Failing “soft” is an Option in Agile

Recently, I noticed the following interesting post from BMC’s Paul Beavers: To Be Successful with Agile, Failure is More than an Option, it’s Necessary.
Paul highlights: “Failure from time to time is expected – trying, assessing, and adjusting are not optional”. This correlates with my experience as it’s in the stretching, and occasionally failing, in [...]

Release Planning Day 1 Narrative (AERP5)

Note: This is part of a series of posts (AERP1-n) highlighting the critical role that release planning plays in achieving enterprise agility.

Recently, I outlined a standard (or perhaps initial starting) agenda for Day 1 of such an event in the following graphic.

Here’s the hour-by hour narrative that should accompany this graphic.
Session I – Business Context
The [...]

A Standard Iteration and Release Pattern for the Enterprise?

I’ve discussed “around this topic” in the book and in various posts as well as the classroom environment, but it occurs to me that I’ve never directly proposed nor published a standard pattern for iterations and releases for the enterprise. While “standardization and agile” are unlike things in many agilists minds, I often fall back [...]

Release Planning Day 1 Schedule (AERP4)

Note: this is one of a continuing series of posts, categorized under Release Planning.
In earlier posts, I’ve described the critical role that release planning plays in enterprise agility. I’ve described the motivations and objectives (AERP1 and AERP2) and planning and preparation (AERP3).
Over time, I’ve developed a somewhat standardized, two-day “program” for such an event which [...]

Meeting Deadlines – “Tiger Teams” vs. Agile Project Management Practices

Often times when introducing some of the basic agile project management practices to new teams (for example, the daily standup) some of the more experienced (ok, older) team members comment on the fact that these techniques look a lot like the techniques they used in the past when their projects were in deadline [...]

More on Date vs Scope – Solution: Staying Releasable?

My discussions with Paul at BMC continued, and I think we arrived at a reasonable conclusion as the thread below illustrates. (You might want to start at the bottom and read to the top.)
Paul,
Ah, I think you have found the keenest insight on the thread:
” being releasable within the iteration” (and release)
Indeed, when this is [...]

Fixed Date or Fixed Scope at Enterprise Scale?

Well, the “fix the date and adjust the scope mantra” of agile is still subject to ongoing debate in some circles. In general, I stand by my suggestion that the easiest way to establish an agile, quality-based, software delivery rhythm is to fix ALL the release dates well in advance and adjust scope so [...]