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Archives for February 2015

Book Review Scrum by Jeff Sutherland

February 17, 2015 by Thomas Henson Leave a Comment

I just finished reading “Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time” by Jeff Sutherland.

scrum by Jeff Sutherland book cover

The version of Scrum by Jeff Sutherland I read was an audio book actually narrated by J.J. Sutherland, who is Sutherland’s son. Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time is a quick read or listen however you decide to do it. It’s a book that can be easily finished in a weekend.

It’s not a book that is going to tell you exactly all the details of running a Scrum team, but it gives the basics on how to start using Scrum. Most of the book is about why Scrum works and builds the case for Scrum for all projects.

Anyone reading this book will find it interesting and easy to read. Sutherland gives a brief history of Scrum’s origins and then goes into many real world examples of Scrum.

Scrum by Jeff Sutherland

Good:

  • Several examples of Scrum working outside of Software Development.
  • In depth talk how to build the case for Scrum in any organization.
  • Great explanation on the of history of Scrum and how it was modeled after fighter pilot training.
  • Opportunity to learn Scrum from one of the co-creators of Scrum.

Bad:

  • Short book that left me wanting to hear more examples.
  • Not a technical book about how to Scrum but a why to use Scrum book. I only say this for those experienced in Scrum looking for a technical book.

What I learned:

This book was great for giving me different ways to present the need for Scrum in an organization. As a ScrumMaster I always find myself selling Scrum to others inside and outside of my organization. This book will definitely give me more examples to talk about.

I learned new parts about the history of Scrum. Some of the history of Scrum I wasn’t familiar with was Jeff Sutherland’s career in the Air force. Jeff was a Top Gun and used much of his experience as a fighter pilot in the Vietnam War to create Scrum.

I would definitely recommend this book for any manager looking to improve his team’s performance. Scrum is well known in the software industry but the principles can apply outside of software development as laid out in this book. In fact the book goes into many examples of Scrum being used outside the software development industry.

While the book is for those without experience in Scrum, anyone interested in Scrum would enjoy. This is definitely a book you will want to pass around the office.

Let me know what you thought of the book.

 

Filed Under: Book Review Tagged With: Book Review, Books, Jeff Sutherland, Scrum

4 Steps to Increasing Team Productivity by 400%

February 12, 2015 by Thomas Henson Leave a Comment

The idea of getting a team to increase performance by 400% sounds crazy but it’s exactly what is happening at software startups. It is no secret that the key ingredient is using agile project management. The real secret is that those same agile principles can be applied to any startup.

team-rowing
Photo by bplanet at freedigitalphotos.net

 

Myth: Agile is only for software

Agile management practices are being implemented in all kinds of businesses. Jeff Sutherland, a founding member of agile methodology and fighter pilot, in his recent book provides an example of a condo developer using agile principles to build high rise condos. If agile principles can work for the construction of high rise condos, with a little customization they will work in your company.

When switch to an agile project management can increase your team’s productivity by 400% why are you not using it today? Maybe you have thought agile can’t work in your organization. Begin implementing these 4 steps today to jump start your team’s productivity.

  1.  Laser Like Focus – In Agile development, teams go through what is called a sprint, this is a period of 1-2 weeks where the team only works on specific tasks. These tasks are agreed upon before the sprint starts by both the team and leadership. During a sprint the team only works on tasks that will help them accomplish the goals of the sprint. By eliminating distractions the company is allowing the team to accomplish the goals of the sprint. Try it out today by instituting a no meeting day or no emails before lunch. This will give your team a distraction free time to focus on accomplishing the single most important task.
  2.  Continuous improvement – Agile teams believe in continuous improvement. One way they accomplish this is by having a meeting at the end of each sprint called a retrospective. In a retrospective the teams talks about what worked well and what did not. This meeting is a judgment free zone with the single goal of helping the team perform more efficiently. Try it out today by having meetings at the end of each week. In this meeting you act as the facilitator and allow the team to give feedback about what is working and what is not. At the end of the meeting let the team decide on the most important item. Once your team has decided on an improvement to make, set a metric to track that improvement and follow up next week.
  3. Constant Customer feedback – Agile teams take customer feedback to a new level. At the end of each sprint agile teams show what they have accomplished to the customers. So every 1-2 weeks customers are getting a prototype to play with and give immediate feedback to the developers. Try it out today by bring your customers into your own design process. Give customer early access to the project you are working on and soak in all the feedback they give you. The earlier you get feedback from your customers the less costly it is to change down the road.
  4. Information Radiator – In agile project management information about the project is placed in a common area on a whiteboard with 100’s of post-its/notecards detailing everything about the project. This board is commonly referred to as the information radiator. Anyone is allowed to look at the board because this ensures the entire company is on the same page, from accounting to the sales staff. Try it out today by setting up a whiteboard in an area where everyone will see. Write down the entire task for your project. On the white board create 3 columns with the following headers TODO, WORK IN PROGRESS, and DONE. Now place all the task in the TODO column, as the task are being worked on move them into the WORK IN PROGRESS column and then finally move them to DONE when the task is complete.
climbing mtn together
Photo by ratch0013 at freedigitalphotos.net

 

Use these steps today

Don’t let the name Agile scare you into thinking the agile principles can’t be implemented in your company just because you don’t develop software. Embrace the 4 principles in your company today and experience the increase in productivity the software industry has for the last 10 years.

