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
Category: Measurement
Using value stream maps
A value stream is a “Lean Manufacturing” tool. It is a way to identify where customers experience value and where we consume value to provide our product or service. The approach is quite simple. Problem Begin with a problem statement (here are some templates). In this example I will begin with the problem that we… Continue reading Using value stream maps
Manual regression testing may not suck so badly after all
I often work with good developers and one thing I notice about all good developers is that they seem to love the idea of building robots. Bad developers see problems and sit there waiting for someone to come up with a solution in enough detail for the developer to transcribe the solution into code, much… Continue reading Manual regression testing may not suck so badly after all
A daily status meeting? Really? Now you want daily performance measures? Really?
I run agile training courses and I often preach the benefit of a daily standup. The idea is that it is 15 minutes a day where everyone in the team lists What they have done since last time What they will do today What obstacle or issue is in their way It works really well… Continue reading A daily status meeting? Really? Now you want daily performance measures? Really?
Measuring the impact on production support
I was running a course in agile development when I mentioned that one of the good things about agile is being able go live with something valuable sooner. One of the class asked whether you can measure the benefit of going live sooner. “Of course,” I replied, “and of course you should be doing so”.… Continue reading Measuring the impact on production support
Agile governance and the problem with measuring self-organising teams
I have been in some interesting conversations recently about agile development teams and sound organisational governance. One of the challenges faced by organisations is that the traditional measures used to monitor and control teams are not necessarily suited to the style and approach of agile teams, while agile approaches may seem to remain silent on,… Continue reading Agile governance and the problem with measuring self-organising teams
Talking about retrospectives on another blog
I was running a course on "facilitating workshops in agile projects" when some of the crew asked what different questions they could ask in retrospectives (instead of just "what worked and what didn't). We got talking about the retrospective at the end of a project. So I published a story of sorts on how to run a… Continue reading Talking about retrospectives on another blog
Some downloadable notes on estimating
One of tha participants from a course asked for some more information on estimating - so here is a downloadable copy of my mimi-ebook with some rough notes on estimating. Most of the material also appears in this blog somewhere and I have since updated some of my thinking (as I am continuing to do). … Continue reading Some downloadable notes on estimating
Unusual predictors of team success
I was reading Daniel Pink's book "Drive" and I came across a passage about predicting which teams are likely to be successful. It describes a guy who counts the number of times he hears people use the word "we" and the number of the times they used the word "they" when referring to their own company. Apparently the… Continue reading Unusual predictors of team success
Should measures be “SMART”?
I was having a debate with a friend of mine recently. He said that all measures should be "SMART". The term is usually used for goals and says that the goal should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely (or something similar). The problem I pointed out was that the M in SMART means measurable so… Continue reading Should measures be “SMART”?
James King 