Category Archives: Core Agile

we need to talk about technical debt

Technical debt is quite a big topic and not equally understood, especially in planning and business discussions , this blog post is an attempt to tease out some strands of truth of technical debt. Having had the privilege of working with … Continue reading

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one born every minute

Can we learn anything from giving birth early, about early project delivery? On the 19th July 2012 we welcomed William Maximus Elbourn into the world, and since then I have had limited time to blog. However I was inspired by … Continue reading

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Banishing Warlocks, Witches and other Magicians

Its TOO HARD Thats some of the problem with software development, its that it is perceived to be too hard. Someone is compiling code from over here and deploying over there to those servers with those tns names, and you … Continue reading

Posted in Core Agile, lean, team, xp | 3 Comments

How solutionising in your standup burns time you dont want to waste

This will be a very short blog. I have been to tonnes of standups…….. tonnes……, and its not uncommon to observe a lot of solutionising. You might also call it tunnelling; its when two people quickly dissappear down a tunnel … Continue reading

Posted in Core Agile, stand ups, xp | 2 Comments

Naked Standups

ah I see I have your attention 😉 I recently hosted a small session in an “unconference” in Deutsche Bank where we talked about daily standups, we talked about the various patterns of reporting, eg. what did I do yesterday, … Continue reading

Posted in Core Agile, stand ups, xp | 2 Comments

Agile, lean and kanban exchange 2010

I recently attended the agile, lean & Kanban exchange in London (http://skillsmatter.com/event/agile-scrum/agile-lean-kanban-exchange-2010). Sadly I got snowed in Thursday, and after hiking 2 miles through snow to a station that was closed (people were telling me on the way it was … Continue reading

Posted in conference, Core Agile, kanban, lean, skillsmatter | 2 Comments

Agile, is it just a set of rules? part 2.., a tale of Yorkshire Puddings..

“So Rob” you say… “if its not a set of rules, then where do the rule come in?” “Ah ha” – I respond, well the rules come in at the beginning….  Check out the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreyfus_model_of_skill_acquisition).  … Continue reading

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Agile, is it just a set of rules? Part 1 the danger of the rulebook

Part of being an Agile coach is that persuasion and communication is key. But is it as simple as a set of rules? Well….. no. You could argue it is by saying, Agile is having: Stand ups at 9.45 am … Continue reading

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Agile Decisions…

When I became “Agile” the first thing that changed about how I approached my software development was my daily decision making.  Rather than following a set of rules or going on an “Agile” course or directly following a book I … Continue reading

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