Agile Otter Blog

Agile's teaching of "thin, vertical slices" doesn't apply just to features. Organizations move forward in thin vertical slices too. Story mapping teaches us to do incremental, value-first programming and integrate the "threads of functions" all the time from end-to-end.  CI teaches us that integrating thin slices frequently avoids pre-release integration nightmares (and post-release nightmares).  Likewise, we leave room for learning and growing, because what we learn in iteration N may give us different options and opportunities in iteration N+1 and onward. We have an idea of where we want to go, but we are always seeking best value. However, too few agile transitions are done in an agile way. It's only reasonable that a pre-agile company would want a waterfall, Big-Design-Up-Front plan with staffing and milestones for an agile transition. But we, as post-transition coaches and consultants know better and are supposed to be ...

This is not a manifesto. It looks a lot like a rather famous manifesto (the middle of it anyway) but it is not a manifesto. This is just a set of principles that I've successfully applied in numerous personal and professional settings, always with good effect. Pull  is a better flow than Push Continuous is more competent than Batch Agreements are more negotiable than Orders Brains per Task  is more efficient than Tasks per Person Improvement is a better goal than Compliance Fail Now is cheaper than Fail Later Simplicity works better than Discipline Safety is best May they serve you as well as they have served me so far. Peace.

Bridging two worlds is not easy. See if you can spot the non-agile assumptions in all of these questions: You find one team is only meeting schedules and pleasing customers because they have been padding schedules and cutting scope. How can you get them to plan and execute more aggressively?  One of your teams is hogging some of the QA resources full-time, and have been since the start of the project. How do you ensure you'll have a full complement of testers for your other team's testing phase?  One of your teams has stopped turning in estimates and long-range plans. They seem to be producing well enough, but how do you reign in their manager without hurting productivity?  Of your two teams, one group works overtime and weekends but the other refuses to stay late even during mid-week days. You have many projects in the pipeline. How do motivate those clock-watchers?  Your team has severe technical problems, but instead of keeping their nose to the grindstone,...