After over a dozen years of training and coaching in multiple Agile methods, we've seen how useful it is not to be attached to any one of them. Knowing a variety of methods helps you match the method to the need at hand. It also helps in its implementation. And it gives you the breadth of experience required to keep you from becoming dogmatic.

The Gist of the Story

We believe in Agile software development for teams. From small teams to a 4000 person development group, our clients have enjoyed success with Agile. They have been able to deliver more value to customers at a more sustainable pace and with greater employee satisfaction than ever they were before. That is what keeps us going.

Many family members and friends celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. We continued our tradition in our gatherings of individually saying what we are grateful for. We typically do this in the present tense – that is, what we are grateful for now. I wanted to take the opportunity to give thanks for about things people have done for me in the past in my professional area. The list is not complete, so please do not be offended if I left you out – I have tried to keep this somewhat concise.  read more »

I must say I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the Conference on Lean Enterprise Software and Systems, 2011 in Stockholm was. I thought it would be good: while last year's LESS conference was a bit academic for my tastes, LESS 2011 offered a great blend of good speakers, consultants, and participants. I looked forward to the Beyond Budgeting track and Steve Denning.

Note: This is not a normal blog from me, but really notes about a birds of a feature I organized at LESS 2011. There have been three blogs on it so far:

I heard this story years ago at a Stephen Covey time management seminar.

The instructor held up a big, open-mouthed jar. On the table were lots of rocks. He started picking up the rocks and carefully placed them in the jar until no more would fit. He then asked the attendees who thought the jar was full?

Most people raised their hands.

Students in my Kanban training classes ask great questions. Many of these questions come up so often that I have started a list of my "Top 10 (or so) things I wish people knew about Lean-Kanban."

Here is my list and I'd like to know what you think should be added. I will be filling in more information about these over the next few weeks, so keep checking in with me.

"Eliminate Waste!" This is one of the earliest mantras of Lean that people learn. It is easy to say but it can cause problems if we consider it a means - instead it is actually a goal. Forgetting this sets the student up for a long bout of wasted effort or at least incomplete results.

In The Importance of Mindsets, I described why your mindset, where you think from, is critical.  read more »

What is the rationale for a maximum sprint length of 30 days?

This was a question that someone on the LinkedIn Certified ScrumMasters group recently asked.

There are three reasons. Two are explicitly part of Scrum. The other isn't mentioned but is one of the foundations on which Scrum is based. The explicit ones are feedback and enforced view of reality. The second is removing delays.