[{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile","type":"tags"},{"content":"Agile Metrics: Output Vs Outcome # Agile Metrics Before we dive into Output Vs Outcome-Based Agile Metrics, let us understand what is meant by output-based and outcome-based metrics. Output-Based metrics measure the amount of work completed whereas Outcome-Based metrics measure the value delivered by the completed work.\nOutput-Based Agile Metrics # Metrics that measure how much work was completed in a given duration are said to be output-based. For example, the number of user stories completed in a Program Increment (PI) or an iteration measures the number of tickets completed in a specified duration. Other examples are:\nNumber of features completed in a Program Increment Number of story points completed in a Program Increment Number of story points completed in a sprint or an iteration Such metrics can be easily gamed and do not provide any value-add. For example, Team A delivers 6 user stories whereas Team B delivers 12 user stories. This metric does not signify that Team B has better productivity than Team A.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s assume Team A delivers 40 story points and Team B delivers 20 story points. Do you think Team A is a better performing team than Team B? Well, a team\u0026rsquo;s velocity does not provide insight into a team\u0026rsquo;s performance. Team A might have inflated their story point estimates or they might be working on user stories that do not deliver a potentially shippable product increment or bring any business value. Measuring the amount of work done is an Agile anti-pattern and should be avoided. It does not provide any value and may encourage Agile anti-patterns such that teams write tasks as user stories, create unnecessary user stories that do not bring any business value, and inflate story point estimates.\nOutcome-Based Agile Metrics # Metrics that measure the outcome or the end-value delivered by the completed work are said to be outcome-based. For example, the business value delivered is an outcome-based metric that measures the amount of business value delivered by a unit of work during a specific duration. Let\u0026rsquo;s discuss how to measure the business value for an EPIC, Feature, or User Story. How to Measure the Business Value # Measure the delivered business value at an EPIC or a Feature level, rather than at a User Story level. Think in terms of:\nWill this EPIC or Feature enable you to sell more units? Will this EPIC or Feature allow you or your organization to make more profit? Will this EPIC or Feature enable reduced operating costs for your business? Will this EPIC or Feature enable a new capability for your end-users? Will this EPIC or Feature reduce the manual effort for your team or end-users? Does this EPIC or Feature enable your organization to compete in the market? Does this EPIC or Feature allow to refine hypotheses about the market? Is this EPIC or Feature required to stay compliant with regulations? Many EPICs or Features provide little to no value or aren\u0026rsquo;t actually desired by end-users. It\u0026rsquo;s important to prioritize the work effectively to deliver more business value. There are many ways to measure the business value like comparing the cost of delay, calculating Return On Investment (ROI), calculating revenues and expenses each month (Cash-Flow analysis), calculating Net Present Value (NPV), Planning Poker, and more. I suggest working with your business sponsors and:\nFind Key Value Indicators (KVIs) for your product that you can measure at each Product Increment (PI) boundary. Think about both qualitative and quantitative value indicators. Review your KVIs regularly and revise as needed. One of the simpler methods is to leverage the Planning Poker game and relatively estimate the business value for an EPIC or a Feature with your product stakeholders.\nIf you are interested to learn about other Outcome-Based Agile Metrics, enroll in my Udemy Course, Agile Metrics: Elevate Team Agility with Scrum Reporting.\nYou may be interested in my published courses and books as outlined below: Courses:\nAgile Product Planning: Discovery, Vision, Strategy, Roadmap Lean-Agile Leadership: The Foundation Of Enterprise Agility Agile Metrics: Elevate Team Agility with Scrum Reporting Applying Scrum: Mastering Agile Project Management w/ Scrum Books:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Also, check out these articles\u0026hellip;\nAgile Anti-Patterns For Remote Teams Virtual PI Planning Leadership Agility: What You Need to Know Will OKRs Rule the World? Enterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? How to Measure Kanban Throughput? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! ","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2021/2021-07-21-agile-metrics/","section":"Blog","summary":"Agile Metrics: Output Vs Outcome # Agile Metrics Before we dive into Output Vs Outcome-Based Agile Metrics, let us understand what is meant by output-based and outcome-based metrics. Output-Based metrics measure the amount of work completed whereas Outcome-Based metrics measure the value delivered by the completed work.\nOutput-Based Agile Metrics # Metrics that measure how much work was completed in a given duration are said to be output-based. For example, the number of user stories completed in a Program Increment (PI) or an iteration measures the number of tickets completed in a specified duration. Other examples are:\nNumber of features completed in a Program Increment Number of story points completed in a Program Increment Number of story points completed in a sprint or an iteration Such metrics can be easily gamed and do not provide any value-add. For example, Team A delivers 6 user stories whereas Team B delivers 12 user stories. This metric does not signify that Team B has better productivity than Team A.\nLet’s assume Team A delivers 40 story points and Team B delivers 20 story points. Do you think Team A is a better performing team than Team B? Well, a team’s velocity does not provide insight into a team’s performance. Team A might have inflated their story point estimates or they might be working on user stories that do not deliver a potentially shippable product increment or bring any business value. Measuring the amount of work done is an Agile anti-pattern and should be avoided. It does not provide any value and may encourage Agile anti-patterns such that teams write tasks as user stories, create unnecessary user stories that do not bring any business value, and inflate story point estimates.\nOutcome-Based Agile Metrics # Metrics that measure the outcome or the end-value delivered by the completed work are said to be outcome-based. For example, the business value delivered is an outcome-based metric that measures the amount of business value delivered by a unit of work during a specific duration. Let’s discuss how to measure the business value for an EPIC, Feature, or User Story. How to Measure the Business Value # Measure the delivered business value at an EPIC or a Feature level, rather than at a User Story level. Think in terms of:\nWill this EPIC or Feature enable you to sell more units? Will this EPIC or Feature allow you or your organization to make more profit? Will this EPIC or Feature enable reduced operating costs for your business? Will this EPIC or Feature enable a new capability for your end-users? Will this EPIC or Feature reduce the manual effort for your team or end-users? Does this EPIC or Feature enable your organization to compete in the market? Does this EPIC or Feature allow to refine hypotheses about the market? Is this EPIC or Feature required to stay compliant with regulations? Many EPICs or Features provide little to no value or aren’t actually desired by end-users. It’s important to prioritize the work effectively to deliver more business value. There are many ways to measure the business value like comparing the cost of delay, calculating Return On Investment (ROI), calculating revenues and expenses each month (Cash-Flow analysis), calculating Net Present Value (NPV), Planning Poker, and more. I suggest working with your business sponsors and:\nFind Key Value Indicators (KVIs) for your product that you can measure at each Product Increment (PI) boundary. Think about both qualitative and quantitative value indicators. Review your KVIs regularly and revise as needed. One of the simpler methods is to leverage the Planning Poker game and relatively estimate the business value for an EPIC or a Feature with your product stakeholders.\nIf you are interested to learn about other Outcome-Based Agile Metrics, enroll in my Udemy Course, Agile Metrics: Elevate Team Agility with Scrum Reporting.\n","title":"Agile Metrics: Output Vs Outcome","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/agile-and-lean/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Agile-and-Lean","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile-metrics/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile-Metrics","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/agile-scrum/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Agile-Scrum","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Blog","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/business-value/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Business-Value","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/enterprise-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Enterprise-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Home","summary":"","title":"Home","type":"page"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/measure-what-matters/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Measure-What-Matters","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/outcome-vs-output/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Outcome-vs-Output","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/productivity/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Productivity","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/scrum-metrics/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Scrum-Metrics","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"21 July 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/velocity/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Velocity","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]In this article, let me introduce you to the Customer Journey Map template I have designed. This template will simplify the data gathering and visualization of required data attributes such as your persona\u0026rsquo;s needs or motivations, important events, touchpoints, and actions. But first, let\u0026rsquo;s start with the definition.\nWhat is Customer Journey Mapping? # Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a customer journey map, which is a visual representation of your customer’s or prospect’s interactions with your product. This strategic exercise helps to think from customers’ or prospects’ perspectives and better understand their expectations, pain points, motivations, and needs. The journey map maps out all touchpoints from the first to the final touchpoint for both your existing and potential customers and is leveraged to visualize and improve the overall customer onboarding and experience.\nHow to create a Customer Journey Map? # Define primary and secondary personas for your product A persona is a character profile or a fictional character. Personas help to understand the needs, experiences, behaviors, and goals of your users. If you want to create personas for your product, you may listen to my lecture in the online course.\nOutline key events, persona\u0026rsquo;s needs, and possible interactions with your product across different traffic sources Create a comprehensive visual diagram that describes the journey of your primary and secondary personas There are multiple visual tools that are available to create the journey diagram such as Mural, Gliffy, UXPressia, Lucidchart, Microsoft Visio, OmniGraffle, Miro, etc.\nFor outlining the required data in Step#2, I created the Customer Journey Map Template or a Canvas as below:\nCustomer Journey Map Template for an Existing Customer # Enroll in the online course to download this canvas and learn more -\u0026gt;\nAgile Product Planning: Discovery, Vision, Strategy, Roadmap - Create Business Models, Personas, Product Vision, Customer Journey Maps, Roadmap, and Product Backlog\nCustomer Journey Map Template for a Prospective Customer # Enroll in the online course to download this canvas and learn more -\u0026gt;\nAgile Product Planning: Discovery, Vision, Strategy, Roadmap - Create Business Models, Personas, Product Vision, Customer Journey Maps, Roadmap, and Product Backlog\nWatch the Customer Journey Mapping Lecture Here! # You may be interested in my published courses and books as outlined below: Courses: Agile Product Planning: Discovery, Vision, Strategy, Roadmap Lean-Agile Leadership: The Foundation Of Enterprise Agility Agile Metrics: Elevate Team Agility with Scrum Reporting Applying Scrum: Mastering Agile Project Management w/ Scrum Books: Enterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban You may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nAgile Anti-Patterns For Remote Teams Virtual PI Planning Leadership Agility: What You Need to Know Will OKRs Rule the World? Enterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? How to Measure Kanban Throughput? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! ","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2021/2021-06-13-customer-journey-mapping-template/","section":"Blog","summary":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]In this article, let me introduce you to the Customer Journey Map template I have designed. This template will simplify the data gathering and visualization of required data attributes such as your persona’s needs or motivations, important events, touchpoints, and actions. But first, let’s start with the definition.\nWhat is Customer Journey Mapping? # Customer journey mapping is the process of creating a customer journey map, which is a visual representation of your customer’s or prospect’s interactions with your product. This strategic exercise helps to think from customers’ or prospects’ perspectives and better understand their expectations, pain points, motivations, and needs. The journey map maps out all touchpoints from the first to the final touchpoint for both your existing and potential customers and is leveraged to visualize and improve the overall customer onboarding and experience.\nHow to create a Customer Journey Map? # Define primary and secondary personas for your product A persona is a character profile or a fictional character. Personas help to understand the needs, experiences, behaviors, and goals of your users. If you want to create personas for your product, you may listen to my lecture in the online course.\nOutline key events, persona’s needs, and possible interactions with your product across different traffic sources Create a comprehensive visual diagram that describes the journey of your primary and secondary personas There are multiple visual tools that are available to create the journey diagram such as Mural, Gliffy, UXPressia, Lucidchart, Microsoft Visio, OmniGraffle, Miro, etc.\nFor outlining the required data in Step#2, I created the Customer Journey Map Template or a Canvas as below:\nCustomer Journey Map Template for an Existing Customer # Enroll in the online course to download this canvas and learn more -\u003e\nAgile Product Planning: Discovery, Vision, Strategy, Roadmap - Create Business Models, Personas, Product Vision, Customer Journey Maps, Roadmap, and Product Backlog\nCustomer Journey Map Template for a Prospective Customer # Enroll in the online course to download this canvas and learn more -\u003e\nAgile Product Planning: Discovery, Vision, Strategy, Roadmap - Create Business Models, Personas, Product Vision, Customer Journey Maps, Roadmap, and Product Backlog\nWatch the Customer Journey Mapping Lecture Here! # ","title":"Customer Journey Map Template","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/customer-centric/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Customer-Centric","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/customer-journey/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Customer-Journey","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/journey-mapping/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Journey-Mapping","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/leadership/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Leadership","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/product-development/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Product-Development","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/product-management/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Product-Management","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/product-management/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Product-Management","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/product-owner/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Product-Owner","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/product-planning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Product-Planning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/udemy-course/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Udemy-Course","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 June 2021","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/vision/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Vision","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Since COVID-19, agile teams have adopted remote practices to deliver continuous value to their users. Many leaders were unprepared for this remote work culture and thus some agile anti-patterns emerged. In this article, I have listed some agile anti-patterns for remote teams based on personal experiences. Before we start, let\u0026rsquo;s understand what an anti-pattern means? An anti-pattern is a pattern that you think will improve things, but it doesn\u0026rsquo;t.\nCommunication and Collaboration # With remote teams, communication plays a critical role. You need a communicate clearly, frequently, and candidly so everyone feels connected. Thus, one of the agile anti-patterns for remote teams that emerged is too many meetings. The break-room conversations near a vending machine or a water cooler have been replaced with meetings. As a result, an engineer does not find enough time during the day to work on his committed stories for the iteration and is spending extra time in the evenings or during weekends to catch up with his or her work.\nThere are multiple ways to deal with this anti-pattern. As agile leaders and scrum masters, we need to:\nShield our team from unnecessary meetings and allow them to focus on their committed work. Ensure that teams have access to appropriate collaboration tools such as Slack, Skype for Business, etc. Choose the right collaboration tool to communicate frequently to your team Allow your team to be self-organized Another agile anti-pattern that applies to both co-located and remote teams is conducting meetings with a large number of people even though only 2-3 people are required for the discussion. Other stakeholders simply want to listen to the discussion and track the next steps. To me, this sounds like micro-managing the team rather than trusting them to get the job done. Instead, agile leaders should encourage the team to take ownership, make decisions, have direct conversations, and share outcomes with the larger audience.\nThere are no quiet corners or conference rooms with a remote setting to catch up on your work. Most managers now expect immediate communication which causes too much disruption, context switching, and lack of productivity. The problem of context-switching is not new, but it has increased with remote teams. Agile leaders should encourage their distributed teams to follow the practice of ‘do not disturb’ hours when they want uninterrupted time to work.\nThe other agile anti-pattern for remote teams is having long meetings that exceed more than 2-4 hours without enough breaks in between. This practice causes both physical and mental stress to the distributed teams. Some of the rituals like lengthy PowerPoint presentations etc. need to stop and meetings should evolve into engaging, interactive, and collaborative sessions that are more inclusive. Moreover, there should be 10-minutes breaks planned for meetings longer than an hour.\nNot everyone on your distributed teams is trained in Netiquette. When it comes to online meetings, a few guidelines or etiquettes (“netiquettes”) will make them more effective such as:\nMute your microphone when you are not speaking Don’t interrupt when the other person is speaking. Only the facilitator has the right to interrupt to keep things on track. Enable your video unless you have a network bandwidth issue at home. Send a meeting invite link to the invitees and details on how to join the meeting. Be receptive to each other\u0026rsquo;s thoughts and remarks Procrastination # Many businesses are struggling during this turbulent time with COVID-19 and have aggressive deadlines to cope up with market instability. With changing business priorities, kids running around the house, increased cooking, household chores, and endless work-at-home hours, remote teams feel more distracted and overwhelmed. They tend to work on multiple tasks at a time. With all this, people start to cherry-pick work that brings them instant gratification while procrastinating on complex long-term solutions. During this time, agile leaders should constantly encourage teams to stay calm, manage stress, take regular breaks, minimize context switching, and focus on business outcomes.