Let’s be honest. Exec dashboards always look fine — beautiful works of fiction. Lines go up. Colors stay green. Progress looks unstoppable, and everyone’s hitting their “targets” — at least on slides. Meanwhile, teams are drowning in dependencies, decisions crawl through molasses, and nobody’s entirely sure if all this activity is producing actual outcomes. It’s […]
Stop Abusing Agile
Bob asked, “Is the project on schedule?” Will said, “We do Agile. We don’t follow a schedule.”Bob was left wondering how he might report this to the governance teams. Cathy asked, “What scope will be delivered in the next 2 months?” Joe answered, “We are agile. We do not estimate all work upfront. All I […]
Decoding Agility: The Critical Role of Cycle Time in Efficient Workflows
It’s widely recognized that just strict adherence to agile methodologies such as Sprint huddles, Backlog grooming, Sprint planning, and Sprint retrospectives doesn’t automatically ensure agility. The first step involves conducting a simple statistical analysis of your Cycle Time data. Once obtained, basic statistical calculations can help establish a baseline.
The value of value stream mapping in software engineering
Specifically, for every work type send me what date it was changed to each stage in your workflow. I can help with some data analysis to figure out your team’s cycle time. Second – take the value stream map as we’ve drawn it and share it with the team. Validate if we’ve mapped the flow accurately and adjust where necessary. Then find out the information required at each step to minimize the wait times. Also, think about this – what impact will you achieve, if the team sets a goal to minimize the wait time at each step? Is there a better alternative?
Kanban your way to breakthrough profitability
Kanbans are an unbelievably simple way to improve throughput. It does not require you to begin with significant change which most process improvement initiatives do. It helps you experiment within your span of control and learn through those simple non-threatening experiments.
Transforming from waterfall to agile
Introducing agility into traditional systems development processes is never easy. Firstly, you have got to want to change. Secondly, you need to have a vision of what to change to. Finally, you need the tenacity to forge ahead in the face of stiff resistance. It is usually the third that is the most difficult journey to undertake. The hardest part of the journey is during the transition wherein you show how to bring agility into executing projects. You are walking the fine line between traditional methodology and incrementally introducing change.