition a team to Agile is three developers.  A team is 7 +/-2.  If just 3 of those people are going to do the Agile thing given any problem - then the team is stacked. Image a retrospective.  The team is trying to decide on a problem...

There is an App for that, but are they any good for helping with your Agile software team? Here are a few iOS apps I have on my iPhone.  I'm not sure they are going to replace the sticky notes and a whiteboard. Clock Pro - it has a multi-city world clock for visualizing timezone differences.  Great for those dis-located teams. Agilely Timer - a clock timer for scrum meetings and round table discussions. User Stories - a backlog management tool for user stories with estimates & priority. Game Storming - a set of exercises (game if you wish) that create synergy in groups and discover knowledge. Scrum Cards - estimation cards and cheat sheets for process. LeanKit - a Kanban tool, integrates with the web tool LeanKit Kanban . Whiteboard Capture Pro - whiteboard photo capture post processing. Processed Image           Original Image Whiteboard Share - another photo processing tool - this one integrates with...

I've been considering studying for the PMP exam.  So today in the bookstore I browsed a few PMP exam prep books.   Having just finished a master's in organizational leadership that has quite a focus on teams, I decided to look for areas of overlap.  Places where the PMP aspects of building a team and helping the team perform would be an easy read for me given my recent experience in gradual school. I found a few pages in the exam prep books - less than 10 total.  They briefly covered Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Tuckman's Stages of Group Development,  Vroom's Expectancy Theory of Motivation, etc.  All very good stuff.  Having spent a year studying this 10 pages or less, appeared rather brief for an exam guide that wishes to prepare a project manager to optimize a project's performance. In one guide the process of Manage Project Team is defined: "3.5.5 Manage Project Team Manage Project Team is the process of tracking team member performanc...

I enjoy reading about creativity, I hope that some of it rubs off on me.  Here's a new book I just bought, very creative, a colorful book, full of ideas and exercises.  I hope that I can work through some of the Actions & Movements discussed in the book in my next 37 days. " Life is a Verb; 37 days to wake up, be mindful, and live intentionally " by Patti Digh And while browsing the bookstore my wife found this book.  The title gets your attention. " The International Handbook of Creativity " edited by James Kaufman & Robert Sternberg However one has to wonder about the publisher, Cambridge, did they even read the book, did the editors read the chapters?  Is there one ounce of creativity in the lot of them?  Watch the video of the thumb through - then watch the video of Life is a Verb - which one would you buy?  I did a video - but it got lost in the recycle bin of Google's blogger site.  So just cruise over to Amazon and check out eac...

I've just read that the FCC chairman is claiming that 'Super Wi-Fi' is coming to the US.  This is great news.  But is it realistic?  Don't we currently have the fastest Internet around?  We are #1 - right? No - recent facts are that the US ranks 16th globally in Internet speed.  (source: State of the Internet Q1 2010 report by Akamai).  Yes, South Korea is #1 (12 Mbps average speed). While I welcome the new super Wi-Fi that is being proposed - the longer wavelengths will have much better penetration and reach.  I believe fast internet is important to our economy and I believe we could do better.  The examples are available, the data is known (read the Akamai report).  Obama’s stimulus package ($789 Billion) allocated $7.2 B for broadband funding.  I don't know if the money has been spent yet, but it would not show up in the Q1 2010 report. On a side note - I find it ironic that CNN used a picture of kids holding up their OLPC X...

The Golden Gates Paper Bridge Group Initiative This group initiative is from the UNC-Charlotte's Venture Group Initiatives Manual . I've used this initiative to discuss team work, leadership, followership, understanding the client and may other issues that arise during the debriefing. In one training at SolutionsIQ the teams were given the requirements (build a bridge of 12" span - but when the customer acceptance was done the boat that had to pass under the bridge had towers and antenna that exceeded the specification height.  The teams had to negotiate with the Product Owner on the physical acceptance test - a toy boat passing under the bridge.   One team created their own "Unit-Test" - the box. Golden Gates  (Facilitator Info) Materials: 60 sheets of paper per group, paper clips per group, approximately 60 feet of string, tape for the string, copies of rules (next page) for each group, a ruler, flip chart for debrief. Set up : •  Lay down str...