\nFacilitation # Remote teams are re-inventing effective ways to facilitate their ceremonies such as daily scrum, retrospectives, sprint planning, sprint review, virtual PI planning, and other SAFe, Scrum, or Kanban ceremonies. Let’s discuss a few agile anti-patterns in this area.\nOne of the agile anti-patterns is being the lone facilitator for a virtual meeting with a large number of participants. With more than 30 people in a meeting, it becomes challenging for the facilitator to share the screen, take notes, capture risks, write down parking lot items, etc. while keeping conversations on track to achieve the goal of the meeting. Thus, it is recommended to designate a scribe or a co-facilitator during such events.\nAnother anti-pattern is using flip charts or physical whiteboards (with a video camera pointed towards them) in a virtual meeting. This arrangement doesn’t work well and frustrates people as they struggle to read the content. Instead, facilitators should research the appropriate virtual drawing board or applications that promote visual collaboration within the team such as Mural, Miro, Draft.io, etc.\nA common anti-pattern when teams first start with virtual events such as PI Planning is lack of preparation before the event. For a virtual event to be successful and meaningful, teams must invest time in preparatory work. A Scrum Master should work with the Product Owner to carve out the team’s capacity for the preparatory work.\nRemote teams should watch out for a common agile anti-pattern when daily stand-ups become a status meeting. With no eye contact amongst the remote members, the team tends to report status to the scrum master. Another agile anti-pattern of skipping retrospectives holds good for remote teams too. With multiple meetings, increased stress, and more work, teams tend to defer or skip inspect and adapt ceremonies, don’t have enough backlog refinement meetings, start delivering work that has not met the “Definition Of Done”, and more. These common anti-patterns will impact an agile team’s ability to deliver business value and to continuously improve.\nBuilt-In Quality and Technical Debt # Due to aggressive deadlines, increased stress, and reshuffled business priorities during this pandemic, it is quite likely for remote teams to de-prioritize technical debt reduction efforts such as code clean-up, automated testing, etc. This will result in the accumulation of technical debt over time. A few more agile anti-patterns that remote teams should watch out for are listed below:\nMissing Acceptance Criteria Undefined Definition of Done Delivering work without meeting the `Definition of Done` Lack of appropriate testing Lack of required documentation These are a few remote agile anti-patterns that I have experienced. If you agree or disagree or if you would like to share your experiences, let me know in the comments section.\nCheck out my published books on Agile and Lean:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban You may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nVirtual PI Planning Leadership Agility: What You Need to Know Will OKRs Rule the World? Enterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? How to Measure Kanban Throughput? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People ","date":"17 June 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2020/2020-06-17-agile-anti-patterns-for-remote-teams/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Agile Anti-Patterns For Remote Teams","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"17 June 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile-anti-patterns/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile-Anti-Patterns","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"17 June 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/covid-19/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Covid-19","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"17 June 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/remote-agile/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Remote-Agile","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"17 June 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/remote-teams/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Remote-Teams","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/business-and-coronavirus/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Business-and-Coronavirus","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/covid-19-and-pi-planning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Covid-19-and-Pi-Planning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/pi-planning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Pi-Planning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/safe/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Safe","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\] Virtual PI Planning # Amidst the increasing number of confirmed Coronavirus cases, several organizations are mandating their colleagues to work from home. In such times, Release Train Engineers (RTEs) and Scrum Masters (SM) are searching for creative ways to execute virtual PI planning. This article provides valuable insights into conducting the event effectively. With this post, you will also understand different options available readily to you for creating an online Program Board. Below is the list of activities that an RTE must consider when conducting a virtual PI planning.\nFirst, communicate the tool that everyone must use to attend the virtual event - WebEx, Skype, etc. My organization uses WebEx, thus I have consolidated some WebEx guidelines/resources that are useful.\nWebEx Meeting Guide for Hosts WebEx Meeting Guide for Attendees WebEx User Guide WebEx Quick Start Guide Primary WebEx details should be shared with everyone prior to the event. This WebEx room must be open during the entire event and will act as the common forum to ask questions and collaborate across teams as needed.\nWebEx details for additional/secondary rooms should also be published prior to the event. These WebEx rooms are required to facilitate team breakouts. There should be a separate WebEx room for each team.\nEnsure that the primary and secondary WebEx rooms are different.\nIf you are sharing your screen during a WebEx meeting, it is often challenging to take notes. Thus, I recommend that you designate scribes for managing parking lot items, capturing risks or dependencies, etc.\nPre-PI planning Preparation: The more the preparation prior to the PI planning event, the better or smoother the virtual event will go. Here are a few things to remember:\nEnsure that prioritized product features are created and refined at least 3 weeks prior to PI planning. Bring team break-outs forward. During the breakout sessions, teams estimate their capacity for each iteration, identify risks and dependencies, refine user stories, and create their draft plan for each iteration. All these activities can be planned prior to the PI planning event. As a result, during PI planning, the time needed for team breakouts will be reduced. Please Note: For the pre-PI planning preparation to be successful, Scrum Masters must plan team capacity for these activities.\nNext is to set-up a virtual Program Board. Based on my research, there are multiple options available to you:\nUse Miro: You can use the free version without any issues. However, if this is not an approved product within your organization, you may not be able to leverage this product. I recommend that you consult with your leaders before going ahead with this option. Check out other similar products available in the market. For Example: Mural, piplanning app, etc. If you use Rally, JIRA, or any other agile management tool to track features/user stories, you may explore if there’s a custom board/view available within the tool itself. This will minimize your post-PI planning effort to manually migrate team dependencies, risks, and milestones into the tool. Use Confluence. You can build a custom view using the Gliffy Diagram and build the Program Board on Confluence. You can also share the confluence link ahead of time so teams can leverage the same during team breakouts. Check out my published books on Agile and Lean:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban You may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nLeadership Agility: What You Need to Know Will OKRs Rule the World? Enterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? How to Measure Kanban Throughput? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People ","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2020/2020-03-16-virtual-pi-planning/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Virtual PI Planning","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/virtual-meetings/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Virtual-Meetings","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"16 March 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/virtual-program-board/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Virtual-Program-Board","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile-lean/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile-Lean","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/embracing-change/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Embracing-Change","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/leadership/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Leadership","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\] What is Leadership Agility? # In today\u0026rsquo;s complex, turbulent, and competitive business and technology environment, leaders need to master the skills required to become more proactive, collaborative, creative, and agile. Leadership agility is the core competency of agile leaders to make effective decisions, inspire others, bring others along, build the best team, be proactive, develop a culture of teamwork, define objectives, and contribute to strategic initiatives for the enterprise.\nLeading with agility is an ability to step back, retrospect, gain a deeper perspective, make smart decisions, and take effective action. Leadership agility is not one single skill such as making effective decisions or inspiring people. Rather, it is a combination of skills working together that allows leaders to create the best customer and colleague experiences. \u0026ldquo;Agility is fundamental to leading a team through times of change.\u0026rdquo; - Sandra E. Peterson\nWhat drives Leadership Agility? # Leaders\u0026rsquo; agility is the core reason behind the success of any enterprise or business. Some of the common behaviors that drive leadership agility are listed as below:\nBeing a change agent # With this fast-paced environment, leaders need to accept that change is inevitable and be prepared to embrace change. For an organizational change to be effective, leaders should initiate and respond to change quickly. If people believe in your decision-making skills, they will trust your ability to drive the change. Employees need leaders who are committed to their success, seek feedback, make tough decisions, and communicate openly. Leaders who show personal commitment to change and inspire others to accept change play a critical role as change agents for the organization.\n\u0026ldquo;If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.\u0026rdquo; - Jim Rohn\nLeading with Purpose # The Covid-19 pandemic has created an economic crisis in the world and has disrupted supply chains. The pandemic led to a global labor shortage as people started to quit their jobs or resign early. The thought of returning to the office and the daily commute is discouraging for many people. People are willing to walk away from their jobs, switch employment, or take early retirement. Many businesses have now permanently embraced remote work while others are preparing for a hybrid model of working. During these times, it has become essentially important to encourage a sense of shared purpose that brings meaning to their work. Agile leaders lead with a purpose that inspires and brings people together. Their vision is manifested in their actions and their goals. Leading with purpose energizes people, attracts top talent, and builds a strong sense of community. \u0026ldquo;Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.\u0026rdquo; - Jack Welch\nLeaders should strongly believe in their vision. The vision should reflect organizational purpose, motivate colleagues, display the organization\u0026rsquo;s values, and explain the WHYs.\nCreating a culture of openness, collaboration, and trust # Every agile leader must foster an open environment of trust and collaboration where people can freely discuss their ideas, experiment with their designs, collaborate, have the freedom to make mistakes, and have fun together. The collaboration methods have changed tremendously due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, people could no longer have casual water-cooler conversations and thus started to explore available online tools that promote spontaneous ideation and collaboration. Most organizations adapted to new ways of working either remotely or in a hybrid environment. Some virtual collaboration tools that I found quite useful are Slack, Trello, Mural, WebEx Meetings, Zoom, Skype for Business, Microsoft Teams, Google Docs, One Drive, etc. \u0026ldquo;You need to be aware of what others are doing, applaud their efforts, acknowledge their successes, and encourage them in their pursuits. When we all help one another, everybody wins.\u0026rdquo; - Jim Stovall\nPracticing faster decision-making # Faster decision-making is an important skill to make choices that have the best chance of leading to a favorable outcome. For making decisions faster, you need to set a deadline or block your calendar to help you focus on the problem while avoiding distractions. Second, stop being a perfectionist and try to be more realistic in your problem-solving approach. The truth is that you will most likely not have all information you think you need and will need to embrace uncertainty.\nNext, you should understand when and which decisions can be decentralized to reduce unnecessary delays. Decentralized decisions reduce unnecessary delays and improve the flow of work. Agile leaders must understand when and which decisions they must decentralize. Frequent or time-critical decisions that need local context should be decentralized. Other decisions that are long-lasting and have a huge impact should remain centralized. Sometimes, the problem is having too much data or too many options to choose from. With so much data available at our fingertips, we tend to overthink and have analysis paralysis also called FOBO (Fear of Better Option). In his Ted Talk, Patrick McGinnis explains how to overcome FOBO and make faster decisions.\nEmbracing Lean-Agile Principles # The Lean-Agile Mindset is the combination of beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes of leaders who embrace the concepts of the Agile Manifesto and Lean thinking. Leadership agility requires leaders to embrace lean thinking and lean principles outlined by the House of Lean such as Kaizen (continuous improvement), respect for people, teamwork, innovation, sustainable flow, and Genchi Genbutsu (go and see). Lean thinking encourages leaders to embrace core values such as respect, integrity, empathy, collaboration, and teamwork. “Success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, react, and reinvent.\u0026quot; - Bill Gates\nAgile leaders embrace the values written in the Agile Manifesto and promote the 12 Agile principles across their teams. If you are interested to read about 12 Agile Principles, check out this article on Medium.\nCheck out my published books on Agile and Lean:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban You may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nWill OKRs Rule the World? Enterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? How to Measure Kanban Throughput? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People ","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2020/2020-02-03-leadership-agility/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Leadership Agility: What You Need to Know","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/leadership-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Leadership-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/lean-leaders/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Lean-Leaders","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/motivation/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Motivation","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 February 2020","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/respect/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Respect","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]What is Kanban throughput? What\u0026rsquo;s the best way to measure it? This article reflects on these questions and provides a perspective to track a Kanban team\u0026rsquo;s performance in an effective way.\nWhat Is Kanban Throughput? # Kanban Throughput is defined as the average number of items or cards passing through the flow within a specific time duration provided that the work load stays uniform during that period. It is generally used to track team\u0026rsquo;s performance. Throughput variability reflects the difference in size, complexity, and team skills.\nAccording to the Little\u0026rsquo;s Law:\nThroughput = Total WIP / Average Lead Time\nMeasuring What Matters: Kanban Throughput # The best way to measure throughput in Kanban is with the CFD (Commulative Flow Diagram). The Cumulative Flow Diagram is the visual representation of the cards as they move from one column or state to another on a Kanban board. The CFD plots the number of cards at each stage at a given time.\nBelow is a sample CFD for your reference:\nThe different colors on this diagram represent the various states in the flow. The height of each color band indicates the number of cards in that state at that point in time. The CFD provides you with an insight on how many cards moved from one state to another in a specific time duration. Generally, the CFD is plotted for each day, however, if there are too many moving cards in a day, it can be plotted on an hourly basis as well. Below is a sample CFD when plotted for every hour in a working day.\nMoreover, the CFD provides valuable data on lead time and cycle time trends. Both lead time and cycle time denote the time a work item spends in the workflow until they are complete. Lead time is the time that a card takes from start to finish. Cycle time is the time an engineer spends to actively work on it. In a CFD, both lead time and cycle time metrics are measured along the horizontal axis.\nThe Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) also displays total cards across different columns i.e. total WIP. This data is measured along the vertical axis of the CFD diagram.\nBelow is a sample CFD that depicts lead time, average cycle time, and the total WIP.\nIf you are interested about other Kanban charts such as Average Lead Time, Average Cycle Time, Flow Efficiency Chart, or the Blocker Clustering Chart, read my book, The Basics Of Kanban - A Popular Lean Framework.\nYou may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nEnterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality The Future Of Agile Will OKRs Rule The World? Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People \u0026hellip;and below books on Agile and Lean:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban ","date":"19 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-12-19-measure-kanban-throughput/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Do You Measure Kanban Throughput?","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"19 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/kanban/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Kanban","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"19 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/lean/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Lean","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"19 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/lean-thinking/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Lean-Thinking","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"19 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/throughput/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Throughput","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"18 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/objectives/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Objectives","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"18 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/okrs/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Okrs","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"18 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/purpose/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Purpose","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Will OKRs rule the world? This article captures my thoughts on OKRs and their impact on the corporate industry.