I was talking to some experienced agile people and we started to discuss "agile coaching." We agreed that it was a great idea and that everyone should have an agile coach. But then we realised that we did not mean the same thing when we said "coach." We did agree on some things, like being able… Continue reading Extending the coaching agreement – when is an agile coach not an agile coach?
Category: Arguing
Use the river diagram to communicate data
I run a lot of workshops, including planning workshops and retrospectives. Sometimes the crew votes on things like "what is the best feature, or how did we go this time." But sometimes we collect data and then want to discuss it as a team. And this presents a challenge - I like data in a… Continue reading Use the river diagram to communicate data
Dealing with baddies on agile projects
[Editors note - this is a long an obscure article that made sense to me and some people I explained it to. If it is not making sense half way through abort rather than continuing ... it either makes sense early on or does not make sense at all] I was running an agile course… Continue reading Dealing with baddies on agile projects
The dark art of politics – do you need values or a brand to win battles?
Some people believe that if you are evil then you have no values and that you will be good at office politics, but that if you are good then you will have strong values and be really bad at office politics. I believe that regardless of whether you are good or evil, you will be… Continue reading The dark art of politics – do you need values or a brand to win battles?
The dark art of office politics for IT leaders (part one – why is it stressful?)
Apparently office politics is a horrible thing that other people do. But many of the emerging IT leaders I speak to get told they need to be better at "soft skills" and "influencing at a senior level". What this often means is get good a politics. Sadly a lot of office politics seems to involve… Continue reading The dark art of office politics for IT leaders (part one – why is it stressful?)
Can I add more scope and still deliver on time? Or should I Scamper
I often seem to face the same problem - how can I reduce my resources, increase my scope, improve quality and go faster? The best answer is - be clear on what you really want and decrease your scope. Sadly that is the opposite of what people want to hear, but usually delivering the right… Continue reading Can I add more scope and still deliver on time? Or should I Scamper
A mathematical formula to make agile work
I was speaking to some experienced Agilistas about whether “Agile” had a good or bad reputation at the moment. We spoke about agile maturity models, agile certification, real agile versus pretend agile and even whether there was a right way to do agile. We did not come to any agreement about whether certification and maturity… Continue reading A mathematical formula to make agile work
It may be logical, but does it make sense?
If you have been reading my blog, you have probably heard just about all you want to hear about logic for a while. But I suffer from the opposite problem – Logic-o-philia (not a real word). But a comment on a recent article reminded me that I can be completely logical, and still not get… Continue reading It may be logical, but does it make sense?
Bad logic. Some common fallacies
I was talking about assessing documents (and statements) to see whether they are “logical”. Critics of “logical communication” will quite rightly make the point that a document can be logical, but boring, irrelevant and completely un-compelling. This is true and I should get to talking about it soon. But before I do I wanted to… Continue reading Bad logic. Some common fallacies
Assessing the logic of a whole document
In my last article (“Is that logical?”) I discussed a way to test the logic of a statement. But a document filled with logical statements can still be gobbledegook if the statements are not linked together logically. So how can we assess the overall logic of a document? The first step is to look at… Continue reading Assessing the logic of a whole document
James King 