Contact Us In one or two progressive companies I worked for, there was an understanding of the saying “Fail-fast, learn-fast”. In these companies, it was safe to fail. I even remember discussing a decision with a senior manager and whether the decision would work out. Eventually, we agreed to “Fail-fast, learn-fast” and dived in, preparing…
Lao Leadership is a term that I created a few years ago. “Lao” translates into “Senior” as a title in Chinese Mandarin. For example, “Mr Lee”, when given the respect of an elder, would be addressed as “Lao Lee”. Lao, or in this case Elder, can relate to the father figure, or elder brother. Lǎo…
Review our Coaching and Training options I had a very interesting discussion with an experienced Scrum person the other day which caused me to investigate why I held a different view from them. This person challenged me on my dislike of the Scrum practice of “Terminating the Sprint” if the product owner comes to the…
If it takes a team member more than a quarter of a sprint, your estimate will be wrong. Contact Us A lot has been written on Sprint estimates, pointing, or planning poker, but often little will be discussed on estimating larger pieces of work. Often development teams get asked to perform estimates on larger pieces…
DragonsArm is proud to open up the Upper Hutt training retreat. Contact Us Retreat to our large and modern semi-rural facilities just north of Upper Hutt. Advantages include being able to spread training across the weekend or over a day a week. Takes up to 8-10 attendees comfortably air-conditioned plus a gas fire and heat…
Contact Us There’s an old and true saying “When you’re up to your ass in alligators, it’s hard to remember that the main purpose is to drain the swamp” Agile Leadership is not about directing the alligator fight – it’s about the vision. Let the team know the vision of draining the swamp and ask…
Contact Us 10 Reasons to Love Story Pointing. Pointing (or planning poker) is a way of estimating that focuses on the size and complexity of the user story (task) assigning points rather than hours. Here are ten reasons for pointing: 1. It forces the team to understand the story, you can’t size something you don’t…
Contact UsContact A hard and fast rule is only a rule when it suits. help align the teams towards Agile, not to hold the teams back While I am very supportive of most frameworks, these should be there to help align the teams towards Agile, not to hold the teams back. Abandon the rule if…
Contact Us Most Agile frameworks tell us that it’s the Scrum Master / Iteration Manager / Team Coach who removes blockages, but who OWNS that blockage? My message to teams is that, while you have your Scrum Master, their role is to assist to unblock, but the team still owns that blockage – in other…
Review our Coaching and Training options I have often been asked to explain the difference between a Framework (Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, XP, LeSS, DA, etc.) and Agile. There are a lot of people out there that are convinced that the framework itself is “Agile” when in fact, Agile is the mindset, defined by the 4…
Contact Us Through my experiences as a trainer and an Agile Coach, I have many times come across teams who try, but no-one has ever explained about stand-ups. Perhaps that is why it is so rare to see a Stand-up done correctly. This excellent, fast and worry-free type of status update is exceptionally good so…
Contact Us I have seen some great daily stand-ups, and I have seen some horrible ones where no-one is really committed and it’s a chore to attend. The difference is not really the person running it, but the mindset of the team. Everyone at work is part of a team, but are they really team…
(VUCA = Volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) (c) Steve Peacocke Contact Us In good times, projects were predictable. In good times, we knew what we were building and could plan months, if not years out. Projects consisted of known elements, and it was the Project Manager’s role to ensure that changes didn’t come along to…
I always go back to this in almost everything I do. Contact Us As a CEO of DragonsArm, a trainer, and when I’m not doing any of that, I’m acting as the Principal Consultant for DevOps in a great government organisation, Stats NZ (it keeps me real), I refer to the Gartner Hype Cycle. …
The Agile Manifesto states “Responding to change over following a plan”. There’s also a life lesson in there. When I was a developer, I was forever learning both new programming languages (almost every contract was with another language) and new technologies. It was a full time job just to stay current. Now I’m an agile…
Agile allows teams to deliver things of greatest value for the stakeholders every single time. But what do I mean by that and how? Contact Us The Agile Manifesto states “Deliver (solutions) frequently…”. This often bears out with what is termed Iterations or Sprints, of at least every couple of weeks. The idea is to…