In many development teams I work with there is a “definition of done”. This a checklist (explicit or implicit) of things that need to have happened before we can say … Continue reading “Definition of enough” for discovery work
Category: Planning
Input goals and output goals
The other week someone introduced me to the idea of “input goals” and “output goals”, by Oz Chen. Oz writes about “personal development and content strategy”, so his purpose in … Continue reading Input goals and output goals
Impact estimation tables (roughly)
Last week, two days in succession, I had cause to solve a problem using impact estimation tables. Unfortunately this technique is not widely known, so I thought I’d have a … Continue reading Impact estimation tables (roughly)
A bad time to estimate
The other day a friend and I were discussing a project which had notably overrun its original expected delivery date. “The problem is,” he said to me, “You estimate a … Continue reading A bad time to estimate
A plan for a plan
The other day a developer in my team asked, “So what’s your plan for…” and then described a particular organisational and technical challenge that several of us had been discussing … Continue reading A plan for a plan
Product through customers
In the last couple of years I’ve met a few people who have been challenged by balancing building a product suitable for everyone versus building a customised product suitable for … Continue reading Product through customers
How much time should we put aside for tech debt?
I’ve talked previously about technical debt. Should we stop other work to address it? What is the cost of delay? And that we should watch out for technical bankruptcy. But … Continue reading How much time should we put aside for tech debt?
Estimating value bottom up and top down
In all organisations it’s really important to be delivering the most valuable thing, and in many organisations it’s obvious what that is—and people just get on with it. But in … Continue reading Estimating value bottom up and top down
Flat pack estimation
It’s well-established within the agile world that delivery teams—and particularly individuals—are terrible at estimation. We do estimate, still, and hopefully we get better with time, comparing forthcoming work with past … Continue reading Flat pack estimation
Always build for real people’s real problems
I’ve been having fun this week watching some conference talks about my current favourite language, Elm, at Elm Europe 2017. And I enjoyed seeing an important idea discussed—important not just … Continue reading Always build for real people’s real problems
