We felt the need to follow on from our previous blog on tracking testing results in the background using hidden ubiquitous spreadsheet or documents. If all you have is a spreadsheet for tracking, then you make that visible to all relevant stakeholders. If the company has a sanctioned or preferred way of handling “bugs” and […]
We break form our blog run on sprint meetings due to incoming flambé du jour. Sometimes we see organizations that are afraid to use the most fundamental of tools, for example, fault tracking from verification. Instead of using a tracking and visibility tool, we pass back and forth excel sheets behind the scenes. Why would […]
Another beneficial attribute of Agile, particularly Scrum, is the daily sprint meeting. In this very short and focused meeting that includes the immediate project team and as needed the sponsor, we will learn much about the state of our project. The questions three that are up for discourse are: What did you do yesterday? What […]
“The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate” ~ Joseph Priestley In our experience, this is one of the significant benefits of the agile approach to project management. Agile, with the recurring sprint meetings and constant involvement and participation by the project sponsor greatly facilitates the communications process. We can rely less […]
We like this saying: The problem is solved by the person feeling the pain; we see much merit in it and believe it to be an axiom. We have touched upon this a bit in our blog on sponges. We see areas where one part of the company or development process makes due or improvises […]
Recently I have had email and physical discussions on the merit (or lack of from some perspectives) of Agile Project Management in developing embedded products. I think the discussion is more about what is the correct tool for the job at hand. I have been part of agile managed projects that have delivered wonderfully. In […]
The customer is the receiver of the output; the customer can be an internal end customer or an intermediary to the next “chain” of events on the way to the final customer. Ultimately, we are aligning our actions (Suppliers, Inputs, Processes, and Outputs) in a way that provides the biggest benefits for our final customer. […]
To go on further with the output discussion, we need to make sure we have an understanding of indicators. Indicators inform us what is going on. My stomach growling is a pretty good indicator that I am hungry, and sweating while mowing the lawn is a good indicator I will need a refreshing beverage upon […]
How do we know when our output is successful? Well, when the customer takes acquisition can be the first tangible evidence for many organizations the output is “good”. So we know what we mean by good, I provide a brief list: capabilities of the output can be deployed suitable quality (Key Product Characteristics are met) […]
When we write about input, we are discussing the nature of the exchange to the depending group. The Systems Engineers, in our previous example, need some input from the Marketing staff to be able to design something to achieve the marketing personnel objective and subsequently meet the customer’s need. What is that input? For example, […]