What I learnt from Tom Gilb
Last week I had the opportunity to spend a day with Tob Gilb, this was my first introduction to his methods for establishing project goals.
I have spent plenty of time this year working with clients who required help in initiating new projects and each time I have emphasised the importance of establishing the drivers for the project in order to provide direction and purpose. Even knowing how important this process is it surprised me the degree to which Tom wishes to emphasise the value being derived from a project and more specifically the metric for it’s measurement.
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Using silent work techniques
This session by Lyssa Adkins was one of the highlights of the conference for me. The practices that were introduced were immediately actionable while being innovative and different to other approaches I’d seen. The simplicity of these techniques is what makes them appealing while they address a very real issue, how do we ensure that all team members are represented in team meeting? We have all been in meetings dominated by a couple of strong characters. Often the smartest ideas are in the heads of someone who either is not willing to fight for air time or does not believe that the idea is sufficiently well formed to be presented to the group.
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Effective Questions for an agile coach
This session was run by Arto Eskelinen and Sami Honkonen and was oriented about using the GROW model as a guide for a coach when working with an individual or team.
The session was opened by a review of the responsibility of a coach. This was described succinctly to be to raise awareness and a sense of responsibility rather than do what is often most natural and provide solutions.
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The agile organisation: applying visioning and learning models
In her session on the Agile Organisation, Jean Tabaka describes some of the models that have been used during her time with Rally. The honesty of this session was key. Jean described how models from a variety of sources had been tried, how they had been adapted, which had remained and which had been dropped.
I’ll try and capture some of the models Jean described and provide relevant references. I’ll also bring together some key “sound bites” in the hope that these provide insight into the mind set and values that underpin the application of these models.
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Agile 2010
This week I’m at the agile 2010 conference in Orlando Florida. This is the first time at the major international agile conference for me so I’m keen to see what I can learn.
This really is an opportunity to hear first hand what our industries thought leaders and authors are thinking following 10 years of practicing agile in all manner of circumstances.
As well as meeting up with old friends made at various UK conferences and gatherings the conference provides an atmosphere in inquiry and interest perfect for sharing ideas and experiences.
I’ll be presenting two talks at the conference, the first is a retrospective on experiences of coaching teams to introduce agile principles and practice, the second is on the subject of business analysis practices, for this one I’ll be co-presenting with Gary Jones (a colleague of mine from Valtech).
I’ll try to post back here often with highlights from the conference.
Mockups with Balsamiq
Many of the practices that we apply in agile development teams emphasis deferring commitment. This is one of the ways we stay agile. If we have written a sentence on a story card and subsequently decide we don’t need that story we can rip it up, very little has been lost. Compare this with costly requirements specifications, a small change can trigger significant re-work.
In the same way, when specifying a user interface it can be helpful to defer commitment while expressing the need succinctly. Often we can use white boards and/or paper mock-ups to develop screen flows in meetings with customers. This can help us play with alternatives and walk through scenarios while avoiding the cost of mocking up in html or photoshop. more »