\nWhat are OKRs? # OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a simple management methodology and an agile goal-setting system that enables everyone to align with enterprise objectives and to visualize the progress made towards them.\nFounded by Intel CEO, Andy Grove, in the 1970s, the OKRs methodology was first adopted by Google in 1999. Since then, OKRs have helped Google and several other enterprises to stay focused, create transparency, gain alignment, and achieve better results. Today, several organizations across all sectors such as Spotify, LinkedIn, Walmart, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and others are using this framework to set and achieve audacious goals.\nIn 1999, John Doerr, a venture capitalist, introduced OKRs to Google. In his meeting with Larry Page and Sergey Brin, co-founders of Google, he introduced the OKR system and explained how it can help Google to achieve its aggressive growth targets. In his book, Measure What Matters, John revealed how the system of OKRs has helped organizations achieve agility and explosive growth.\nJohn Doerr’s formula for OKRs is:\nI will (Objective) as measured by (set of Key Results).\nObjectives define \u0026lsquo;what\u0026rsquo; is to be achieved. They are qualitative, significant, concrete, short, inspirational, memorable, and ambitious. Each objective could have 2-5 key results.\nKey Results define \u0026lsquo;how\u0026rsquo; we achieve the objectives. They are a set of measurable milestones for each objective to track progress towards achieving the objective. They are quantitative, specific, measurable, time-bound, verifiable, and aggressive, but realistic. When key results are complete, the objective is necessarily achieved.\nWill OKRs Rule the World? # Let’s look at some of the common problems faced these days and if OKRs can prove to be beneficial in those scenarios.\nOne of the common problems today is conflicting priorities. Often, different stakeholders have conflicting views on the features or capabilities that a product roadmap should include. Such conflicts lead to unpleasant conversations, strained relationships, and a demotivated team.\nThe OKRs framework brings focus to the purpose or objectives that a product has. The stakeholders start to think in terms of the product vision and its goals that they are trying to achieve. With OKRs, there’s also a better clarity on the success metrics or the key milestones for each product objective.\n“OKRs are clear vessels for leaders’ priorities and insights.” - John Doerr\nThe other common problem these days is lack of measurement or tracking of the specific outcomes or product goals. Teams continue to build new features and capabilities for the product but seldom measure the outcome or the result.\nWith the OKR model, Key Results (KRs) are measured and tracked periodically.\n“If the focus is delivering something the customer wants, you must move from primarily measuring outputs to primarily measuring outcomes.” - Mario E. Moreira\nBut does one size fits all? No, OKRs are not meant for all enterprises. OKRs will not work for you when:\nOKRs are not agile: When OKRs are rigid, the model does not provide any room for people to make mistakes, abandon OKRs, or be agile. The OKR model is meant to inspire people and drive better alignment, focus, engagement, and performance.\nOKRs don’t flow quickly down the corporate hierarchy: Some enterprises find it difficult to align corporate OKRs with portfolio and team OKRs. Thus, it takes a considerable amount of time for them to cascade strategic OKRs to the teams.\nWhen conflicting priorities are tough to resolve: With conflicting priorities, planning becomes a nightmare and it might consume a considerable amount of time and effort to lock down OKRs for each quarter.\nIf you would like to read more on OKRs and Enterprise Agility, you might like my latest book, Enterprise Agility with OKRs.\nDownload the FREE Agile templates for strategic planning:\nThe Product Persona Template The Product Vision Template The Product Roadmap Template You may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nEnterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People \u0026hellip;and below books on Agile and Lean:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban ","date":"18 December 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-12-18-will-okrs-rule-the-world/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Will OKRs Rule The World?","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"23 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile-mindset/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile-Mindset","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile-principles/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile-Principles","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/business-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Business-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/purpose-driven/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Purpose-Driven","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]What\u0026rsquo;s the future of Agile? This article will discuss the current and future trends for the Agile methodology.\nWhere Are We Today? # Agile was formulated in 2001 with a Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Since then, several enterprises across the world have adopted the agile methodology. Most organizations build complex products using Agile frameworks such as Scrum, Extreme Programming, Feature-Driven Development (FDD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), or Crystal. Several organizations leverage the Lean methodology alongside the Agile methodology and track their work using the popular Kanban method. Since these frameworks didn\u0026rsquo;t address the specific problems faced by large organizations, many organizations also adopted scaled Agile frameworks such as Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), and Disciplined Agile Delivery (DaD).\nWith increased Agile maturity, teams adopted DevOps practices such as Continuous Integration (CI), Automated Builds, and Continuous Deployment (CD), as well as practices as Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD), Test Driven Development (TDD), Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD), Automated Unit Tests, and so on\u0026hellip;\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s The Future Of Agile? # The next big thing in Agile is the Purpose-Driven Development (PDD). There is a clear need to understand enterprise\u0026rsquo;s objectives or purpose, program objectives, and product goals before starting development on any product feature. The product goals, when mapped to primary personas and to enterprise OKRs, bring the maximum benefit. Not only do they drive the product roadmap, they also bring alignment across product stakeholders. Thus, the future is to bring strategic planning to the product. Leaders should invest time in understanding their customers or users, their problems, and how the product can benefit them. The personas, together with enterprise objectives, should drive the product\u0026rsquo;s purpose or goals, which in turn, should drive the product\u0026rsquo;s roadmap.\nIf product goals no longer align to enterprise objectives or the persona\u0026rsquo;s needs, then the enterprise should have the agility to quickly adapt to the change, move funds or people, and re-plan priorities.\nDownload the FREE Agile templates for strategic planning:\nThe Product Persona Template The Product Vision Template The Product Roadmap Template You may also be interested in these articles\u0026hellip;\nEnterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People \u0026hellip;and below books on Agile and Lean:\nEnterprise Agility with OKRs The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban ","date":"23 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-11-23-the-future-of-agile/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"The Future Of Agile","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Being an experienced Agile Coach, I often found gaps in the available product management templates. Thus, I decided to create my own and make them available to everyone. The below templates are currently available for FREE Download:\nThe Product Personas - Agile Template The Product Vision - Agile Template The Product Roadmap - Agile Template Feature-Level Dependency Matrix - Agile Template Story-Level Dependency Matrix - Agile Template The Feature Writing Checklist I have included a brief description about each of these templates on this page. Enter your email below to 1) download the above templates and 2) subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Please Note:\nYou need to subscribe ONLY ONCE to download all free templates on this page. The template bundle will be emailed to you. You should receive two emails: 1) subscription confirmation 2) agile product management templates. Check your spam folder if you don\u0026rsquo;t receive these emails. \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]A persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research, customer data, and more. Personas drive user experience decisions and provide a shared understanding of customers’ needs, opportunities, and aspirations. Using this template, you will get a one-pager view of your persona including his personal details, demographics, lifestyle choices, pain areas, etc. This data can then be used to create your product goals that satisfy the needs of your primary personas.\nDOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE BUNDLE FOR FREE!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]In simple words, a product vision describes the purpose of the product, what problems it is trying to solve for its users, and what benefits it is targeting to bring to its customers. It represents the future state of the product from a user’s perspective. The product vision represents the core essence of the product. The popular definition of the product vision, originally from the book, Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore, is as below:\nFor (the target customers),\nWho (have a certain need),\nOur product is a (product category),\nThat provides (compelling reason to buy).\nUnlike (the product alternative),\nOur product (has these key differentiators).\nWith this template, you will be able to visualize how your product goals are derived from your users’ needs and how they map to your enterprise objectives. Moreover, this template gives you a framework to define your EPICs or the big blocks of work that must be completed to achieve your product goals.\nDOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE BUNDLE FOR FREE!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]The product roadmap is a powerful tool to have a continued focus on the product’s goals, create an alignment with other stakeholders, measure progress, and adjust as needed. Every product must have a product roadmap to help realize the product vision and its objectives.\nUsing this template, you will be able to visualize the prioritized product features for a given year, major milestones, the product goals that you will achieve with each PI (Program Increment) or a quarter, how these product goals will be measured, and how they map to the enterprise objectives. The mapping of product goals with enterprise OKRs provides an understanding as to how the product contributes to the overall goals of the enterprise.\nDOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE BUNDLE FOR FREE!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]A dependency matrix is a powerful visual tool that represent dependencies across different teams or systems. The feature-level dependency matrix is used to visualize feature dependencies across dependent teams working together to complete a specific EPIC. This template for the feature-level dependency matrix serves as a guide to effectively track and manage dependencies across teams.\nDOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE BUNDLE FOR FREE!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Similar to the feature-level dependency matrix, this template will help you visualize dependencies across dependent teams at a user story level. Both the feature-level and the story-level dependency matrix templates should be used in conjunction with each other. The feature-level matrix provides a visual representation of how one feature is either \u0026ldquo;blocked by\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;is blocking\u0026rdquo; another feature across teams. Using this information, you can then create the story-level dependency matrix to effectively organize user stories across sprints for each team. This level of visibility will minimize wait time and possible rework.\nDOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE BUNDLE FOR FREE!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Often, teams start working on user-stories prior to a feature being ready to start. This causes a lot of confusion with the feature scope and leads to frustration. Thus, it’s best to write better features using this checklist such that the feature scope, dependencies, and other details are available prior to the team\u0026rsquo;s commitment to a feature during the PI planning. The feature writing checklist provides a list of items that you need to write a well-defined feature.\nDon\u0026rsquo;t forget to DOWNLOAD the above templates. Thanks for visiting this page.\nAlso, check out these books on Agile and Lean methodologies:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of SCRUM The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs You might also be interested to read these articles:\nAgile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! ","date":"20 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-11-20-agile-product-management-templates-free/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Agile Product Management Templates FREE!","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]What is Enterprise Agility? What are the expectations vs the reality of Enterprise Agility (EA)? This article covers the six pillars of EA that sums up the expectations or the future state along with the actual state of things.\n\u0026ldquo;The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.\u0026rdquo; - John P. Kotter\nEnterprise Agility - Expectations # Enterprise Agility is centered on the ability of an enterprise to quickly respond to change. Agile enterprises are expected to have:\nPlanning Agility Funding Agility Team Agility Technical Agility Leadership Agility HR Agility Planning Agility # The planning agility represents the flexibility of an enterprise to change its priorities considering changing market conditions or emerging technology trends. The expectation is that an enterprise is able to reprioritize and realign its business priorities quickly with changing market conditions or customers\u0026rsquo; preferences.\nFunding Agility # This is closely related to the planning agility. In order to quickly adapt to changing market conditions or emerging technologies, an enterprise must have the flexibility to move its funds or resources around, across teams, departments, and products, depending on the need.\nTeam Agility # Enterprise agility can only be achieved when all teams across an enterprise have adopted the agile mindset, values, and principles. For a team to be agile, they must adapt to change, learn to collaborate, self-organize their work, and consistently deliver high-quality work to generate business value.\nTechnical Agility # Teams achieve technical agility by leveraging engineering practices to deliver high-quality products quickly. Some of these practices include continuous focus to architecture and quality design, test-driven development (TDD), behavior-driven development (BDD), continuous integration (CI), continuous deployment (CD), creating unit tests, and ensuring code quality.\nLeadership Agility # This is an important competency for enterprise executives and leaders to develop. Leadership agility is the ability to make effective decisions, inspire people, and act with an understanding of what it takes to lead in a rapidly-changing world. With more agility, leaders become more collaborative and proactive in leading teams and driving organizational changes.\nHR Agility # In an agile enterprise, it is important to integrate HR and other supporting departments such as Finance, Sales, Marketing, etc. with the product development process and introduce agility into their work.\nEnterprise Agility - The Reality # But, are enterprises “truly agile”? Are you able to quickly adapt to the changing market conditions or emerging technology trends? When your corporate strategy/goals shift, how soon will the change flow from the corporate level to your own products? How soon will funds move from one product to another or from one release train to another?\nLet\u0026rsquo;s take a step back and think - does your roadmap even align with your corporate goals? How often do you revisit your product roadmap?\nThe reality is that change is slow. Larger the organization, more difficult it is to be agile. If the enterprise has adopted Scrum or Kanban, or SAFe, it doesn’t mean that they can quickly adapt to change. With SAFe, the product priorities are revisited on PI boundaries, thus it could take around 10-12 weeks to realign priorities. It may take even more time to move funds and resources between different departments. Enterprises often compromise their agility to have the desired predictability.\nPost your comments on the expectations vs the reality of Enterprise Agility. Also, check out my latest book, Enterprise Agility with OKRs.\nMore articles:\nAgile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People More Books by Aditi Agarwal on Agile and Lean:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban ","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-11-09-enterprise-agility-expectations-reality/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Enterprise Agility - Expectations Vs Reality","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/expectations-vs-reality/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Expectations-vs-Reality","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/funding-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Funding-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/hr-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Hr-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/planning-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Planning-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/team-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Team-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 November 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/technical-agility/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Technical-Agility","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]You might ask whether Agile and Lean are the same or different. Which one is the best methodology for your business? Below are my views on the main similarities and differences between the two.\nSimilarities in Agile and Lean # The core similarities between Agile and Lean are listed as follows:\nDevelopment approach # Lean development encourages to limit the work-in-progress (WIP). Agile methodology also promotes incremental development within short, time-boxed iterations. Both methologies have a similar approach to reduce the batch size. Continuous Improvement # Lean is very focused on Kaizen or continuous improvement. Agile, too, encourages inspect and adapt activities (such as product demo and retrospectives) that promote continuous improvement. Collaboration # Teamwork is one of the core values defined in Toyota Way 2001. Lean methodology encourages collaboration between team members. Agile methodology also focuses on collaboration (refer to the two statements from the Agile Manifesto below):\nIndividuals and interactions over processes and tools Customer collaboration over contract negotiation One of the 12 Agile principles, ‘Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.’ highlights the significance of teamwork and collaboration. Customer-centric approach # Lean is a customer-centric methodology. It delivers the best quality work in the shortest sustainable lead time. Similarly, Agile is customer-centric as well. For instance, the 1st Agile principle, ‘Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.’ is customer-focused.