I am not failing I am just taking a break from success Failure is such a nasty word. We use failure to describe the end result of something. But with the advent of Agile Software Development techniques, we have changed the paradigm

Reducing Risk and Avoiding Pain Agile Lessons Learned Part 1 In Jims webinar presentation, he identifies 19 lessons that he has learned over the past five years implementing Agile development projects. Most of these projects have been very successful but some not as successful. It is important to understand that the Agile journey is a learning process

Reducing Risk and Avoiding Pain Agile Lessons Learned Part 2 If you remember, Jims webinar presentation identifies 19 lessons that he has learned over the past five years implementing Agile development projects

Agile Adoption Equals Mental Shift The adoption of Agile software development principles requires serious adjustments to the mental models we employ in approaching projects and understanding real business value

Building Partnerships: An Evolving Leadership Imperative You see the Redwood tree is a remarkable feat of nature. This monster of a tree can grow up to 350 feet tall. It is the tallest living thing on Earth. And yet its root structures are often not more than 6 feet deep. If you do the math

Agile Software Development and the P90X Fitness Program I woke up on January 2^nd and looked at myself in the mirror and was not happy with what I saw. There was this 40 something (ok! late, late 40 something) guy looking back at me that was 20 pounds overweight, couldnt see his entire belt buckle and couldnt walk up a flight of stairs

Nothing ever changes unless theres some pain Who would have even thought that in 1993, Tears For Fears lead singer Roland Orzabal was singing about Agile adoption

How do you recognize individuals in Agile/Scrum Many of us are somewhat pre-disposed to a culture that rewards the individual. You might call this type of model a meritocracy

Why Being a Good Manager is Great A colleague of mine has written a book called Lead Well and Prosper It is a common sense guide that provides 15 successful strategies on becoming a good manager. It is written from the voices of Joe Kerr and Wanda B. Good

Can Agile be combined with Offshore? 12 Lessons Learned Although my initial response is Yes it comes with some conditions. One of our projects recently utilized a partner in India. We had used this partner successfully in the past for some non-Agile development work, but we quickly discovered

Is Scrum Too Simple? Agiles perceived lack of documentation and defined/written processes, simple framework and seemingly ad hoc approach to development have all been cited as going against the grain of their typical organizational practices

Is Scrum Too Simple? Reader Comment Summary The article had over 50 comments ranging from YesIt is too simple, to No, it is actually quite complex and difficult to implement

The Personality of a Great Scrum Master In the ezine article Scrum Impediments, the author Laszlo Szalvay, President, Danube Technologies, Inc. discusses the vital role that the Scrum Master plays in ensuring team success through

The Personality of a Great Scrum Master: Recap Well, much to my surprise I had a number of readers that took issue with this latter point. Many of the readers came from more traditional project management roles and had made the conversion to scrum

Friday Agile Humor I just had to share with you a little Agile Humor. A reader posted a comment on one of the LinkedIn groups and I found it to be pretty funny, yet poignant

Agile Fixed Price Software Development I have been reviewing a number of articles and blogs recently dealing with the question: Can you do fixed price software development using an agile approach?

The Road to Service Management Transformation: Visibility, Control, Optimization I was having a discussion with a colleague of mine who was frustrated. He is the manager of a client support team responsible for the care and feeding of over 3000 customers. They depend on him

Twitter: A Business Model Evolving I recently got on board the Twitter bandwagon. Now granted, I only have a handful of followers but so far I am in equal part fascinated with the phenomenon

Agile Adoption is Hard! Ask the Right Questions I read this article a while back but just re-read it today. If you are struggling with Agile adoption in your organization I highly recommend this one. It is absolutely right on

Product Owners The Guardians The author, Roman Pitchler makes some great points regarding the critical importance of the role of the Product Owner on the scrum team

Software Risk Management Far too often, as many of us IT practitioners realize, software development projects run into serious trouble and frequently fail to meet the objectives specified early in the project. Why is this?...

Friday Afternoon Software Development Project Humor Wellit is close to 5PM on a Friday and I just had to share with you an article I found out on the www.itmpi.org website