The importance of the Definition of Done
The Comment Recently, I was part of a retrospective with a team that is mature in terms of self-organization and collaboration. However, as I approached the topic of the Definition of Done, one of the participants slipped this sentence: “If we follow our “Definition of Done” to the letter . …
Product Backlog Items Life Cycle
Recently, someone asked our community what the life cycle of a user story is and how it differs from that of Epics, Features and Themes. I want to share my reflection on the subject. The first question that popped in my mind was: “Are Product Backlog Items (PBIs) created equal?” …
Sorry the new Champlain Bridge can’t be built using Agile…
Agility is now indispensable for developing products and services. Indispensable? Really? Perhaps not always. Agile approaches are not the answer to all our woes, and it would be interesting to ask ourselves in which contexts they are most relevant. Why is building a bridge using an Agile approach not a …
Top 3 Impediments to Product Agility
Agile transformations are often initiated by production teams that believe Agility will empower them to deliver better products in a shorter time. Organizations speak of “faster time to market” and “higher quality.” They look at the cost and green-light the proposed transformation. Reality is that often these teams successfully decrease …
Kanban: An alternative approach to Business Agility
I’ve been working with Agile approaches for nearly 20 years now, and I only learned about Kanban in 2015, when I joined Pyxis. I was immediately curious about this “new form” of Agility, and as an Agile Coach, I decided to learn more about Kanban to expand my toolbox. After …
A Scrum team needs one (and only one) Product Owner
Recently, I presented some of my conclusions after attending (again) the Professional Scrum Product Owner training. As I wrote, the Product Owner’s role remains the vaguest in the Scrum Guide, because it is very dependent on the company in which he evolves. It reads: “The Product Owner is responsible for …
Just Do It!
The Value of Having a (Minimum Viable) Product As most of you know, I conduct my training and coaching practice across a broad spectrum of Agile practices including the Scrum Framework for risky projects, People values and leadership at the higher levels of the organization and of course, Lean or …
Building software products is not complicated!
Until recently, we have misjudged the nature of creating IT products. It was believed to be “complicated.” As a result, unsuitable methods for creating software have been developed, but in fact building software is not complicated at all… In 2000, David John Snowden, known as Dave Snowden, finalized Cynefin. It …
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 …
Discussion about acceptance criteria
Acceptance criteria are essential to Agile frameworks. They are at the center of any discussion about the work that needs to be done. However, as important as they are, little time is being dedicated to them in most Agile trainings. Here, I will try to remedy the situation by shedding …