\nJust-in-Time (JIT) approach # With Just-in-Time (JIT) approach, teams build only what is needed, when it is needed, and in the quantities needed. Both Agile and Lean methodologies support this approach. In Lean, work items are pulled only when needed. In other words, a lean engineer starts working on a new Kanban card only when the WIP limit allows the same. Similarly, Agile development promotes the JIT approach. It encourages teams to refine, design, and document only the prioritized work items. Moreover, Agile concepts, such as incremental development and emergent design, reinforce this approach.\nWaste Elimination # Lean is the major proponent to eliminate waste. Agile methodology, too, supports this concept by delaying decisions until the last responsible moment (LRM). With Agile, any possible rework is minimized.\nDifferences in Agile and Lean # Some of the core differences between Agile and Lean are as follows:\nOrigin # Lean management was originated in the manufacturing sector. The original intent was to reduce waste within the Toyota Production System (TPS). Agile methodology, on the contrary, was conceived by the software development thinkers to solve problems with the traditional, plan-based approach.\nNature of work # Lean is best suited for:\nManaging work that flows through different workflow states Optimizing an existing workflow process Simple and repetitive tasks Eliminating blockers or waste Agile, on the other hand, is best suited for:\nDeveloping complex products Managing work that requires research and experimentation Delivering maximum business value Adapting to frequent changes Encouraging team collaboration End Goal # With Lean, the end goal is to deliver work that:\nHas high-quality. Is released within the shortest sustainable lead time. Is carried out in the most economical way. Has minimal redundancies or waste. With Agile, the end goal is to deliver a product that:\nHas the maximum business value. Responds quickly to the changing business needs. Is built incrementally and iteratively. Team Size # The Lean methodology is applied to improve processes in large enterprises and teams. With Lean, the Value stream mapping helps to visualize end-to-end journeys for large organizations.\nOn the other hand, Agile is most effective when applied to smaller teams, with a team size of 5-8 people.\nMore articles:\nAgile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile Learn more on Agile, Lean, Scrum, Kanban, and Enterprise Agility with below books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs Now that you understand the similarities and differences of Agile and Lean, you can select the methodology that works best for your team. Feel free to add a comment to this post and share your experiences with me. \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"30 March 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-03-30-agile-lean/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Agile and Lean","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"30 March 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/comparison/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Comparison","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"30 March 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/scrum/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Scrum","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]What is the Agile Scrum Framework? How is it different from the Kanban approach. If you are applying the Scrum framework and leveraging the Kanban board, you might be thinking that Scrum and Kanban are the same. In addition, you might be wondering which methodology is a better fit for your work.\nIn this article, I have listed the core differences between Scrum and Kanban. Moreover, I also covered which framework is best suited with different type of work or teams.\nScrum in a nutshell # Scrum is an iterative and incremental Agile process framework to build complex products of the highest possible value. In Scrum, the team always works on the highest priority items first. The work is performed in short, time-boxed iterations or sprints. Each sprint begins when the team commits to complete prioritized user-stories based on their available capacity in the sprint. An iteration ends when the team has delivered a potentially shippable product increment of the product. Therefore, the scrum development team delivers business value to users at the end of each sprint.\nThe three Scrum roles - Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the Development Team - are defined below: A Product Owner decides what needs to be built and in what order. A Scrum Master acts as a servant leader and coaches the team to follow Agile Scrum principles. A Development Team is a group of self-organizing individuals who develop a high-quality product. Scrum requires the below ceremonies to be conducted on a regular cadence:\nProduct Backlog Refinement Sprint Planning Daily Stand-Up Sprint Review Sprint Retrospective Above all, Scrum is most suited for complex projects where things are more unpredictable than they are predictable. In complex domains, there is a need to collaborate with others, have an innovative mindset to investigate, experiment with different ideas, and adapt based on the learnings.\nTo learn more about Scrum, you may read my book, The Basics Of Scrum – A Simple Handbook to the Most Popular Agile Scrum Framework. Kanban in a nutshell # Kanban is the most popular Lean framework. This approach works best for teams that have a continuous flow of incoming requests with different priorities. In the Kanban approach, each request or a work item is represented by a Kanban card that flows from one stage of the workflow to another until it is complete.\nKanban is very flexible in nature. New work items can be added to the backlog at any time. Even the workflow can change anytime. If team capacity changes, WIP limits get recalibrated. In addition, Kanban does not prescribe any roles or ceremonies. It optimizes an existing process by eliminating waste and improving time to market.\nTo learn more about Kanban, you may read my other book, The Basics Of Kanban - A Popular Lean Framework\nCompare Scrum and Kanban # Below section lists the core differences between Scrum and Kanban:\nScrum was formulated for complex product development to mitigate the limitations with the traditional Waterfall approach. Kanban, on the contrary, originated to manage work and control inventory at Toyota with Just-In-Time and Lean principles.\nScrum prescribes product teams to manage work within time-boxed, short, and consistent length iterations or sprints. However, Kanban specifies a continuous flow of work across different states.\nWith Scrum, development teams create a potentially shippable product increment at the end of every sprint. Therefore, teams can release code at the end of every sprint if approved by the product owner. With Kanban, teams can release code anytime or on-demand. Scrum requires three roles - Product Owner, Scrum Master, the Development Team. Kanban, on the other hand, does not prescribe any specific role.\nIn Scrum, the smallest piece of business value that a team delivers is a user story. Each user story may then be broken down into smaller tasks or sub-tasks. However, in Kanban, each work item is represented as a Kanban card.\nScrum is best suited for complex product development efforts that are unpredicatable in nature. Such complex efforts require research, experimentation, and an emergent design. Kanban, on the contrary, is best suited for simple and complicated efforts where things are more predictable than they are unpredictable.\nWith Scrum, sprint review and retrospective ceremonies are conducted at the end of every sprint to inspect and adapt. Though Kanban does not prescribe any ceremonies, teams may conduct a review meeting on a monthly or a quarterly cadence to review cycle time, flow efficiency, etc.\nScrum prescribes user stories to be estimated in terms of story points. However, Kanban does not require work items or Kanban cards to be estimated. In Kanban, estimation is optional. Some teams choose to estimate their work to have more predictability while others prefer to split their cards such that each of the cards is of the same size.\nWith Scrum, the most popular metrics are sprint burndown and velocity. Other useful metrics are release burndown, release burnup, and sprint burnup. The most popular Kanban metrics is cycle time. Metrics such as lead time, throughput, cummulative flow diagram (CFD), and control charts are also leveraged.\nKanban has more flexibility than Scrum as new work items can be added to the workflow at any time. Scrum prescribes ceremonies to be conducted on a regular cadence. For instance, the sprint planning ceremony must be conducted at the start of each sprint. Sprint review and retrospective ceremonies must be conducted at the end of each sprint. In addition, the daily stand-up must be conducted each day of the sprint. However, Kanban does not prescribe any cadence or ceremonies to be conducted. In Kanban, meetings are held as needed.\nWith Scrum, additional or new user stories should not be added to the active or an ongoing sprint. However, in Kanban, new work items or cards can be added anytime, provided the WIP (Work-In-Progress) limit hasn\u0026rsquo;t reached yet.\nIn Scrum, the sprint backlog is reset after every sprint. However, the Kanban board is continuous.\nTo adopt Scrum, enterprises need to develop an agile mindset. Scrum requires a considerable change to the existing organizational structure and processes. As a result, leaders invest into Scrum training and create new roles or positions to build the best Scrum teams. On the contrary, Kanban does not require any significant changes to onboard onto this framework.\nNow that you understand the differences between the two frameworks, you can decide which approach works best for your team. For more on Agile, Lean, Scrum, or Kanban, you may read below books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs ","date":"30 March 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-03-30-scrum-kanban/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Scrum and Kanban","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]This article covers 10 expert Agile tips and techniques for your reference. You can use these valuable insights to create effective, self-organizing teams. These agile tips are in no particular order, so feel free to skim down the list and read the ones that are most suitable for you.\nAgile Tip # 1: Discipline # Discipline is the key ingredient in achieving extraordinary results. It brings stability and structure to one’s work or personal life. For instance, it takes discipline to attend scrum ceremonies, meet sprint commitments, and continually learn.\n“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” - Jim Rohn\nAgile Tip # 2: Team Collaboration # In Scrum, the entire development team is responsible to ensure that sprint commitments are met. A team member who has completed his assigned tasks should look to assist other team members who need help. In addition, the team should practice empathy towards others, learn new skills, and meets their commitments.\nAgile Tip # 3: Story Point Estimation # Story points are a relative unit of measure for estimating user stories. A team’s story point estimate should include: 1) the amount of work 2) the complexity of the work 3) any risks or unknowns in doing the work 4) must-have items on your definition of done. Agile Tip # 4: Splitting User Stories # Split your stories into small stories. In other words, you should resist the temptation to group items together to avoid the management or process overhead. Smaller stories flow better through the sprint. For example, imagine 1,000 marbles working their way down a chute rather than 100 basketballs working their way down the same chute. Therefore, smaller stories are easier to estimate and have less variability than large stories.\nAgile Tip # 5: Define personas # Define personas for your product and write persona-based user stories. A persona is a fictional character that you create based on your user research to represent different users that might use your product. In conclusion, understanding the characteristics, experiences, behaviors, and needs of your personas will help you to write valuable user stories.\nAgile Tip # 6: Maximize the business value # It is important that you understand the business value associated with each prioritized user story. \u0026ldquo;Your job isn\u0026rsquo;t to build more software faster; it\u0026rsquo;s to maximize the outcome and impact you get from what you choose to build.\u0026rdquo; - Jeff Patton\nAgile Tip # 7: Focus on One Thing # Are you multitasking or is it context-switching? Research suggests that productivity can be reduced by as much as 40% by the mental blocks created when people switch tasks. Therefore, not only should you work exclusively on what\u0026rsquo;s most important, but you should also look to minimize the number of different things you work on at any given time.\n\u0026ldquo;Extraordinary results are directly determined by how narrow you can make your focus.\u0026rdquo; - Gary Keller\nAgile Tip # 8: Prioritization # Product owners should consider both importance and urgency when prioritizing product backlog items for the team. In Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), WSJF or Weighted Shortest Job First technique is used to sequence jobs and ensure maximum economic benefit. Read more here.\n\u0026ldquo;What is important is seldom urgent, and what is urgent is seldom important.\u0026rdquo;****- Eisenhower.\nAgile Tip # 9: Clean Code # Write a clean and high-quality code to minimize technical debt.\n\u0026ldquo;Anyone can write a code that a computer can understand. Good programmers write code that humans can understand.\u0026rdquo; - Martin Fowler, Author, and Programmer\nAgile Tip # 10: Sprint Retrospectives # Sprint Retrospectives provide explicit opportunities to improve the existing process. In addition, retrospectives promote ownership and responsibility with respect to all aspects of the process. \u0026ldquo;If you adopt only one Agile practice, let it be retrospective. Everything else will follow.\u0026rdquo; - Woody Zuill\nAlso, read these expert Agile tips and techniques on Medium.\nOther useful blogs on Agile:\n94 expert tips for agile teams 5 agile leadership tips for creating mature scrum teams Do you know how Agile is same or different than the Lean methodology?\nWhat\u0026rsquo;s the difference between Scrum and Kanban?\nTo learn and practice Agile Scrum, grab my book, The Basics Of Scrum, from Amazon. \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-02-09-10-expert-agile-tips/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"10 Expert Agile Tips and Techniques","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/12-agile-principles/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"12-Agile-Principles","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/agile-principles-explained/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Agile-Principles-Explained","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/best-agile-tips/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Best-Agile-Tips","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/expert-agile-tips/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Expert-Agile-Tips","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/expert-scrum-tips/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Expert-Scrum-Tips","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tips/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tips","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/top-10-agile-tips/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Top-10-Agile-Tips","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/top-5-agile-tips/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Top-5-Agile-Tips","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tricks/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tricks","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]The Agile Manifesto is comprised of 12 Agile Principles that set the foundation for being agile. Often, people interpret these principles in different ways. In this article, I will break-down each principle into smaller phrases or words to clarify its meaning. Let\u0026rsquo;s dive into each one, understand what they really mean, and be agile. 12 Agile Principles Explained # Principle 1: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1494\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"3000\"\\] Agile Principle 1 - Satisfy the Customer Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]What does this Agile principle mean? The phrase “our highest priority” signifies that the entire product team should know their priorities and should work on the highest priority items first. The highest priority for the product team is to “satisfy the customer” such that the product meets the needs of the customer. The phrase “early and continuous delivery of valuable software” implies that the work completed during the iteration must be demonstrated to the customers as soon as it meets the ‘Definition of Done’ to get their early feedback. Moreover, the team must strive to deliver valuable software to the customers at the end of each time-bound iteration.\nPrinciple 2: Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer\u0026rsquo;s competitive advantage.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1497\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"4000\"\\] Agile Principle 2 - Welcome Changing Requirements :) Just Kidding! Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]This Agile principle focuses on embracing change. The phrase “welcome changing requirements” signifies the importance of accepting revised business priorities. The phrase \u0026ldquo;even late in development\u0026rdquo; signifies that changes should be welcomed irrespective of the time and effort the team has already invested to develop a feature. It\u0026rsquo;s hard not to get defensive! But, think from your customer\u0026rsquo;s perspective and understand the business value or the key drivers of the change. “Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.” – Stephen Hawking\nPrinciple 3: Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1500\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"5184\"\\] Agile Principle 3 - Deliver Frequently :) Photo by Pope Moysuh on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]Let’s understand what this principle means. The phrase, “deliver working software” means that the Agile development team should target to deliver high-quality production-ready work at the end of each iteration. The team should target to deliver working software frequently, preferably, after every couple of weeks. The shorter the delivery timescale, the more incremental development happens with the lesser cost of change.\nPrinciple 4: Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1501\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"3000\"\\] Agile Principle 4 - Collaboration Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]This principle focuses on collaboration between the business and the development team. The phrase “must work together daily” implies that Agile development teams must interact with product sponsors daily throughout the work execution.\n“Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” - Vince Lombardi\nPrinciple 5: Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1520\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"5964\"\\] Agile Principle 5 - Motivation, Support, and Trust Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]What does this principle mean? The phrase, “build around motivated individuals” emphasizes the importance of having motivated people on the team.\n“Find people who share your values, and you’ll conquer the world together.” - John Ratzenberger\n“Give them the environment and support they need” – this phrase means that agile leaders should provide the necessary infrastructure that development teams need to continuously integrate and deploy their changes and should trust the team to deliver valuable software to customers.\nPrinciple 6: The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is a face-to-face conversation.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1525\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"3861\"\\] Agile Principle 6 - Face-to-Face Conversation Photo by Kawtar CHERKAOUI on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]Out of the 12 Agile principles, this one is based on face-to-face conversation. Face-to-face conversations boost creativity, credibility, trust, and collaboration as people better understand feelings and reactions via body language and expressions. Moreover, face-to-face conversations promote friendliness and build relationships. Therefore, agile leaders, product sponsors, and business stakeholders must meet with the development team in-person regularly.\nHowever, face-to-face conversations are often constrained by the geographical presence of the development team. Platforms for video conferencing provide the same benefits as that of face-to-face conversations and should be encouraged. Principle 7: Working software is the primary measure of progress.