Agile Otter Blog

I'm not writing about #NoEstimates today, so I recommend the writings of Vasco Duarte , Neil Killick , Woody Zuill, and various publicly-available videos for that. I'm only writing about the arguments that we see around the #NoEstimates hashtag itself. Why? Because I think that the hashtag has been a great promotional device, but with some drawbacks. Hopefully by discussing this now, I can be guided to make intelligent choices about any hashtags I decide to create in the future. The success of the hashtag in drawing attention is great. Heck, a lot of people are already sick of it. Having recently experienced some of the argument recently after appearing in a podcas t (see "poo-shoe effect" ), I have a few observations: Arguing the literal hashtag will get us nowhere. When you want to talk about a thing in an online community, you have to have a searchable name for it. For better or worse, #NoEstimates is the term. We can argue how apt or unfriendly it i...

I've had enough questions and references to this that I need to explain this odd effect with the fashionably Asian-sounding name, which is being mentioned in boardrooms and team rooms all around the earth today. It's not from any Asian language. It is "poo" (such as you might unhappily find on your lawn), and "shoe" which you might happily purchase for your feet. The poo-shoe effect is when you stepped in something, and it stuck to you so that you will have to work long and hard to rid yourself of the stink of it. Now, this doesn't refer to bad choices or acts of temper or moments of ill-will or malfeasance that will be remembered. That is simply "bad reputation" and is a component of social justice. That's not worthy of being considered an instance of the poo-shoe effect. Nor is it about the honest or unintentional kind of mistake or accident that can mar ones reputation "oh, yeah, he's the kid who peed his pants in third ...

The topic of annual reviews comes up pretty often. There has been a gathering tide of organizations moving away from traditional performance management techniques because they are perceived as an expensive process that does not actually improve performance, and because they seem to actually do damage to a company's talent pool, culture, and thereby to its reputation in the job market. Deming was the first voice I heard talking about performance reviews. He said of the review “It nourishes short-term performance, annihilates long-term planning, builds fear, demolishes teamwork, nourishes rivalry and politics.” Deming believed in the system, and that the system of work is the largest determinant of quality and productivity.  Deming also called for the elimination of annual individual performance reviews . People within factory system largely did the best they could under the circumstances and had neither the tools nor the training nor the autonomy to make the work better. ...

Taking Back Agile from C4Media Ruud and I talked about taking back agile at QConLondon. Some of you heard about that. Telling Stories about Cargo Culting

I just realized that I should post my interview from London  which is titled "The Importance Of Technical Practices in Agile." Ben Linders and I sat down and talked. Sadly you can't see Ben. He likes being off-camera. You'll find a transcript and video there. This was a further outgrowth of the talk about taking back agile . The video and slides for that are also available. Do enjoy!