I often work with product teams who have conversations—sometimes very difficult ones with stakeholders—that are full of unstated assumptions, subjectivity, and a lot of unsubstantiated “I think…” comments. For a … Continue reading Moving from subjective to objective discussions
I’ve worked with a few organisations that wanted to create a framework for reporting on and governing projects or programmes. The intention is generally good: we have lots of projects … Continue reading Granularity of project governance frameworks
The other week I was on a train going across the country, and while it was stopped at a station the train manager made an announcement. “I realise this is … Continue reading Ensure degrees of success
Last week I wrote about separating the value of a project from the constraints that set its context. But sometimes it’s also useful to see the development of a product … Continue reading Seeing the product as a constraint
In the past I’ve spoken about the importance of a value statement. This is how we express, in quantified terms, how we measure success. Ensuring success is measurable brings huge … Continue reading Distinguish value and constraints
When a development team introduces new technology to solve a problem, they are adding a long term cost, too, even though it may not be obvious. This is one way … Continue reading The cost of new technology
A programme manager colleague once told me about the report he created to keep his programme board up to date with progress. It was a room. On the walls of … Continue reading The three dimensional progress report
The other day I was watching Craig Larman discuss the LeSS framework for large scale agile development. In the video he says many prescritive frameworks address compliance by saying it’s … Continue reading Mistaking frameworks as toolkits
One of the questions that arises with many teams I work with is: Is it worth spending an iteration (or more) not delivering any features but just working on our … Continue reading Should we stop to address technical debt…?
I’ve been (re)reading a bit about “risk appetite” again recently. Some of the reading includes messages saying it’s a confusing term, it’s a bad idea, or that it’s a good … Continue reading Specific risk guidance is troublesome
