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Instantly usable and helpful information for project management, agile/SCRUM, business analysis, IT strategy and compliance and lean – six sigma.
Browsing All posts tagged under »Agile«
Dirty Consultant Tricks – Hiding the Crystal Ball
Nearly four years ago we began the TAPUniversity Blog. It’s been based on a mix of our training and consulting delivery. The first topic was a top 10 things to do for contractors or consultants (or not do). After a round of consulting assignments, in pharmaceutical and insurance, with other consultants alongside me, I observed […]
Meaningful Work – Busy Work
September 27, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
Meaningful Work versus Busy Work was the central theme of a presentation and discussion I shared with the PMI Heartland Professional Development Day on September 17, 2012. The title was “Undercover Agile”. The premise was sorting through what’s meaningful and busy work in daily project management practice. Once sorted, high performance organizations and project managers focus […]
Working in the Weeds
July 31, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
12 months of two consulting project management engagements. Digging in. Pitching in. Working in the weeds! Since 2002 my career has been a blend of “doing” project management, business analysis, faclitation, agile and lean six sigma along with “teaching” those same subjects. The last 12 months has been 95% of the doing. Now that the […]
Function over Form – Don’t go Delores on me!
March 12, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
Over the last several months I had the opportunity to work alongside some wonderful people doing some great things. From time to time a quirk surfaced. I love quirks because they’re opportunities to grow. One quirk I saw I’ll call “Delores Umbridge” – in honor of the character from Harry Potter. Delores was a most […]
Stand up meetings – not just for software or Agile anymore
February 20, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
Stand up. Sit down. Which is better for the team, productivity, your company? The trend is stand up for a short burst of action and accountability among all types of business teams. A hall-mark of rapid software development (1990’s) and Agile (manifesto in 2001 onward) the stand up meeting has progressed rapidly beyond software, to […]
Celebration! 100,000 readers!
May 17, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Time for a little celebration. Today the TAPUniversity blog surpassed 100,000 visits or reads. Over the last two years our blog readership and contributions have grown steadily. Several hundred professionals check in each day and explore over 400 articles and growing. We’ll continue to publish and hope you’ll share in our exploration of the Management […]
Lean Startup (for product and software development)
February 21, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The tenth anniversary of Agile is upon us. We just concluded a 12 part review of the Agile Manifesto. Agile was a software development out to business, innovation. Or it could have been called “geeks to execs”. Now for a fast forward, to today. Emerging trends and practices include those that fuse business, design and […]
Agile Principle 12 – Team reflects, tunes and adjusts
February 15, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The last principle of the Agile Manifesto provides for learning and adjustment by the team. This adjustment allows for continuous process improvement. Teams don’t allow themselves to become stagnant or stale – they change and become better. The manifesto doesn’t proscribe how often and allows some leeway. The definition of “at regular intervals” provides sufficient […]
Agile Principle 11 – Self Organizing teams produce best architectures, requirements and design
February 14, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Agile manifesto – principles number 1 – 10 were ones I could embrace or at least accept. And yes I know it’s your 10th birthday this month. But really, number 11 is a difficult one for this control oriented, project management/ manager type to swallow. You’re saying that self-organizing teams can get it done? Yeah […]
Agile Principle 9 – Agility is a result of technical excellence and good design
February 12, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The ninth principle of agile brings in important aspects of enterprise architecture and system design. Technical excellence is a board term. it can be applied to hardware, software, network infrastructure, process management, project management, programming, release management, etc. I also think of enterprise architecture I hear technical excellence. While Agile is change driven, that does […]
Agile Principle 8 – Constant Pace of Development
February 11, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Sprint or marathon? 100 meters, 5k or 26.2? Slow endurance or high intensity interval workout (HIIT)? Anaerobic or aerobic? Rare combination of talent like Michael Johnson (pictured) who excelled at the 200 and 400 meters? If Agile were a workout it would seem to fit in the sprint, 100 meter, high intensity, anaerobic side of […]
Agile Principle 6 – Face to Face Interaction
February 9, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Face to face interaction provides for the most effective form of communication. The sixth Agile Manifesto principle advocates face-to-face conversation. A sticking point for adopting Agile is the dominance of virtual teams within an organization and among different organizations (in a vendor – customer relationship or within a supply chain for example). Bringing virtual […]
Agile Principle 4 developers and business working directly together
February 7, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Unleashing your developer geeks on unsuspecting business people was quite risky in the 1990’s. Why those geeks may be a bit rough, un-kept and may spill the beans (truth). They clearly have not transformed in “McDreamy” yet (Patrick Dempsey). They’re still commuting to work on their lawn mower. Seems a little silly now. The prevailing […]
Agile Principle 2 – Changing Requirements
February 5, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
Re·quire·ment n. 1. Something that is required; a necessity. 2. Something obligatory; a prerequisite.¹ Among the twelve principles of Agile, that one that evokes a good amount of debate is changing requirements, even late in development. This contrasts from plan driven approaches to development that “freeze requirements” and lock those in through development and deployment. […]
Agile Manifesto
February 3, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
One of my favorite movie lines is from the Princess Bride. In it the hero is told he must go back to the beginning. When the movie reaches one if its many climaxes – Indigo (hero) exclaims “I am waiting for you, Vizzini. You told me to go back to the beginning. So I have. […]
WEMSHA! – WE Make Stuff HAppen.
February 1, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
We make stuff happen! Adjust some capital letters and you get WEMSHA (pronounced Whim Shaw)! That’s been a working term for us at TAPUniversity the last several years. A WEMSHA mindset helps keep focus among competing methodologies, approaches and flavors of the month – Agile/SCRUM, FDD, Lean, SDLC, RUP, Iterative, Incremental, Change or Plan […]
Communication – Progressive Elaboration and Progressive Communication
January 28, 2011 by Dave Kohrell
The essential concept of progressive elaboration is that organizations, teams, and people do not have to have all the pieces and parts fully known before beginning. Don’t get me wrong, having details is important, but not for everyone. This approach fits very well with the change driven methodologies of Agile and Lean Software Development. Communication […]
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October 3, 2012 by Dave Kohrell
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