Posted by James King on May 31, 2011
Its amazing what a small group of motivated people can achieve when given the chance.
It is also amazing how many project managers launch into planning and running their projects without thinking about how to motivate the people delivering the project and then struggle against the tide to try and deliver the work they planned.
Posted in Leading change | Tagged: motivating project teams | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on May 25, 2011
Penny didn’t used to think that testing and management had much to do with each other, but she was about to learn that the most testing people of all were the managers.
Posted in Agile fables | Tagged: agile fables, managers distressing people | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on May 12, 2011
I went to a conference recently and someone asked about the impact of agile projects on the role of the business analyst (BA).
The panellists all explained that BA’s are really important members of the team. This was comforting for the audience but didn’t really address the question.
Posted in Agile development, Observations | Tagged: agile business analyst | 1 Comment »
Posted by James King on May 10, 2011
If you have just joined our story, Penny was promoted to run the new third level support team and she has been told they have to be agile.
Penny decided to start their second day with a team meeting and she bought everyone a coffee as a welcome to the team kind of gesture. Penny wasn’t absolutely sure, but she thought managers were allowed to charge coffee to the company when they had important meetings.
Posted in Agile fables, Observations | Tagged: agile fables, agile support team | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on May 5, 2011
Penny worked in the IT call centre. Her title was quite bland (she was a Second Level Support – Analyst Class 4), but she pictured herself as a young Sherlock Holmes.
Posted in Agile development, Agile fables, Observations | Tagged: agile fables, support team | Leave a Comment »
Posted by James King on May 1, 2011
I have my own favourite set of questions to ask at the beginning of any assignment or project. I call this my “question compass” because the questions help me to find my way at the ambiguous beginning of most of my projects.
People often write the questions down when I explain them, so I assume they like my question compass too. But often a senior BA will listen politely and then reveal that they have their own “question compass” that works better for them than mine does.
Posted in Idea management, Investigation | Tagged: questions to ask a stakeholder, Starting a new project | Leave a Comment »