Filed Under: Agile Tagged With: Agile, Management, Project Management

Sizing Your User Stories

February 12, 2015 by Thomas Henson Leave a Comment

Learn how to estimate your user stories without using time.

 

Filed Under: Agile Tagged With: Agile, Estimation, Scrum, Video

Best of the 02/06/2015

February 7, 2015 by Thomas Henson Leave a Comment

Photo by jesadaphorn at www.freedigitalphotos.com
Photo by jesadaphorn at www.freedigitalphotos.com

Another week in the books. Big Data is theme for this week’s best of the web. Let’s see what we have……..

MongoDB is the number 1 NoSQL DB and with the release of MongoDB 3.0 it doesn’t look like they will be losing any ground in the near future.

Registration is open for Hadoop Summit 2015. I went to this event last year and had a blast. Hopefully this year I can attend, it’s one of those events that you come away from ready with 100+ ideas.

Hortonwork’s HDP  is now available to run in the Google Cloud Platform. I haven’t used the Google Cloud Platform but for the free $300 60/day trial I will be adding it on my to-do list.

Not a week can go by without a data breach. We can now add Anthem Healthcare to the list. The White House announced this week a plan for a E-gov Cyber division. In 2015 we will continue to see the government taking cyber security seriously.

Just for Fun

For the past 2 weeks I’ve tried to find the Fibit Charge HR and for the last 2 weeks they have been sold out. Hopefully I will find one somewhere this weekend.

Who doesn’t want to be like Jason Bourne? Checkout this article on developing Situational Awareness.

Free $6 Google Play credits. If you have a Chromecast you can register to get a $6 credit from the Google Play store.

Enjoy the weekend and as always let me know what I’ve missed.

Filed Under: Quick Tip Tagged With: Big Data, fitbit, Hadoop

Why I am Creating more Content in 2015

February 2, 2015 by Thomas Henson Leave a Comment

I’ve started every year with the promise to blog more.

Each year I’ve failed!

So why is 2015 different?

Why have I increased my total blog in the past month?

It’s simple I want to accomplish certain things in my career and blogging can help me get there. So what exactly are my career goals:

  • To be known as an EXPERT

  • To SHARE my knowledge with others

  • To become an AUTHOR

  • To give a KEYNOTE a major conference

Photo by KROMKRATHOG at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
Photo by KROMKRATHOG at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

Who are you to say blogging more will help

Look at the first piece of advice Scott Hanselman gives in this get involved in tech course. It’s to start a blog. Scott Hanselman is a known author, speaker, and expert. He’s a known expert by software developers and routinely gives Keynotes at major conferences. So if he says I should start I blog it’s probably a good advice.

Around Christmas I got the flu and had a lot of time on my hands. Sitting around for a couple of days I was able to finish Soft Skills by John Sonmez.  Now John Sonmez is also a known software development expert, speaker, and author. One of the things John stresses in this book is to start a blog. In fact, John Sonmez attributes a lot of his success to starting a blog. Okay now that is two experts, authors, and speakers with the same advice. There must be something to starting a blog.

How to make it succesful

Having a blog is important but how can I make it successful?

How can I create content that will help the community?

I already had a blog but I wanted to make it successful. Creating a blog was one thing but making it successful was something else.

After a week of recovery I found a new email course on how to start a blog by John Sonmez. I was skeptical at first because I already had a blog. What I was looking for is how to make a successful blog.  I signed up for the course and started receiving the emails over a 3 week period.

The course was great it outlined the strategy for creating great content and where to focus your energy. Now I’m not going to spoil the course for you but I will tell what hit home for me was the consistency part. All the times I wasn’t consistent was the reason for my unread blog. Sure my content, style, and ability to connect with readers matters too, but you cannot get better at those unless you are writing the blog post week after week.

So that is why I have been able to blog more already in 2015 that other years past. I realized at of things that matter most its my consistency that will help me achieve my goals.

Experts are consistent

Authors are consistent

Keynote Speakers are consistent

I am consistent

 

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: 2015, career, Motivation

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