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1534\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"5760\"\\] Agile Principle 7 - Working Software Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]This Agile principle focuses on “working software”. The Agile development team must deliver high-quality work at the end of each iteration that can be released on-demand to end-users or customers of the product. Working software is the primary success measure. Other metrics such as productivity, committed vs actual work, and burndown charts are secondary.\nPrinciple 8: Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1539\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2500\"\\] Agile Principle 8 - Constant Pace Photo by Boris Stefanik on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]The phrase “sustainable development” means that work is developed at a constant pace that can be sustained indefinitely without overburdening a development team.\n“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius\nPrinciple 9: Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1542\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"3000\"\\] Agile Principle 9 - Technical Excellence Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]This Agile principle states that agile leaders, developers, and the product team must continuously seek technical excellence and emergent design to enhance agility.\n“In an agile project, technical excellence is measured by both capacity to deliver customer value today and create an adaptable product for tomorrow.” - Jim Highsmith\nPrinciple 10: Simplicity\u0026ndash;the art of maximizing the amount of work not done\u0026ndash;is essential.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1545\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2500\"\\] Agile Principle 10 - Simplicity Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]The developers, product sponsors, and the agile leaders must identify things that do not add value or in other words, must simplify things by maximizing the amount of work not done. “A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is, nothing left to take away.” - Antoine de Saint-Exupery\nPrinciple 11: The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1548\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2500\"\\] Agile Principle 11 - Self-Organizing Teams Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]This principle is all about self-organizing teams. The product architecture, design, and features emerge from mature self-organizing teams who can freely take decisions and remove temporary blockers on their own. If developers are free to make decisions, they tend to be more accountable, innovative, and collaborative. Such an environment is best suited for emergent design and iterative development. “A self-organizing team has authority over its work and the process it uses.” - Mike Cohn\nPrinciple 12: At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1554\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"5071\"\\] Agile Principle 12 - Inspect and Adapt Photo by Devin Avery on Unsplash\n\\[/caption\\]This principle focuses on inspect and adapt. The phrase “at regular intervals” signifies the importance of setting up a regular cadence to inspect and improve. Agile frameworks recommend regular practices such as product demo and retrospectives to continuously improve the process in an iterative way.\n“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection.” - Mark Twain\nApply these 12 Agile Principles and be agile. Please post your valuable feedback in the comments section. To learn more about the Agile Scrum Framework, read my book, The Basics Of SCRUM. If you like to understand the Lean Kanban method, check out my other book, The Basics Of Kanban.\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2019/2019-02-09-agile-principles/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"What are the 12 Agile Principles?","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"9 February 2019","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/what-are-agile-principles/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"What-Are-Agile-Principles","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Do you see people around you who gets a lot done in much less time? People who are always looking for challenging opportunities? Such highly productive people are an asset to any organization. Over the past few years, I have been researching on the common traits, habits, and characteristics of such people around me. In this article, I have summarized my findings on the 7 traits of high-performing people.\nFocusing on the ONE thing: # A super-productive person always seems to focus on the ONE thing at a time. As rightly written by Gary Keller, \u0026ldquo;Extraordinary results happen only when you give the best you have to become the best you can be at your most important work.\u0026rdquo;\nMultitasking is a myth. Research suggests that productivity can be reduced by 40% by the mental blocks created when people switch tasks. Super-stars focus their energies on the most important thing. They also tend to minimize the number of different things to work on at a given time.\nSetting High Goals # Superstars set stretch goals for them and are always keen to challenge themselves. They aim to achieve the highest possible reward and recognition in their organization. They think BIG and are often self-motivators.\nBuilding Expertise # A super-productive person continuously learns new skills and builds his or her expertise. He appreciates the need for continuous learning and believes in the concept, \u0026lsquo;What got you here, Won’t get you there’.\nCollaborating with Others # Star performers know the power of networking within and outside the organization. They tend to collaborate with like-minded people and share their knowledge freely with them. They empower others around them and help them to be more productive and successful in their careers.\nHaving Self-Discipline # Superstars are highly disciplined in life. They tend to resist temptations, adhere to the guidelines, and follow the goals that they set for themselves. With high self-discipline, they consistently drive great results.\nBeing Positive # Highly-productive people have a positive mindset for work and for life in general. They like to read new books, attend inspirational seminars, volunteer their time to local charities, etc. They surround themselves with positive like-minded people.\nInnovation # Star performers tend to be more creative than others around them. They look for opportunities to pioneer innovations in business processes and technical practices. They thrive better in a team that fosters a culture of innovation in an open and transparent environment. Be aware of these 7 traits of high-performing people and and conciously practice them at work. Feel free to s__hare your stories of professional and personal success with me. Learn how to effectively manage work with Kanban. Read The Basics Of Kanban today.\nKanban is a popular Lean framework and a workflow visualization approach to managing any professional or personal work in an effective and efficient manner. The above book is written to provide you with a complete reference guide on Kanban to assist you on your journey towards success.\nMore articles: # Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Check out these books on Amazon:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive ","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-10-30-7-traits-of-superstars-work/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"7 Traits of High-Performing People","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/career-growth/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Career-Growth","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/high-performers/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"High-Performers","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/professional-growth/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Professional-Growth","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/success-traits/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Success-Traits","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/success-work/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Success-Work","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"30 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/superstars-work/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Superstars-Work","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"5 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/examples/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Examples","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"5 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/kanban/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Kanban","type":"categories"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]What Is a Kanban Board?\nA Kanban board is a visual tool for enabling Kanban to manage work for any business. The board helps the team to track each of their work items, minimize idle time, improve predictability, increase quality, and reduce time-to-market.\nSample Kanban Boards\nLet\u0026rsquo;s dive-in into a few practical examples when teams manage their work via the Kanban approach.\nConsider a scenario that a DevOps team receives several requests each day to automate build process in Jenkins, resolve test environment issues, onboard new applications onto the hybrid cloud, and so on. Here’s a sample Kanban board for such a scenario.\n\\[caption id=\"attachment\\_1053\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"2364\"\\] Sample Kanban Board - DevOps\n\\[/caption\\]The second example is of an operations team that receives several calls during the day from its customers and works together to analyze reported issues, provide real-time guidance, and execute fixes to a customer-facing application. Here’s a sample Kanban board for such a scenario.\nNext, let\u0026rsquo;s consider a scenario that a software development team receives new requests on a regular basis to build new capabilities and enhance existing application features. This team targets to deliver a quality code and invests time in peer code reviews and application testing. Here’s a sample Kanban board for such a scenario.\nAnother example is of an organization’s legal team that receives requests on a regular basis from different portfolios in the organization to review content on their sites, campaigns, offers, etc. from a legal point of view. Here’s a sample Kanban board for such a scenario.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s take a practical example of a platform team that receives multiple requests from different application teams every day. Here’s a sample Kanban board to visually track their onboarding requests.\nOne of the examples of a personal Kanban board is to track the process when buying a new home. In order to track the various tasks and reduce distractions, you create a Kanban Board with a WIP limit of 2 home viewings. Here’s a sample board for such a scenario. Next, let\u0026rsquo;s consider another example of a personal Kanban board. In this scenario, you need to sort your house over the weekend. You decide to organize your work and reduce task-switching by creating a Kanban board. Here’s a sample board for such a scenario. Now that you have seen a few sample Kanban boards, will you be able to create one for yourself? Share your board in the comments section below. Don\u0026rsquo;t forget to apply a WIP (Work-In-Progress) limit to your board.\nMore articles:\nAgile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People Other Books on Agile and Lean:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs ","date":"5 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-10-05-sample-kanban-boards/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Kanban Boards - Practical Examples","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"5 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/kanban-board/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Kanban-Board","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"5 October 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/samples/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Samples","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\] This page will host all videos on my YouTube channel. I will update this page as and when new videos get released. # \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Video\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Video\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Recent\\_Posts\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"29 May 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-05-29-webinars/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Webinars","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widgets\\_ContactForm\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"4 May 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-05-04-contact-the-author/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Contact the Author","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Whether you are a business leader, an engineering lead, an entrepreneur, or an individual contributor, you might have noticed some common behaviors in people who lead. In this article, I will list down the 5 habits that successful leaders have in common.\nHaving a Positive Mindset Great leaders have a positive mindset and they radiate positive energy to others. They strongly believe that they are they are confident, successful, and loved. Successful leaders read inspirational books, listen to motivational speakers, attend personal development workshops, and surround themselves with positive like-minded people. They hire right people on their teams, who not only have the right skills but also possess a positive mindset. Such positive minded people are self-motivated to perform at their best.\nCheck out the inspirational book, Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive - A 3 Step Strategy to Embrace Positivity and Change Your Life.\nCommunicating Effectively Effective communication is vital to the success of an organization. In 1938, Chester Barnard, the author of pioneering work in management theory and organizational studies, concluded that effective communication is the most important responsibility of leaders. Leaders listen effectively and encourage their team members to provide feedback. They keep an open mind, encourage collaboration, and promote consensus.\nEmpowering Others Great leaders with a positive mindset empower the team. They target to create more leaders than followers.\nThe best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution, Bill Gates stated, “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those who empower others.”\nLeaders inspire their team, appreciate their work, help their team members to grow their visibility, connect them with right opportunities, and encourage them to fulfill their dreams. One of the richest American and successful industrialist, Andrew Carnegie, once said, “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”\nContinuous Learning Great leaders always look forward to read inspirational books, listen to motivational speakers, read the autobiographies of other great leaders, and learn from successful self-development coaches. They often listen to audiobooks while driving to work. Leaders set aside some percentage of their earnings to invest in their learning. John F. Kennedy once stated, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.”\nNetworking Successful leaders spend their time and energy to build strong relationships with others. They like to connect with like-minded people. Leaders like to attend seminars, workshops, meetings, conferences, and any other public events not only to build their expertise but to meet new people who share their passion and purpose.\nThere’s a famous quote, “Birds of the same feather flock together.”\nThese are the 5 habits that successful leaders have. If you have noticed other such common habits, leave your comments below.\nMore articles: # Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Be a lean-agile leader with these books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-04-13-5-habits-that-successful-leaders-have/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/charts/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Charts","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/communication/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Communication","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/continuous-improvement/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Continuous-Improvement","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/entrepreneur/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Entrepreneur","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/habits/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Habits","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/leader/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Leader","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/learning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Learning","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/networking/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Networking","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/positivity/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Positivity","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/scrum-chart/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Scrum-Chart","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/sprint/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Sprint","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/sprint-burndown-chart/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Sprint-Burndown-Chart","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/success/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Success","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]The Sprint Burndown or the Iteration Burndown chart is a powerful tool to communicate daily progress to the stakeholders. It tracks the completion of work for a given sprint or an iteration. The horizontal axis represents the days within a Sprint. The vertical axis represents the hours remaining to complete the committed work. The purpose of a sprint burndown chart is to show the total amount of work remaining.\nLet\u0026rsquo;s take an example. The below table shows the actual number of hours remaining at the end of each day within a Sprint to create a sample Sprint burndown chart. The table also captures data for ideal remaining hours. The ideal remaining effort is calculated by assuming a uniform rate of task completion each day. In the below example, you can see that the ideal and actual remaining hours were same at the beginning of the sprint, however, as the sprint progresses, the actual remaining hours vary from the ideal remaining hours. Next, we will plot a sample Sprint Burndown chart using the above table data. The below diagram depicts the sample chart with ‘Date’ represented on the horizontal axis and ‘Remaining Effort (Hours)’ represented on the vertical axis. From the above chart, you can conclude that:\nThere were no spillover stories since the actual remaining hours at the end of the sprint were zero. The team started a bit slow in the first week of the sprint, but then caught-up during the second week. Other articles that you may be interested in: # Agile and Lean Scrum and Kanban 10 Expert Agile Tips and Techniques 12 Agile Principles Sample Kanban Boards Learn all about Agile Scrum with my book, The Basics Of SCRUM. Other Books: # The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"13 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-04-13-what-is-a-sprint-burndown-chart/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"What is a Sprint Burndown Chart?","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Based on my research on emerging technology trends, the 8 most popular Connected Home Devices are:\nCURB Home Energy Monitoring System: This is the most powerful smart system for visualizing and controlling the real-time energy consumption in your home. It integrates with Samsung’s SmartThings platform to enable direct control of the system via smartphones on the go.\nEcobee 3 Smart Thermostat: This is a very smart thermostat that delivers the right temperature in the rooms that are occupied based on home\u0026rsquo;s unique energy profile, the weather outside, and many other factors. It works seamlessly with Amazon Alexa on voice commands and even supports Apple HomeKit.\nAmazon Echo: This is a smart hands-free speaker that you can control with your voice. It can connect with Amazon Alexa to play music, make calls, provide information, set alarms and reminders, send and receive messages, and more.\nAmazon Cloud Cam: A smart indoor security camera that works with Alexa and provides 1080p Full HD view to watch the last 24 hours of motion alert video clips for free. Check out the complete specifications on the Amazon product page to understand how this smart device is contributing to home security.\nPhilips Hue Smart Light Bulbs: Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple Homekit, and Google Assistant, this wireless lighting system can automate your lighting experience such that you can control or schedule your light settings from your smart phone. Detailed product details are available on Amazon product page for your reference.