I recently spoke at a PMI Chapter in Ballantyne event, well, I say spoke at but we really played a game of planning poker. We divided the group up into groups of four (that is how many suits per deck). There were 5 groups, and I supplied the prompt from which all responses were generated. As expected,the initial prompt produced […]
Brainstorming and Cost Improvement The brainstorming technique is attributed to Alex Faickney Osborne as explained in his 1953 book, Applied Imagination. The technique arose from frustration with the inability of employees to develop creative solutions for problems. Personal experience suggests this is a valuable tool when deployed appropriately and the guidelines are followed. If we […]
I have been speaking at many PMI chapter events in North Carolina this year. I enjoy doing these events, meeting new people, discussing different and new things, and sometimes, being introduced to cool old things. One such event was the PMI Asheville Chapter where I met some really interesting people including Eric W. Mythical Man […]
It is clear to me that some people think an agile approach means you can willy-nilly delete things in the process. This is also true for conventional project, but I do not think for the same reasons. For conventional projects, it seems time pressures cause elimination of certain functions or processes to keep the schedule. […]
Learning and Product Development By now, we should all understand the need for speed when it comes to product development, but not just any speed, it is the need for speed of learning. This is one of the benefits of an agile approach, but this benefit is not restricted to a development methodology, unless of […]
By:” Shawn P. Quigley Whereas we have discussed some of the possible flaws in measurements we can all still agree that they are needed to provide both improvement in processes and the organization. However, other aspects of obtaining data for the production of quantifiable information: trend analysis and process evaluation, is the human factor both […]
Agile beyond product development I have recently had another wonderful discussion with John Cutler on agile beyond the actual product development work of the organization. This may seem trivial on the surface, but the reality is the company or organizations is only as fast as the slowest element. Imagine the finances for the endeavor are […]
You are in college now, and you see people that are likely smart as far as youth will provide. Everybody can have strong “opinions” and perhaps their track record in high school has been one of success after success or being the person known to be knowledgeable – as far as high school topics go. […]
Hiring and Safety Now, I know that title, Hiring and Safety, probably sounds like this is going to be a work place safety post, but no, that is not what this is. I have been in twitter conversations with John Cutler (@johncuttlefish) about providing a psychologically safe place for employees. A place where the work […]
Having the plan is only partially helpful. The list of test cases and the expected rate of accomplishment allows us to refine our estimates as we progress through the testing. We will be in a position to provide the project manager and stakeholders with a better “ETA” (Estimated Time of Arrival) just like the GPS […]