Introduction The Standish Group releases a periodic Chaos report that summarizes typical IT and software development project success and failure rates in industry. Within the (very expensive) report is a table of success factors that have been gleaned from numerous surveys and interviews of IT managers during the previous period. In summary, 29 percent of …continue reading >

Introduction One of the simplest and most effective practices to reduce project problems is risk management. However, even when teams perform risk management, getting anyone to pay attention to the risk list can be a challenge. Communicating risk Here is an approach that can help you write risks in a format that can be communicated with …continue reading >

Introduction Software is everywhere. A lot of it works well all day long. Some of it is terrible. Some of it can kill you. This article is about critical software, the stuff that really needs to work, and that can have significant consequences if it doesn’t. There are three trends I have noticed in software …continue reading >

Introduction Wow! The lesson I have learned is not to read literature any more. A literature search on “Management, Project Management, and Scrum Master Roles” will make you dizzy, nauseous, and state every possible opinion as the correct one! The bottom line is that the word “manage” has been around for hundreds of years. When …continue reading >

Introduction There are lots of Agile teams out there in the world. Some are having a great time with great results. Many have come to rely on brute force and long hours. In these organizations, not even the Agile practices (e.g., backlog, estimation, planning, “done”) are followed — it’s more like code, ship, and hope. However, …continue reading >

Introduction Across the software development industry, the goal that managers mostly care about is schedule. “Schedule is king” is the driving force. The goal is usually communicated as, “Deliver it by mm/dd/yyyy,” with only a confusing or vague definition of what “it” is (see diagram). The manager is (kind of) happy because a deadline has been established. The team …continue reading >

We Could Get Better Results, Stand Out and Beat the Competition Introduction Your company is small and has been wanting to be appraised, certified or assessed with CMMI, ISO or ITIL for 2-3 years, but you are just not making progress. If you could just get there you would be able to: Resolve chronic project …continue reading >

Introduction There is a trend in the Agile/Scrum world to focus on soft skills rather than hard skills. When I talk to a typical “Agile Coach” or “Agile Transformational Coach,” they are able to summarize Scrum and might have some good skills on organizational change, dealing with resistance and getting introverted developers to talk. These …continue reading >

Introduction If you are pulling your hair out with your organization, keep reading! In this tidbit I will share some stories of how we have helped companies with the various challenges they faced. Pick out a lesson from one of the stories and try something different to improve your results! There are five short stories …continue reading >

Introduction Whether product quality matters depends on whom you ask. Some organizations have come to believe that quality is a nice-to-have characteristic on lucky days. A few organizations treat quality as a competitive and efficiency advantage that must be achieved.  On the whole, my experience is that most organizations value shipping something by a deadline …continue reading >