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The Leadership and Communication Lessons of Josey Wales – Part 4
In the last installment, we left Josey and his rebel friend at a river crossing. There they met the boatman Sim Carstairs, Granny Hawkins, who runs a supply store, and a carpetbagger. We discussed the...
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Simplify the UML?
I am continually amazed at the serendipity of events that occurs everyday. A short time ago I was having lunch with an industry insider when he mentioned the beginnings of a movement to simplify the...
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Perfect Questions?
During a recent discussion I was having with a colleague who is an Agile Coach and Business Analyst, I asked her what the BA community was interested in regarding the practice of business analysis. Her...
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Has Your Agile Ship Sailed?
Sorry agile purists. In the real world, most development groups that are using agile techniques (a surprisingly small percentage vs. the industry hype) are not using a “pure” agile approach. They are...
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Wasting Time…Agile-ly
You have probably heard of Bruce Tuckman’s model describing the stages of group development – Form, Storm, Norm, and Perform. Unfortunately many in the agile community seem to be stuck in the storm...
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Psyching Out Agile Teams
I recently read a study[1] on the psychological needs of agile teams. Various factors thought to affect software practitioners’ acceptance of agile orientation were studied. One of the interesting...
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Burndown Bingo – An Agile Anti-Pattern
Your newly minted global agile team is dutifully performing the rituals typical of agile development. They do their morning scrum, they update their remaining task hours, review their burndown chart,...
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Agile Heresy
Those who do the work are the best people to estimate what it takes to perform the work. Makes sense. Sounds reasonable. The problem with such a definitive statement is the subjective word “best”....
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ScrumMaster as Shepherd
The concept of servant leadership seems to be difficult for some new ScrumMasters (and others) to fully comprehend. It is so contrary to many corporate cultures. So let’s take a look at another role...
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Coin-Operated Agile Coaches
You must have seen one. At a carnival, county fair, or maybe an amusement park. Sitting inside a glass enclosed box. Bright clothing. One hand held above a fan of sun-faded playing cards. A...
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What Are You Sprinting Toward?
They knew all eyes would be watching them. They knew huge crowds would be in attendance. And they knew some of those attending were there to cause trouble. Facing this, the Tampa police had an...
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Sitting In A Teamroom Makes You As Agile As Sitting In A Garage Makes You A...
You have a task board in your teamroom that you use to track the status of your users stories and tasks. But do you have any idea what is a reasonable number of tasks to have in work at any one time?...
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The Agile Scorpion
A frog approaches a stream and sees a scorpion by the bank. The scorpion cannot cross the stream alone, so he asks the frog to carry him across the stream on its back. The frog is wary of the...
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Tis the Season
As we fly through this Christmas season, give your teams the gift that will mean the most to them – empowerment. The cost to you – nothing. What do you get in return? Speed, productivity, increased...
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The Baker’s Dozen of Coaching Leadership
1. Be Dedicated – to your client, your team, yourself. Commitment builds trust. 2. Be Curious – about your profession, your client, other fields. Learn continuously. If you think you know it all, you...
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Are You Human?
Isaac Asimov’s science fiction short story “The Bicentennial Man” tells the tale of a robot named Andrew. With the help of some human benefactors, over a long time, Andrew replaces his robotic systems...
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Video Blog : Distractions Kill Teams
To see video click – www.screencast.com/t/b9lFNBIt Also visit: Websites: www.ProjectPragmatics.com and http://www.JohncMaxwellGroup.com/bobmaksimchuk
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Agile Pneumonia and the Manifesto Blues
Sung to the tune of Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Blues by Johnny Rivers, J.Vincent and H. Smith. (If you don’t know it, you can listen here first >>>...
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Dysfunctional Delusions
If you want high performing teams, they have to be built first and foremost on a foundation of trust. Patrick Lencioni cites the lack of trust as the first (of five) dysfunctions of a team. The team...
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THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL of LEADERSHIP
You don’t have to ask many people. Everyone is busy. But as a leader, you don’t have that as an excuse. It has been said that managers keep the business running, but leaders move the business...
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