\nAugust Smart Lock: August Smart Lock is a smart keyless door lock that works with Amazon Alexa and Apple’s HomeKit. With this lock system, you can control and monitor your door from anywhere. It attaches easily to your existing deadbolt so you can use your existing keys anytime. This is yet another smart product that is available to enhance your home security.\nSkyBell HD Bronze WiFi Video Doorbell: Compatible with Alexa, this WiFi video door bell will enable you to monitor your front door and see, hear, and speak with your visitor via your smart phone. You may refer to the full specifications on the Amazon product page for reference.\nBelkin WeMo Mini Wi-Fi Smart Plug: With this Wi-Fi enabled smart plug, you can control your lights and appliances from your phone and your voice through Amazon Alexa or Google Home. This sleek plug also works with Nest.\nNote: This is not an endorsement of these products. As more devices get popular, I will look to update this list of 8 most popular connected home devices. Do you know of other popular devices for connected homes? Feel free to leave a comment below.\nLearn more on connected homes and other emerging technologies with my book, Emerging Technology Trends - Frequently Asked Questions.\nMore articles: # Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People Check out more books on Amazon:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-04-12-connected-home-devices/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"8 Most Popular Connected Home Devices","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/connected-homes/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Connected-Homes","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/emerging-technologies/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Emerging-Technologies","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/emerging-trends/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Emerging-Trends","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/inspirational/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Inspirational","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/positive-thinking/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Positive-Thinking","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/positive-thoughts/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Positive-Thoughts","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/real-stories/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Real-Stories","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/self-confidence/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Self-Confidence","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/self-development/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Self-Development","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/smart-devices/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Smart-Devices","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/smart-homes/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Smart-Homes","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tech-talk/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tech-Talk","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/technology/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Technology","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]You might have noticed that there are some people around you who are a pleasure to be with. They have a magnetic personality. They attract people and share their positive vibrations with others. Such people find it very easy to strike a conversation with anyone. They are usually your ‘go-to’ people at work or elsewhere. That\u0026rsquo;s the power of positive thinking. On the other hand, there are other people who seem worried and depressed. They like to stay with themselves. They usually find it difficult to start a conversation and feel comfortable when they are alone. The difference lies in the energy that they possess and radiate. Thoughts play an important part in creating this energy. Every moment, one is receiving and radiating thoughts. Thoughts define our character and influence our destiny.\nPositive thoughts are formed if you have self-confidence. If you think you are strong, confident, accepted, successful, and loved, you will radiate positive energy to others. On the contrary, if you think that you are weak, unaccepted, defeated, unsuccessful and unloved, you will possess negative thoughts and radiate negative energy.\nSwami Vivekananda once said, “All power is within you. Do not believe that you are weak. You can do anything and everything.”\nThe Human Mind: A Powerful Source # The human mind is always full of thoughts. It is very difficult to retain the positive thoughts in the mind. Negative thoughts will try to enter your mind all the time, but the key is to replace those thoughts with positive ones. If you start to think that you are weak, painful or tired, immediately replace those thoughts with those of strength and recovery. If you think you have failed, replace your negative thoughts with positive memories; when you brought a smile to others, when you wiped off the tears of your loved ones, or when you made them proud.\nFill your mind with thoughts that make you happy. Remember the moments when somebody thanked you for your generosity, when you received an honest appreciation for your hard work, or when your colleagues admired your skills. Realize the power of positive thoughts. With positive thoughts, you can attract positive energy towards you.\nDo not doubt your abilities. Don’t forget that you are the creation of the almighty God and have a unique purpose in life. You are a masterpiece. You have been carefully made by the creator of this universe. You can achieve whatever you want.\nThe Power Of Positive Thinking: Real Examples # Nick Vujicic is an Australian Christian man who is born with no arms and no legs. It was very easy for him to think negative. Imagine how helpless he would have felt in his childhood. He must have received countless comments about his inadequacy. But, instead of thinking negative, he chose to stay positive. Despite his disabilities, he didn’t find reasons to give up. He not only wrote seven successful books but is also a motivational speaker across the world.\nOne of Nick’s quotes is, “God won’t allow anything to happen in your life, if it’s not for your good.”\nAlbert Einstein, one of the most brilliant scientist in the world, was expelled from school. One of his teachers called him ‘a lazy dog’. After being expelled, he was very disappointed in himself. Even then, he refused to live his life under the shadows of poor self-esteem. He went on to become a professor at the University of Zurich, introduced his theory of relativity, and won the Noble Prize for Physics.\nOne of his quotes is, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”\nZig Ziglar was raised in a little house in the outskirts of Alabama. When he was five years old, both his dad and his younger sister died. In his childhood, he used to milk the cows, sell vegetables on the street, and work in the grocery store. He was underweight and had poor self-esteem. His dream was to own a large house with an acre of land, and a big garden. He attended the University of South Carolina, married at the age of seventeen, dropped out of college, and worked as a cookware salesman for WearEver Aluminum Company. He feared rejection and did not sell much.\nDuring one of his sales meeting, Mr. P. C. Merrell, the divisional supervisor of the company, encouraged him to believe in himself and trust his potential. He gave him advice on how to succeed. This was the turning point in Zig’s life. As soon as his self-esteem improved, he became one of the best salesmen and got promoted to the divisional supervisor position. Later, he became a bestselling author and a motivational speaker. His first book ‘See you at the Top’ was published in 1975. He wrote several books, including his autobiography, and even received the prestigious Cavett award by the National Speakers Association. Such was the result of an improved self-esteem and positive thinking.\nMore articles: # Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People You may be interested to read:\nHarness The Power Within Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive Other Books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs ","date":"12 April 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-04-12-the-power-of-positive-thoughts/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"The Power of Positive Thinking","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/business/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Business","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/corporate/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Corporate","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/jobs/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Jobs","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/processes/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Processes","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/scrum-master/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Scrum-Master","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/technical-debt/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Technical-Debt","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/waterfall/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Waterfall","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Let\u0026rsquo;s analyze the core differences between the plan-driven Waterfall approach and the Agile methodology.\nIn Waterfall methodology, project development flows steadily downwards like a waterfall from one phase to another. The common phases are: Define, Analyze, Design, Build, Test, Launch, and Maintain. The preceding phase must be completed and signed-off before the next phase can begin. In Agile methodology, work evolves in an iterative and incremental manner with an emphasis on collaboration, responding to change, and continuous improvement. Its core foundation was laid with the Agile Manifesto for Software Development in 2001. The Waterfall methodology encourages conformance to plan and processes, however, the Agile methodology values people interactions more. Waterfall is the plan-driven or the traditional project management approach that requires comprehensive documentation, whereas, the agile methodology focuses on working software over comprehensive documentation.\nThe plan-driven or the Waterfall approach restricts new ideas that arise during design, build, or test phases of the project, whereas the agile methodology encourages experimentation and new ideas at all times.\nWaterfall promotes a process-centric environment, whereas Agile promotes a people-centric environment.\nWith Waterfall methodology, projects are dependent on contract negotiation with customers or suppliers, however, Agile encourages customer collaboration more than contracts. The traditional Waterfall methodology requires conformance to a detailed project plan, whereas, the Agile methodology embraces change. The change control process in the Watefall methodoly is a very time-consuming process that requires a detailed impact analysis, a feasibility study, and possible re-distribution of resources/funds. With Agile, desired changes can simply be written as new user-stories/work items and can be added to the product backlog at any time. Waterfall requires a continuous effort to motivate the team. Most often, team members are not interested in the outcome of the project. On the contrary, Agile focuses on creating high performing, self-organizing, and motivated teams. In an Agile environment, team members understand the objectives and iteration goals and feel connected to the greater purpose. The Waterfall approach requires huge rework to accommodate late changes during design, build, test, or rollout phases of the project. As a result, the cost of change in this approach is quite high. On the other hand, Agile welcomes change even late in development with minimal rework, keeping the cost of change low. When Waterfall is synonymous with upfront planning, Agile is all about Just-In-Time (JIT) planning. With the Waterfall methodology, there\u0026rsquo;s a high possibility of mismatch between approved requirements and the released product, whereas, Agile encourages frequent feedback loops that reduce any mismatch between expectations and results.\nOften, with the Waterfall approach, customers stay unhappy in spite of the effort put in by the development team. Agile methodology is customer-focused. Customers stay delighted due to frequent feedback and quick response to changes or team agility.\nWaterfall requires upfront decisions and approvals for the requirements document, the design documents, test strategy, etc. In Agile, decisions wait until the last responsible moment (LRM). LRM is a strategy of not making a premature decision but instead delaying commitment and keeping important and irreversible decisions open until the cost of not making a decision becomes greater than the cost of making a decision.\nIn the Waterfall approach, there is a limited interaction between the developers and customers (especially once the design phase starts). On the contrary, Agile promotes frequent collaboration with customers with daily stand-ups, backlog refinement, iteration planning, and product demo, and retrospective ceremonies for each iteration or sprint.\nMore articles on Agile: # Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Learn more on Agile, Lean, Scrum, Kanban, and Enterprise Agility with below books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs ","date":"15 February 2018","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2018/2018-02-15-waterfall-agile/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Waterfall Vs Agile","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]This article explains the concept of a cryptocurrency and answers some frequently asked questions on Bitcoins. It also captures my thoughts on the future of Bitcoins and if one should invest into virtual currencies.\nWhat is a cryptocurrency? # A cryptocurrency is a virtual digital currency that uses cryptography to secure peer to peer digital transactions, create additional units, and verify the transfer of units, without the control from a central bank or a third party. Each transaction is stored into a decentralized digital ledger, also known as a Blockchain.\nWith the help of cryptocurrency, you can trade virtually with anyone, without any interference or control from any third party. Another significant feature with cryptocurrencies is that you can transact anonymously. As of Jan 7, 2018, there are over 1384 cryptocurrencies available over the internet. Out of all these cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency followed by Ethereum, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Cardano, and Litecoin.\nThe main difference between real money and virtual currency is that virtual currency transactions don’t have any transaction fees. Moreover, they are not subject to bank regulations.\nWhat is Bitcoin? # Bitcoin is a decentralized virtual currency created in 2009 by an unknown person or group of people with alias Satoshi Nakamoto. It uses peer-to-peer technology which means that data can be exchanged between two parties without the involvement of a central authority. How can I purchase Bitcoins? # A user must install a virtual wallet onto a personal computer or a mobile device to purchase Bitcoins. The wallet keeps track of all Bitcoin transactions for the user. The user then deposits the real money to an account that allows the user to buy or sell Bitcoins. The transactions are like trading stocks through an exchange such as Bitstamp or MtGox. Bitcoins can also be purchased from third parties who deposit Bitcoins directly into the virtual wallet.\nWhere are my Bitcoins? # Bitcoins are stored in a virtual bank account or a digital wallet, which either exists in the cloud or on user’s computer. Unlike bank accounts, Bitcoin digital wallets are not insured by the FDIC.\nWhat is the identity of a Bitcoin owner? # Bitcoin owners are identified by a string of characters such as a digital address. This digital address is also known as Bitcoin address.\nIs your identity linked to your Bitcoin address? # Yes, your identity can be associated with your Bitcoin address. If you post your Bitcoin address and your name online, then your name gets associated with your Bitcoin address on the internet. If you create any content online, for example, post comment on an online forum, create a new blog etc. and provide your Bitcoin address, your personal details get tied to your Bitcoin address. Moreover, if you trade Bitcoins on an exchange or transact with Bitcoin, your personal details that you provide to the exchange or merchants will be associated with your Bitcoin address.\nWhat are the risks from Bitcoin Transactions? # Since Bitcoin transactions don’t record buyer’s and seller’s name or physical location, these transactions can be used to buy or sell illegal products or services anonymously. Law enforcement agencies don’t like the anonymity with Bitcoins.\nWhat is the future of Bitcoins? # \u0026lt;still working on this section, please check later\u0026gt;\nShould I invest into virtual currencies? # \u0026lt;still working on this section, please check later\u0026gt;\nTo learn about Blockchain, Cryptocurrencies, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Smart Homes, and other technology trends, read frequently asked questions with my book, Emerging Technology Trends - Frequently Asked Questions.\nMore articles: # 8 Most Popular Connected Home Devices Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People Check out more books on Amazon:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"23 December 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-12-23-bitcoins-future/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Bitcoins","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"23 December 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/bitcoins/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Bitcoins","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 December 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/cryptocurrencies/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Cryptocurrencies","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 December 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/investment/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Investment","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"Vantage\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\] What is estimate inflation? # Estimate inflation is the term used when team estimates start growing over time. If a product backlog item was earlier estimated as 3 story points and a similar item is now estimated as 5 story points, this is referred to as estimate inflation.\nWhat causes estimate inflation? # Higher management, often, mistakes high velocity as high productivity and put a tremendous pressure on the scrum teams to increase their velocity. In order to achieve a target velocity, the team then starts inflating their story point estimates. This inflation has a ripple effect on other product backlog items that have not yet been estimated. During planning poker, when team estimates a product backlog item, they compare their story to an already inflated story and provide another inflated estimate. How to limit estimate inflation? # Mike Cohn recommends comparing the product backlog item being estimated to two or more other items to ensure consistency among estimates. When you compare the item with two or more backlog items during planning poker, the probability to compare against inflated estimates is reduced. What are the challenges to this approach? # Time is the biggest challenge. The development team does not like to spend additional time during planning poker to compare the item against multiple backlog items. \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"2 December 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-12-02-how-to-manage-estimate-inflation/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"How to manage estimate inflation?","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\] About Me # With over 20 years of experience in Information Technology, Aditi has vast experience in Portfolio and Project Management, Agile Methodologies, Scaled Agile, Lean Thinking, Leadership, People Management, Risk Management, Stakeholder Management, and much more. Aditi is a very ambitious and a strong headed person. She has a positive and energetic personality that inspires others to perform their best. She strongly believes in empowering others and helping them to fulfill their dreams. Aditi has found a way to do more of what matters most and less of what doesn\u0026rsquo;t.\nIn 2016, she attended National Achievers Congress (NAC) which is a full-day event presented by New Peaks and Success Resources. The event was \u0026lsquo;Unstoppable in 2016\u0026rsquo; with Tony Robbins, Nick Vujicic, Adam Markel, Gerry Robert, Lisa Nichols, and Dean Graziosi. As a result, she was inspired to live life with greater gratitude. She was determined to share her knowledge with others and give back to society. She, then, started to research into writing and publishing books.