Variation! Though sometimes we may refuse to recognize it, the world is a full of variation, even in the things we think or believe are constant. For example, my wife has been known to say, “you always do…” or “you never do…”, to which I retort, I am human and I am not that repeatable. […]
In our earlier posts, we explored abuses of estimates, and then the need for the estimates in the business prioritization or what projects shall we undertake, and securing the resources to accomplish the objective. Business Case In the prior blog we discussed the connection between the estimates and the business case for the work. The […]
Instead of No Estimates Instead of no estimates, we should consider adjusting our approach to estimates that eliminate the abuse, and still allows for the answers to the business questions, “does this project improve our bottom line” allowing the business to determine if the company really wants to undertake the project, and if so, do […]
Estimating and Business Case Our last post explored the abuses of estimates. I thought it best to recognize the abuses, thinking acknowledging these thoughts from the no estimate crowd, may make them amenable to a discussion of how other see the problem and perhaps, eventually, a movement toward a solution that all find acceptable. Individuals […]
I would like to start off with has anybody seen an appropriate study of estimating when it comes to doing the work? Not a study that already knows the conclusion they want, but an actual scientific study. The thoughts below are not based upon anything like that but, having seen many estimating boondoggles. I have […]
Clues! Signals! Below is the result of a collaboration with John Cutler. He posted a document on Google Docs, and I liked the outline so much I felt compelled to post my thoughts In fact, it was surreal adding my contents to the Google docs and John coincidentally showed up on line, at the same […]
Team Building Phases Teams are not as easy as throw our collection of individuals into a room together and bang, thus is a team created. We are fond of the description of the steps a team will go through by Bruce Tuckman we list below. Our experience suggests this list to be a reasonable list of the […]
Project Management and Critical Thinking There are a good many cognitive biases that can impact discerning the truth or what is valid and true. Yet knowing what is valid and true is important for any business decision, product development and especially for project managers. Project managers are often part of decision arm and execution arm […]
I had a brief chat with Tom Cagley of the famous SPaMcast the other night about teams. We periodically take time to talk about product development topics, and I frequently appear on SPaMCast podcasts. Last night we talked about teams an whatever magic makes a collection of individuals move to the point of performing better than the […]
Are we starting to believe and behave as if all conflict is bad? Not just bad, but something to be avoided at all costs. There are upsides to conflict, that we may be forgetting. For example, the tension between what I wanted to be able to do with my life outside of employment at the time, […]