The Importance of Requirements Management
The concept of “Agile Development” can have different meanings depending on who you are asking. For some, it is about adopting a more pragmatic delivery approach and departing from traditional rigorous planning. For others, it is more about a rigour of a different kind that is implemented to tackle the …
How to unleash the leaders around you
Co-creative leadership In my last post, I introduced you to the five key skills of a co-creative leader. I also went into more detail around the skill of being a voice among many in the conversation. This article is the second in a series on co-creative leadership. In it, we …
The Everyday Agilist asks “What about the Product Owner?”
While I would love to take credit for this question, it actually came from a client. After attending our Agile for Operations course to learn more about Agile practice in a Lean Operations environment, this is exactly what this client asked. It was an especially pertinent question considering we had …
Verbal aikido serving difficult conversations
My calendar just beeped. The meeting will begin in 10 minutes, and I can feel the stress increase inside of me. I know what the meeting is about and I only have one desire: find an excuse not to go. I wish there will be a miracle and that I’ll be notified at …
Be fearless of failure and start learning by doing
This article was initially published on Forbes.com. One topic I often find myself discussing these days is learning by doing. Cultures that value continuous improvement encourage experimentation. They also encourage people to fail fast so they can learn fast. But this idea is scary to those working in cultures who believe …
What about story points and Planning Poker?
The average velocity of a team is obtained by averaging the sum of user story points accumulated by the team at the end of each iteration (or cycle). But what do these points precisely represent? In Agility, there are two different types of points that it is important not to …
Connecting teams and strategic planning in Agile organizations
This article was initialy published on jesusmendez.ca For the past four months, I have been working within an IT Operations division in one of Montréal’s financial institutions, particularly with people working to support production environments for the rest of the organization’s IT services. It has been a challenging and interesting experience …
Introduction to Kanban
To begin with, let me specify that the Japanese word Kanban means signboard or billboard. By extension, it is a management method developed by Taiichi Ohno in Toyota factories during the ’50s and ’60s. It is based on certain basic principles: The workflow is displayed and highlighted visually. The focus is …
Five easy ways to effectively collaborate with your team
This article was initially published on Forbes.com I talk a lot with those around me about co-creative leadership and collaboration. My team and I collaborate a lot with our clients, but not as often as we do with each other. More often than not, you have the choice whether or …
Agile scaling
Have you ever attended a Scrum of Scrums? If you ever worked on a multi-team Scrum project, chances are that the answer is yes. In my case, Scrum of Scrums was a weird-looking daily scrum between Scrum Masters where everyone showed up with a list of things to discuss (usually …