Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Pairing Helps

I’ve been working with Gil Broza on our teleclass series, Prevent Your Agile Titanic, both on marketing it and on its content. And it never fails, we have questions for each other almost every day. Sometimes I’m developing something and it looks “funny.” So I ask for review. Sometimes, as with the content, we discuss and one writes, and then we switch.

Pairing seems natural to us. We hadn’t paired before this venture, and that doesn’t matter. We are both ready to pair, which helps. Neither of us have egos that get in the way of the outcome: a great series of classes.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Friday, January 22, 2010

Catching My Breath: Many Media Opportunities for You

I’ve been busy the last couple of weeks, first preparing and then delivering the teleclass, 3 Crucial Factors for Preventing Your Agile Titanic. If you missed the call, you can still sign up for the replay. If you like what you heard on the replay, join us for the whole series of calls, starting Feb 8, 2010, and  sign up now.

Yesterday, I also did a webinar with Donna Reed, Selecting and Managing the Best Lifecycle for your Project, Team & Solution. Long title, good content :-)

And, the great folks at Dzone posted my video made during the Agile 2009 conference where I spoke about managing the Agile 2009 conference, where I think agile is going, especially for management.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Friday, January 15, 2010

Still Time to Reserve Your Spot for “3 Crucial Factors…”

Wow! I can hardly believe how many people have signed up for the brand-new free teleclass, “3 Crucial Factors For Preventing Your Agile Titanic” that Gil Broza and I will be teaching next week!

I guess we struck a nerve with many people who want (or need) to get Agile going, and who don’t have other expert help lined up.

Go here when you’re ready to reserve your seat.

On this call you’ll learn:

  • The 5 characteristics of your first Agile project that you must get right (but most people don’t consider).
  • What to expect if the first project is already selected and it doesn’t exhibit all 5 characteristics —and how to avoid disaster.
  • How to choose a winning team: one that can effectively leverage Agile to deliver the project and extract useful lessons for subsequent Agile roll-outs. (Hint: That’s not necessarily the people who happen to know the codebase or be available this minute.)
  • What to do if the team is already selected and you’re not sure it’s the right place and time for all of them.
  • How to turn this group of individuals into an Agile team. Unfortunately, many people think that just by referring to them as “Agile team” or “Scrum team” and putting them in the same room, they will self-organize and collaborate. Nope, it doesn’t work that way.

Go here to reserve your spot in this complimentary teleclass.

If you have questions, do email me.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Monday, January 11, 2010

Prevent Your Agile Titanic

I have a question for you:  Have you come across team whose first attempt at Agile adoption resulted in conflicts, pain, or just fell short of expectations?

I’ve met plenty of teams like that. I’ve heard statements like “nobody knew what they were doing”, “management still dictated an impossible deadline” and “those sprints became small death marches”. The most common blanket statement is “we tried it, it didn’t work.”

I’ve been coaching and training for years, helping people avoid just this sort of mess AND do Agile really well. But not everyone has access to an experienced coach, and many competent do-it-yourselfers get into trouble. Agile adoption is hard!

All this is about to change. On January 20th, my colleague Gil Broza and I will be teaching a free teleclass:

“3 Crucial Factors For Preventing Your Agile Titanic”

This is our way of helping you get Agile off on the right foot–and all you have to do is be on the phone. No need for approval, sign-off, expenses, or convincing anyone.

On this call you’ll learn:

  1. The 5 characteristics of your first Agile project that you must get right (but most people don’t consider).
  2. What to expect if the first project is already selected and it doesn’t exhibit all 5 characteristics —and how to avoid disaster.
  3. How to choose a winning team: one that can effectively leverage Agile to deliver the project and extract useful lessons for subsequent Agile roll-outs. (Hint: That’s not necessarily the people who happen to know the codebase or be available this minute.)
  4. What to do if the team is already selected and you’re not sure it’s the right place and time for all of them.
  5. How to turn this group of individuals into an Agile team. Unfortunately, many people think that just by referring to them as “Agile team” or “Scrum team” and putting them in the same room, they will self-organize and collaborate. Nope, it doesn’t work that way.

Click here to reserve your spot right now.

This call is right for you if:

  • You recently started an Agile effort, you’re thinking about it, or you’re planning to very soon. Perhaps you’ve been given a mandate: “Go Agile in 2010.”
  • You have some basic training in Agile. You may have taken a course, read a book, been to conferences–whatever your experience, you have more than passing knowledge of the Agile principles, values and practices. Doesn’t matter whether that’s Scrum, XP or something else.
  • You and your team will feel the consequences if agile fails to live up to other people’s expectations. Also, your project has or will have a team of some significant size, meaning that your organization is actually investing in the project.
  • Professional Agile guidance has not been secured (for whatever reason). You or your team don’t have access to an expert who can look at your situation and offer practical ideas to guide you.
  • Agile is among your personal objectives for the year. Yes, this is a terrible idea, and you may not have control over that.
  • You are experimenting with Agile, and want to give it a real shot at working in your organization.

To sign up for the call click here.

Do you have colleagues and friends embarking on their maiden Agile voyage? Feel free to forward this to them — and remember to reserve your spot here first!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Tips for Teleconferencing

I just read 27 Tips for Teleconferencing.

I had only one disagreement with

Consider distributing an agenda

. I always distribute an agenda.

Other than that minor quibble, great article!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post