\nThe first book that she published was a short 50-page book, \u0026ldquo;What Is SCRUM? The purpose of this book was to teach Scrum terminology to college students. This book was published in Hardcover, Paperback, and eBook versions with several retailers such as Amazon, Barnes, and Noble etc. However, this book did not reach its intended audience. Finally, she decided to pull this book off the market. But, Aditi never gave up. She was determined to share her knowlegge with others and make a difference in this world. She continued with her writing. Today, she has published several books on Amazon. My Books # Enterprise Agility with OKRs: A Complete Guide to Enterprise Business Agility Enterprises must achieve “true agility\u0026rdquo; to sustain businesses and drive outcomes in this fast-paced, competitive, and rapidly changing environment. This book is specially designed for thought leaders who are leading agile transformation efforts, coaching agile or lean frameworks, implementing OKRs, or bringing more business agility to their enterprise.\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean: Develop an Agile Mindset and Lean Thinking This book is written to introduce you to the core values and principles of both Agile and Lean methodologies.\nAlso, read her article titled, \u0026ldquo;Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different?\u0026rdquo;\nThe Basics Of Scrum This book explains the Scrum roles, artifacts, ceremonies, and principles, along with advanced concepts such as managing technical debt, writing good user stories, publishing scrum charts, and more. The Basics Of Scrum will be useful to those who want to learn Scrum and expand their career opportunities, or those who don’t have time to read bulky books and thus need a simple reference book on Scrum.\nThe Basics Of Kanban: A Popular Lean Framework This book is written to provide you with a complete reference guide on Kanban. Learn how to effectively manage your personal and professional work with the Lean Kanban framework.\nAlso, read her article titled, \u0026ldquo;Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better?\u0026rdquo;\nAn Expert Guide to Problem Solving - With Practical Examples This book will give you an understanding of the different problem solving tools such as Fishbone Diagram, Brainstorming, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, SWOT matrix, and 5Whys along with practical examples and applications of these tools.\nEmerging Technology Trends - Frequently Asked Questions This book covers frequently asked questions about emerging technology trends such as Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Networks, Deep Learning, Augmented Reality, Connected Homes, Quantum Computing, and more.\nHarness The Power Within The purpose of this book is to inspire you to live a happy and a fulfilled****life. There\u0026rsquo;s a famous quote, \u0026ldquo;We are never defeated unless we give up on God.\u0026rdquo;\nThis book takes the reader on a journey into a spiritual world starting with foundational principles such as unwavering faith and resilience, to the advanced concepts of a positive mindset, affirmations, meditation, and divine consciousness. It also contains several quotes and examples from varied scriptures and religions. You might be wondering why Aditi wrote such a book. With this book, she wants to radiate positive energy to her readers.\nEmbrace Positivity: Think, Speak, \u0026amp; Act This motivational self-help book reveals a 3-step strategy to embrace positivity in life. It emphasizes the role of positive thinking, affirmations or the spoken word, and positive actions in attaining self-esteem and success. This book can be used as a handbook or a reference book to achieve success through a positive mental attitude.\nNow that you know more about Aditi Agarwal, leave her a comment or check out her books or blog.\n","date":"4 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-11-04-about-aditi-agarwal/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"About the Author","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]What are the main reasons that impact your productivity at work? Let\u0026rsquo;s take a look at a typical work day. How many times do you get interrupted by your colleagues who want to pick your brain on something. Or how many times does your leader interrupt you for status updates? How many times do you check your phone or your smart watch? How often do you receive a text, a video, or a mime? This article will list the 4 habits that impact your productivity at work.\nAccepting Interruptions # If your colleagues ask for your help, do you feel obliged to help them? Or do you schedule time in your calendar to respond to their queries? Does your boss interrupt you while you are in the middle of something important? Do you leave everything to listen to his concerns?\nInterruptions are external stimuli that we don\u0026rsquo;t plan for. Things such as unplanned discussions and ad-hoc work requests are the primary interruptions that shift our focus during the day. As a result, it takes longer to get things done. We need to try our best to limit these interruptions as much as possible, even if it means, saying \u0026lsquo;No\u0026rsquo; to your peers. Encouraging Distractions # How many hours or minutes do you spend on your phone every day on personal things at work ? Distractions are actions that we knowingly take to delay or avoid work. Things such as texting on your phone, long phone calls, reading or replying to social media posts, tracking stock prices, checking your fitbit or smartwatch, browsing for deals or coupons etc. are some of the main distractions that we have at work. These distractions reduce our focus on the task at hand and must be minimized. Multi-tasking # A common myth is that people who can multi-task are high-performers. However, it is just the opposite. The fact is that we are not good at executing multiple complex tasks at the same time. When we say we are multi-tasking, we are actually switch-tasking which means that we switch between one task to another. Switch-tasking slows you down as you spend more time and effort to re-focus on the first task once you have switched to the second one.\nInstead, focus on completing the task that you are currently working on, before starting a new one.\nProcrastination # Spending your time on an unimportant task to delay the start of the most important task is procrastination. The main causes of procrastination are lack of focus, fear of failure, or excessive perfectionism. The best way to overcome procrastination is to break down your goal into smaller tasks, know the bigger purpose or the outcome, overcome your fears, and get started. Stop procrastinating today to achieve higher productivity at work. More articles: # Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People Other Books: # The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"3 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-11-03-productivity-at-work/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"4 Things that Impact Productivity at Work","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"3 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/distractions/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Distractions","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/getting-things-done/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Getting-Things-Done","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/procrastination/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Procrastination","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/work/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Work","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"3 November 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/work-management/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Work-Management","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"Vantage\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Scrum is widely defined as an iterative or incremental process framework to build complex products of the highest possible value. In other words, it is an incremental approach to develop a complex product through successive improvements. Origins of Scrum\nIn the early 1990s, Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland conceived the Scrum process. In 1995, they jointly presented a paper describing the Scrum methodology at the Oopsla conference in Austin, Texas. Ken and Jeff inherited the name ‘Scrum’ from the 1986 paper ‘The New New Product Development Game’ by Takeuchi and Nonaka, two famous management thinkers. With the term ‘Scrum’, they wanted to stress the importance of teams and highlight some analogies between a team sport like rugby and the new game of product development. Why Scrum?\nScrum was developed to solve the below problems with the traditional, plan-driven development, or the waterfall method:\nLong development cycles A mismatch between requirements and actual product implementation De-motivated team members Unhappy customers Late customer feedback and late learning Huge rework and a high cost of change When to use Scrum?\nScrum is most suited for complex projects where things are more unpredictable than they are predictable. Read more about other domains - complicated, simple, and chaotic, and learn if Scrum is suitable for all domains with my book, The Basics Of SCRUM, available on Amazon.\nScrum Roles\nThere are three roles in a Scrum team - Scrum Master, Product Owner, and the Development Team. Learn about the responsibilities of each role within the Scrum framework with my book.\nScrum Ceremonies\nThe five Scrum ceremonies are as below:\nProduct Backlog Grooming Sprint Planning Daily Stand-Up Sprint Review Sprint Retrospective Learn about the significance and how to conduct Scrum ceremonies with me.\nScrum Artifacts\nWhat is the difference between a Product Backlog and a Sprint Backlog? What is a potentially shippable product increment? How do document the feedback from Sprint Retrospectives? Know the answers to the above questions with my book, The Basics Of SCRUM.\nAgile Principles\nThe Manifesto for Agile Software Development covers the four principles:\nIndividuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan With my book, you can learn about the above principles and understand the difference between traditional waterfall approach and the iterative Agile Scrum approach.\nSprints\nWhat is a Sprint? What are the benefits of Time Boxing? What are the benefits of Short Duration Sprints? What are the benefits of consistent duration Sprints? What is a Sprint Goal? What is the Definition of Done? The Basics of SCRUM is a handy reference book that describes the above topics in an easy-to-understand manner.\nUser Stories\nWhat is a User Story? How should you write good User Stories? How should you discover the User Stories? Can I refer to some sample User Stories? Get the answers to the above questions, and much more.\nTechnical Debt\nWhat is a Technical Debt? What are the main causes of Technical Debt? What are the consequences of Technical Debt? How do you manage Technical Debt? What are some of the practical examples of Technical Debt? What are some of the practical techniques to manage Technical Debt? Learn everything about Technical Debt with The Basics Of SCRUM, available in both Paperback and eBook versions.\nEstimation and Velocity\nWhy do we need to estimate the work? What are different estimation units? What are different estimation techniques? What is velocity and how to measure the same? What is the difference between velocity and productivity? Read the answers to the above questions and much more.\nScrum Charts\nWhat are the different Scrum Charts? What is a Release Burndown Chart? How can I see a sample Release Burndown Chart? What is a Release Burnup Chart? How can I refer to a sample Release Burnup chart? What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? How can I refer to a sample Sprint Burndown Chart? What is a Sprint Burnup Chart? How can I get a sample Sprint Burnup Chart? What is a Velocity Chart? What is a Kanban Board? Read all about the Scrum charts with my latest book, The Basics Of SCRUM.\nRecommended Books # \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"31 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-31-agile-scrum/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Agile Scrum","type":"blog"},{"content":" Self Development # Self Development is all about continuous improvement to one\u0026rsquo;s abilities, personality, psychology, relationships, health, spirituality, career, social goals, and more. One should continuously strive for self development either by reading inspirational books, attending seminars, or even by hiring personal development coaches. This is the best investment you\u0026rsquo;ll ever make. Thus, invest in your personal development, master your mind, know your purpose, and sow the seeds of your success. In my inspirational self-help book, Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive, I have emphasized the importance of positive thinking, positive affirmations, and positive actions. This 3-step strategy is the ultimate recipe for self development and success. This book can be used as a handbook or a reference book to achieve success through a positive mental attitude. In my second book, Harness The Power Within, I have focused on one\u0026rsquo;s spiritual development with unconditional faith in the divine energy. This book takes the reader on a journey into the spiritual world starting with foundational principles such as unwavering faith and resilience, to the advanced concepts of mindfulness, meditation, and divine consciousness.\nThe bestselling author and motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar said, “You can make positive deposits in your own economy every day by reading and listening to powerful, life-changing content, and by associating with encouraging and hope-building people.\u0026quot;\nRecommended Books # ","date":"28 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-28-self-development/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Self Development","type":"blog"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"Vantage\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Leadership is the ability of an individual or an organization to influence or guide other individuals, groups, or organizations. Leaders inspire others and bring out the best in them. Organizations, too, focus on inspiring their workforce to encourage innovation and to sustain their productivity. One of the most powerful ingredients for effective leadership is team empowerment. Leaders unlock higher performance through empowerment, rather than control. They aim to create more leaders than followers. Andrew Carnegie, one of the richest Americans and a successful industrialist, said, “No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself, or to get all the credit for doing it.”\nThere are several great leadership books available, such as:\nThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey Good to Great by Jim Collins Start with Why by Simon Sinek The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell You might wonder if there are so many leadership books out there, why did I write another one? The fact is that not everyone has enough time to read long books. Life has become very busy these days. Some of us are managing full-time day jobs, running a 10% business, or being busy parents. I, too, face challenges in blocking my time during the day to read and write books. Most of the books that I read have key takeaways that I want to remember or act upon. I wondered how many more books I could read if all books were short and crisp. This is the reason that I am writing a new leadership series.\nFew Leadership Quotes:\nA leader knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way. - John C. Maxwell The quality of a leader is reflected in the standards they set for themselves. - Ray Kroc Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality. - Warren Bennis Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. - Steve Jobs Think of little goals and expect small achievements. Think big goals and achieve big success. - David J. Schwartz If you think you can do a thing, or think you can\u0026rsquo;t do a thing, you\u0026rsquo;re right. - Henry Ford Leadership is a way of thinking, a way of acting, and, most importantly, a way of communicating. - Simon Sinek \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Button\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"26 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-26-leadership/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Leadership","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/faith/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Faith","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/god/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"God","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/miracles/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Miracles","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"Vantage\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Below is the compilation of the famous miracles by the Divine Consciousness.\nShri Shirdi Sai Baba was very fond of lighting lamps in the Masjid where he lived. One day, the merchants refused to give oil to Sai. Baba came back, kept the dry wicks in the lamps, took the tin pot with contained a few drops of oil, put water into it, and drank it. Sai Baba then forced it to fall into the container. He filled all the lamps with the water from the tin pot and lighted them. The lamps continued to burn all night. The merchants who were watching these activities from a distance were astonished to see the lamps lit during the entire night. They repented for their actions. Such was the miracle of Shri Shirdi Sai Baba! One evening, there was a terrible storm at Shirdi, the place where Shri Shirdi Sai Baba lived. There were black clouds, lightning, and rain. The whole place was flooded with water. All animals, birds, and people got frightened and prayed to Baba. Sai Baba then came out and addressed the storm to stop and be calm. In a few minutes, the rain subsided and the storm calmed down. Sai Baba had complete authority and control over the elements of nature. When thousands of people were hungry and tired, Jesus asked his disciples to feed the people. The disciples thought it is impossible to feed those many people. They told Jesus that they only have five barley loaves and two small fish. But, Jesus multiplied whatever food they had. The disciples could feed more than 4000 people. When Jesus, His mother, and His disciples were invited to the marriage at Cana, the party ran out of wine. Jesus’ mother asked Jesus to help. Jesus said, “What has this to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother told the servants to do as Jesus said. Jesus ordered the servants to fill the stone containers with water. Then, they took some out and gave it to the master of the banquet. The master said, “Everyone brings the fine wine at the start, but you have saved the finest wine for the end.” Jesus had turned water into fine wine. When Jesus was going into a village, he met ten men who were suffering from leprosy, a dreadful skin disease. The men stood at a distance and asked Jesus to have pity on them. Jesus told, “Go and let the priests examine you.” On their way, the men realized that they got healed. That was God’s miracle. He is merciful. The words of Lord Jesus had cured all of them. Ratanji Wadia, a prosperous trader, had huge sums of money, cattle, land, and horses. He looked very happy but was not so. He was generous and donated food and clothing to the poor and helped others in several ways. But, he had no child. He came to Shirdi and asked Sai Baba for his mercy. Sai Baba blessed him saying that his desires will come true. In due time, he was blessed with a son. You may be interested to read my inspirational book: Harness The Power Within: Unleash your Inner Strength with Faith, Patience, and a Positive Mind # \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-23-miracles/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Miracles of the Divine","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/categories/spiritual/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Spiritual","type":"categories"},{"content":"","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/spirituality/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Spirituality","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"23 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/trust/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Trust","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/decision-making/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Decision-Making","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/fishbone-diagram/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Fishbone-Diagram","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/growth/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Growth","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Many children and adults suffer from low self-esteem. Having nurtured the feelings of self-doubt, they struggle both at work and at home. They don\u0026rsquo;t understand how to build self-confidence. Not only they have fewer friends, but they also lead an unhappy life. Such people struggle with their studies, careers, health, and relationships. Often, they think negative and find faults in others. As a result, they neither trust their own potential nor they see good qualities in others. Self-confidence is a mindset that can be mastered like any other skill. Some of the effective ways to build your self-confidence are listed here:\nBody Language # Body language is a form of non-verbal communication that exposes one’s feelings, moods, and thoughts. One must be cautious of his or her body language and practice to present himself or herself in a confident manner. Holding your head high, sitting up straight, straightening your back, and maintaining consistent eye contact are some of the gestures that demonstrate self-confidence.