In a blog post by Michele Sliger - Personal Agile she has asked her twitter base if people are using Agile techniques to manage their personal lives.  Does the Agile mind set creep into personal lives?  E.G. do we eat our own dog-food ?  I would hope so, and expect it if the philosophy is sound. Here is my experience.  Written about the trip my wife and I planned to take when the Banking Meltdown, had dried up most of the software projects back in the winter of 2009.  I walked into my director and suggested that I could take a month without pay and that might be a good thing.  He didn't bat an eye lash - yes, when would you like to leave, are you really coming back?  Yes, I did wish to come back, I enjoyed working for SolutionsIQ.  The timing was great, it was January, 2009 and there were no new projects coming into the pipeline, layoffs were looming and I wanted a sabbatical.  A chance to go ski the best snow between Seattle and Denver....

When one considers core values happiness is not always on the list. A short list of typical core values includes: integrity, reliability, freedom, justice, etc. Even long lists of values may leave happiness off the list.  This is intriguing, and I wonder why.  Is it too self-centered, too narcissistic, to desire happiness for one’s self?  I do not think that to be true.  I believe that happiness is a wonderful value to hold, perhaps a better value than many others. The founding father’s inshrined this value within our declaration of independence.  Giving the pursuit of happiness equal weight to the rights of life and liberty (Declaration of Independence, 2010). Recognizing that while the framers of the republic considered life and liberty an unalienable right, one does not have a right to happiness, just the right to pursue happiness.  The pursuit of happiness should not be allow to impinge upon other’s rights.  Therefore an inherent requirement for ...

The iPad may not be the best device for reading a book.  But just stopping at the transfer of printed words onto the page is selling the new device and new market space very short.  I can imagine a text book on physics with integrated video of the Galloping Gerty bridge disaster or built-in physics simulator such as Crayon Physics or Enigmo (see image).   Perhaps the Kindle is a better e-book reader (electric ink is a great technology).  But what I would be excited about is the ability to have all my books in one book bag, and room for lunch and a sweater.  Teacher may be excited also, no more excuses about forgetting that text book today, all your books are on one device. Not to mention the price, a typical academic text book cost $125.  One must wonder if the price point for a text book is so much higher than a best seller because of economies of scale in printing.  I think there is a lot of room for a better price point for an e-book...

The question is not will the iPad do everything you or I wish it to, clearly Apple did not intend it to be the One Device to Rule Them All.  Apple's intent has been clear for several years.  Jobs stated the intent in a speech 9 years ago: The digital hub strategy. "The Mac," Jobs said, "can become the 'digital hub' of our emerging digital lifestyle, adding tremendous value to our other digital devices." "Jobs laid out a path of PC evolution that defined the early 80s as an initial 'golden age' of computing based on productivity software, which began to wane in the early 90s.  A 'second golden age' began in the mid-1990s with the rise of Internet; but it too began to lose its momentum by 2000.  Jobs said he believed a third age would focus on a digital lifestyle, driven by an 'explosion of digital devices.'" -- by Phil Simon The Age of the Platform Steve Jobs introduces the "Digital Hub... by HiltonRobb ...

Scrum uses a burn down graph to track progress. Turns out this is a powerful motivator. An article in Harvard Business Review discusses a survey of 600 managers on motivation in the workplace.  The number one motivator from manager's perception is recognition for good work .  However a multi-year study tracking workers has a very different finding.  Contrary to manager's belief workers define that progress is the top motivator. "On days when workers have the sense they're making headway in their jobs, or when they receive support that helps them overcome obstacles, their emotions are most positive and their drive to succeed is at its peak." Note the removal of impediments in the quote above. The article supports the Scrum practices of tracking progress every day, of removing impediments, and of celebration of progress toward the companies goals. An interesting TED video is Dan Pink's talk ' The surprising science of motivation '.  Where h...