Without psychological safety, respect, and trust, none of the following is possible. The way we work, the work we do, and the organizations within which we work are all part of a connected system. You cannot change anything without changing everything. You cannot improve a system by tinkering with the parts. Process exists in service… The post Heuristics for Effective <span >Software Development</span> Organizations: A continuously evolving list.* appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

Without psychological safety, respect, and trust, none of the following is possible. Process exists in service of people; the people come first. The best ways to work are collaborative. Negotiation is not collaboration. Isolated individuals making heroic efforts are never as effective as collaborative groups. We get the best results when customers, business people, and… The post Heuristics for Effective Software Development: A continuously evolving list.* appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

Words that do not appear in the Agile Manifesto & Principles: Sprint backlog product owner manager PBI (product backlog item) scrum master Sprint review QA team PMO release train product increment stand-up (or Daily Scrum) meeting story point estimate velocity quarterly plan Jira productivity utilization certification standardized process (as a positive) methodology ceremony accountability responsibility… The post Words appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

The notion of accountability—and its lesser cousin, responsibility—often pop up in the context of business, as if both of those ideas are good things. A culture of accountability, we’re told, is essential to running a business. The word “accountable” appears all over the 2020 Scrum Guide. I don’t buy any of it. A culture of… The post #NoAccountability appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

Every time I teach a remote class from my home office, somebody says “oooh, where’d you get that clear whiteboard.” White boards are just ugly, and I wanted something that would essentially disappear into the room, so glass seemed like the best choice. Though I see these in many detective shows on PBS :-), I… The post Building A Clearboard appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organization is one one the best books to hit the shelves in a long time. Nicole Forsgren, and her co-authors, Jez Humble and Gene Kim have done the industry a huge service by providing a data-focused way of analyzing and improving performance that’s based on real research, not… The post Adapting #Accelerate to Development appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

As is the case with many of the people who actually know what they’re talking about, I’ve come to shudder when I hear the word “Agile,” at least until I can figure whether the person who uttered the word actually knows what they’ve just said. More often than not, they don’t. The word Agile has… The post Getting Started with Agility: Essential Reading appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

The notion of technical debt is not well understood, so let’s start there. Agile is all about fast feedback loops—hours or, at most, a couple days. Deliberately lengthening your feedback loop in pursuit of the chimera of perfection destroys your agility. The cost of that delay is a real cost. It usually exceeds development costs… The post Technical Debt appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

For some reason, the notion of individual performance reviews comes up a lot. My general feeling is that we should dump them entirely. I’m actually in good company. Almost a third of U.S. companies are dropping individual reviews, including stodgy places like General Electric. (See this HBR article if you can get past their paywall.… The post Individual Performance Appraisals, Just Say No! appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more

Somehow, some people have gotten the idea that design is somehow inimical to Agile. That’s not true. It’s always helpful to think about things before you do them. The question is not whether or not you should think in advance, it’s how far in advance should the thinking occur. Hours? Days? Months? The problem with… The post The Problem With Design appeared first on Allen Holub ..read more