\nGrooming # Though obvious and most simple, the regular morning activities such as bathing, shaving, and trimming set a positive mood for the day. One should also remember to wear a deodorant or a perfume.\nDress-Up # If you dress nicely, you feel good about yourself. Dress such that you look confident to others. If you want to be a senior executive in your company, dress-up like one. Look in the mirror each morning and ask yourself if you look like other senior executives in the company. When you are dressed nicely, you will act more confident.\nEmbrace Positivity # Think, speak, and act in a positive way. Have a can-do attitude. Smile, laugh and surround yourself with like-minded positive people. Set aside sometime during each day to read motivational books. Do not feed negativity in your mind. When negative thoughts come to the mind, replace them with positive ones or engage yourself in some activity such as reading a book, listening to music, running, or socializing etc. Declare positive things for yourself. Speak to others in a positive way. Define your success and act in a positive way. This will boost your self-confidence and you’ll soon start to see a difference.\nMore articles: # 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People 4 Habits that Impact Your Productivity Agile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Other Books: # Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive The Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Custom\\_HTML\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-22-how-to-build-self-confidence/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"How to Build Self-Confidence?","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/personal-development/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Personal-Development","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/problem-solving/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Problem-Solving","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/tools-and-techniques/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tools-and-Techniques","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Some of you might have heard about the Fishbone Diagram for effective problem-solving. So, what is the Fishbone Diagram? The Fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams were created in 1968 by Kaoru Ishikawa who was a Japanese Professor at the University of Tokyo and was famous for his inventions for quality management.\nIt is a pictorial representation and categorization of possible known causes to a problem, usually gathered during brainstorming. Since the shape of the diagram resembles a fish skeleton, it is popularly known as the Fishbone Diagram. This diagram is being used across several software and manufacturing organizations as a simple visualization tool to depict various potential causes to a problem. It provides a structured way to organize and represent data in a meaningful manner. This technique can be used whenever there are many possible causes to a problem or whenever there is a need to identify causes to a complex problem. One can apply the fishbone diagram method in solving day-to-day problems as well. Though this is mostly a group technique, this technique can also be used by an individual as a tool to structure thoughts and identify root causes.\nCategories of a Fishbone Diagram # The most commonly used categories for identifying the potential causes to a problem are listed as below:\nPeople Methods Materials Machines Measurements Environment The \u0026lsquo;People\u0026rsquo; category helps us to identify all causes that are people related. Here\u0026rsquo;s an example. One of the leading software organization was having major quality issues and one of the primary causes was the unavailability of skilled resources. When represented on a fishbone diagram, this cause, Unavailability of skilled resources, will appear under the ‘People’ category.\nAny causes that deal with the process or method to perform an activity are listed under ‘Methods’ category. Primary causes such as Inefficient development processes, Unnecessary effort spent by the team, etc. are few examples of the causes that fit well under the ‘Methods’ category.\nThe ‘Materials’ category is specific to any material or parts required to produce a product. This category is more common in the manufacturing industry. However, within software organizations, this category can be used to group any causes related to external dependencies. For example, if you are making changes to a front-end application that calls a service to fetch some values and if you hit a roadblock, then a primary cause such as Unavailability of the dependent service will be represented under this category.\nThe ‘Machines’ category is used to group all the causes related to hardware, software, and tools. For example, one of the primary causes of poor system performance could be the Unavailability of additional servers. Then again, one of the primary causes of ineffective communication within an organization could be the Unavailability of collaboration tools. Such causes are usually grouped under the ‘Machines’ category on a fishbone diagram.\nThe ‘Measurements’ category is used to group the causes that relate to incorrect data to measure the quality or success of the product. Consider an example where your team has launched a new website but the product goal to reduce call volume to the service center is still not met. Now, if one of the primary causes to this problem is the Incorrect data gathered during user research of the product, then this primary cause will be represented under the ‘Measurements’ category on a fishbone diagram.\nCauses that relate to an environment are usually grouped under the ‘Environments’ category. For the manufacturing industry, an example of an environment-related cause is Lack of appropriate weather conditions or location. For software organizations, an example of such a cause could be Instability of development, test or production environments.\nThough the above categories are the most commonly used categories for a fishbone analysis, people often tend to brainstorm the categories that are relevant to the problem they are trying to solve.\nNow that you better understand the Fishbone Diagram, learn the steps needed to conduct a Fishbone Diagramming session with your group. Also read about other problem-solving techniques such as Brainstorming, Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), SWOT Analysis, 5Whys, etc. with my book, An Expert Guide to Problem Solving - With Practical Examples.\nMore articles:\nAgile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People 4 Habits that Impact Your Productivity How to Build Self-Confidence? More books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs Think Positive, Speak Positive, Act Positive ","date":"22 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-22-fishbone-diagram/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"What is the Fishbone Diagram?","type":"blog"},{"content":" \u0026ldquo;You can make positive deposits in your own economy every day by reading and listening to powerful, positive, life-changing content and by associating with encouraging and hope-building people.\u0026rdquo; # - Zig Ziglar # \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Enterprises must achieve “true agility\u0026quot; to sustain businesses and drive outcomes in this fast-paced, competitive, and rapidly-changing environment. This book is specially designed for thought leaders who are leading agile transformation efforts, coaching agile or lean frameworks, implementing OKRs, or bringing more business agility to their enterprise. With step-by-step instructions, inspiring quotes, and real-world examples, this book offers everything you need to know in order to achieve Enterprise Agility (EA), including but not limited to:\n- The House of Enterprise Agility and its 6 Pillars\n- Role of OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)\n- Real-world examples for well-written and poorly-written OKRs\nGrab your copy now! Adopt Enterprise Agility.\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]People often debate whether Agile and Lean are the same or different. This book is written to introduce you to the core values and principles of both Agile and Lean methodologies and will hopefully answer some of the common questions such as:\n- What is Agile?\n- What is Lean?\n- Which is better? Agile or Lean?\n- What are the 12 Agile Principles?\n- What is the Agile Manifesto?\n- How many Agile frameworks are there?\n- What is Scrum?\n- What is the difference between Agile and Scrum?\n-\u0026mdash; and much more.\nAnyone who is interested in being Agile or who wants to adopt lean thinking would benefit from this book. Grab your copy today. Learn Agile and Lean methodologies to deliver better business value.\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Scrum is widely defined as an iterative and incremental Agile Framework to build complex products of the highest possible value. It is an incremental approach to develop a product through successive and relentless improvements. In this book, Aditi explains the Scrum roles, artifacts, ceremonies, and principles, along with advanced concepts such as managing technical debt, writing good user stories, publishing scrum charts, and more.\nIf you want to beat the competition, deliver incremental value at a sustainable pace, create a high-performing team, and respond to changing market needs, you need to adopt this framework. Grab your copy now!\nWho Should Read This Book?\nExperienced and aspiring Project Managers and Business Analysts Developers, Programmers, Test Managers, and Engineers Business and Technical Leaders Students seeking an IT job Anyone who needs to expand one’s career opportunities. Anyone who needs a short and simple reference book on Scrum \\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Do you feel overwhelmed with multiple things that need your attention? Do you feel like you’re always switching from one task to another, struggling to focus on any one thing for long enough to make progress? Do you feel that you work all day, but can’t get anything to complete? Do you feel that you are not as productive as you would like to be? Does your team have enough visibility on work items that each member is working on? Does your team struggle to track external team dependencies? Does your team stay focused and motivated? Does your team meet its’ commitments?\nKanban is a popular Lean framework and a workflow visualization approach to managing any professional or personal work in an effective and efficient manner. This book is written to provide you with a complete reference guide on Kanban to assist you on your journey towards success. Grab your copy today. Learn how to effectively manage your personal and professional work with Lean Kanban.\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Most of us encounter problems in our lives, either at work or at home. These problems cause stress in our minds and leave us exhausted. Instinctively, we start to take ad-hoc actions that we think will resolve the problem, but we soon realize that our actions are not effective and do not prevent or solve the core problem. Structured problem solving provides a systematic approach to identifying the root causes of a problem. Many scientific tools and methods have been developed to identify effective solutions to any problem. The most widely used problem-solving techniques are Fishbone Diagram, Brainstorming, Failure Modes, and Effects Analysis, SWOT matrix and 5Whys. Several organizations leverage these problem-solving methods to manage their problems at work. Learning about problem-solving tools will definitely help you to effectively solve your problems at work and in everyday life.\nThis book will give you an understanding of the different problem-solving tools along with practical examples and applications of these tools. Grab your copy today!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]This book covers frequently asked questions about Emerging Technology Trends such as Blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Artificial Neural Networks, Deep Learning, Augmented Reality, Connected Homes, Quantum Computing, and more.\nThis book is organized into five sections, written in the pattern of frequently asked questions and answers. The first section is focused on Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrencies. The second section emphasizes on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Feature Learning, Artificial Neural Networks, and more. The third section details the FAQs on another emerging technology i.e. Augmented Reality. The next section discusses the significant concepts and smart products that are changing the way we live today! Connected Homes or Smart Homes is a buzzword everywhere! The fifth section powers you with the unlimited possibilities with 3D Metal Printing, Quantum Computing, and the Balloon-Powered Internet.\nGrab your copy today! Stay tuned with technology trends.\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]This motivational self-help book reveals a 3-step strategy to embrace positivity in life. It emphasizes the role of positive thinking, affirmations or the spoken word, and positive actions in attaining self-esteem and success. This book can be used as a handbook or a reference book to achieve success through a positive mental attitude. The book describes specific techniques, principles, and exercises to develop a positive mindset that leads one to success, happiness, and self-confidence. In addition, it also covers the key habits of successful people, creative thinking, and other success principles. Grab your copy today!\n\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"WP\\_Widget\\_Media\\_Image\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]Do you aspire to become successful? Do you want to live your best life? If so, then this book is for you! The purpose of this book is to inspire you to live a happy and a fulfilled life. This book takes the reader on a journey into the spiritual world starting with foundational principles such as unwavering faith and resilience, to the advanced concepts of mindfulness, meditation, and divine consciousness.\nYou can achieve whatever you think! You can overcome all obstacles in life by unlocking the powers contained within you. Empower yourself and bring a positive change in your life today! Note: This book is not based on any one religion, rather it covers stories and quotes from multiple scriptures.\nGrab your copy today. Unlock your inner peace and happiness.\n","date":"21 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-21-all-books-by-aditi-agarwal/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Books","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"17 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-17-customhomepage/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"Home Page","type":"blog"},{"content":"","date":"14 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/interviews/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Interviews","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"14 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/management/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Management","type":"tags"},{"content":"","date":"14 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/tags/technical/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Technical","type":"tags"},{"content":"\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Headline\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]\\[siteorigin\\_widget class=\"SiteOrigin\\_Widget\\_Image\\_Widget\"\\]\\[/siteorigin\\_widget\\]If you are applying the Agile Scrum Framework at work, you must have heard the term, Technical Debt. So, what is the Technical Debt? Who invented this term? In this article, you will understand what it means and how to manage it.\nThe Definition # Ward Cunningham introduced the concept of technical debt in 1992. He defined it as follows:\n“Shipping first-time code is like going into debt. A little debt speeds development so long as it is paid back promptly with a rewrite…. The danger occurs when the debt is not repaid. Every minute spent on not-quite-right code counts as interest on that debt. Entire engineering organizations can be brought to a stand-still under the debt load of an unconsolidated implementation, object-oriented or otherwise.”\nCunningham used the ‘Technical Debt’ metaphor to emphasize the benefits and limitations of speedy development. The metaphor was well received by both business and technical people as it resonates with the financial debt. Like the financial debt, this debt accumulates interest with late repayment.\nIn 2004, Joshua Kerievsky describes ‘design debt’ in his article ‘Refactoring to Patterns” and the associated costs. Then again in 2014, Grady Booch compared evolving cities to evolving software and described how lack of refactoring can lead to the technical debt. He stated:\n“The concept of the technical debt is central to understanding the forces that weigh upon systems, for it often explains where, how, and why a system is stressed. In cities, repairs on infrastructure are often delayed and incremental changes are made rather than bold ones. So, it is again in software-intensive systems. Users suffer the consequences of capricious complexity, delayed improvements, and insufficient incremental change; the developers who evolve such systems suffer the slings and arrows of never being able to write quality code because they are always trying to catch up.”\nMain Causes of the Technical Debt: # Review your product, system, code, practices, and processes for:\nOutdated design Low code coverage Lack of automated regression test suite Lack of continuous integration Lack of appropriate testing Tightly-coupled code Delayed code refactoring Aggressive timelines How to manage the Technical Debt: # An organization should enforce good technical practices to all the developers, including but not limited to technical design review, code review, automated regression suite, high code coverage, adequate testing, and continuous integration. This will limit the accrual of this debt. The products that have accumulated the debt should focus on refactoring to reduce technical debt and improve maintainability. Below techniques will reduce your debt:\nHave a strong definition of done Create visibility for the tech debt Prioritize the tech debt Leverage an incremental approach Learn more about the technical debt and other concepts of the Agile Scrum Framework with my book, The Basics of SCRUM: A Simple Handbook to the Most Popular Agile Scrum Framework , available on Amazon.\nMore articles:\nAgile and Lean Methodologies - Same or Different? Expert Agile Tips and Techniques Scrum and Kanban: Same or Different? Which one is better? What are the 12 Agile Principles? Learn, Apply, and Be Agile! Sample Kanban Boards - Practical Examples What is a Sprint Burndown Chart? - Agile Scrum Framework Differences between Waterfall and Agile 5 Habits that Successful Leaders Have 7 Traits of High-Performing People 4 Habits that Impact Your Productivity Recommended books:\nThe Basics Of Agile and Lean The Basics Of Scrum The Basics Of Kanban Enterprise Agility with OKRs ","date":"14 October 2017","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/blog/2017/2017-10-14-what-is-technical-debt/","section":"Blog","summary":"","title":"What is Technical Debt?","type":"blog"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/_drafts/","section":"_Drafts","summary":"","title":"_Drafts","type":"_drafts"},{"content":"Write your about content here.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/about/","section":"Home","summary":"","title":"About Aditi","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/authors/","section":"Authors","summary":"","title":"Authors","type":"authors"},{"content":"Write your books content here.\n","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/books/","section":"Home","summary":"","title":"Books","type":"page"},{"content":"","externalUrl":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series","type":"series"}]