project management

Man covering his eyes while throwing a dart The Dangers of Underplanning in Your Agile Projects

Agile coaches often stress the importance of not overplanning because work is later changed or never done at all. But consequently, many teams then fall victim to underplanning and aren't equipped for a successful project. Here are some planning activities that are critical to do before your sprints start.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
Plane coming in for a landing, photo by Sebastian Grochowicz How Do We Land This Thing? Planning for Go-Live and Beyond

Some project managers have little experience bringing a project in for a landing, so they can be dismayed or just blindsided by organizational change needs and stakeholders’ expectations at delivery. Here is a checklist of some commonly forgotten items to address when a project goes live, so be sure to plan for them.

Payson Hall's picture
Payson Hall
Illustration of minimum viable product with cars Interface Grief: Is It Agile, or Just Bad Software Engineering?

There are people who will use "being agile" to justify software engineering practices that could be perceived as lazy or even bad. The specifications are going to change, they say, so it would be a waste to engineer more to begin with than the minimum viable product. What's expediency and what's just poor practice?

Payson Hall's picture
Payson Hall
Tools Balancing Process and Tools

The limits of a tool may lead us to realize that we are not working as effectively as we can, and often, changing a tool is part of the solution. But there are good and bad ways to select a tool and how you use it. In particular there are risks when you focus first on tools before considering the problem.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Computer with a "Retired!" sign Think through System Changes to Anticipate Quality Issues

When you replace or significantly modify components of a larger system, too frequently we focus on whether the code we are building functions correctly. This is important, but it’s also short-sighted. It’s easy to introduce errors because we are changing interactions. Coding bugs are only one quality problem.

Payson Hall's picture
Payson Hall
Agile project 5 Tips for Choosing Your First Agile Project

When transitioning to agile, applying agile methods to a single project is a great way to get started. However, care must be taken to ensure the project you choose is appropriate—it shouldn't be too large, take too long, or be too risky. Here are five tips to help you pick the right project for your agile pilot.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
Continuous improvement Driving Continuous Improvement to the Entire Organization

In traditional agile approaches, retrospectives are valuable to team improvement. However, when teams encounter organizational issues beyond their control, such as project structure, interorganizational communication, or resources, it's more difficult. Here's how to expand continuous improvement to the whole company.

Alan Crouch's picture
Alan Crouch
Businessman pointing at his watch Troubled Project or Disaster? Understand What You Can Manage

There is a big difference between a troubled project and a disaster, and not being clear about the distinction is hazardous to decision-making. If a project you're managing is in danger of missing deadlines, that doesn't mean it's out of control—you just need to explain to stakeholders how it can get back on track.

Payson Hall's picture
Payson Hall