Everyone on the team should understand and be able to suggest changes to the team processes because developing great processes isn't the preserve of experts or coaches. We are often presented with a world of experts. Arguments about some subject or other are perceived to have been won by one side and lost by the … Continue reading Agile essentials 7: Own your own process →

One of the risks of iterative development is that the pace becomes too fast for everyone to sustain. In this post I discuss why I think this is a risk and some things I've tried, or considered, to deal with it. Giving a team the time to do a good job is essential. I wouldn't … Continue reading Agile essentials 6: Sustainability →

Only build stuff when you need it. Make decisions as late as you can. A decision isn't final until you have finished building whatever is based on that decision, and even then.. The principal that you should only build something when you need it is kind of obvious. For one thing, if you aren't going … Continue reading Agile essentials 5: Just in time →

Agile teams are multi-disciplined and communicate closely, which avoids miscommunication, builds trust and makes sure that things happen quickly when they need to. If your team isn't working like that, you need to find a way to deal with it or any Agile processes you have will struggle. In my first tech job, an operations … Continue reading Agile essentials 4: Teamwork →

The success of your project relies on you getting feedback on every aspect of your project, as often as you can. In a perfect world you'd be getting qualitative and quantitative feedback, but any honest feedback is better than none. When you get feedback, do something with it. I've been waiting ages for even a … Continue reading Agile essentials 3: Feedback →

Trust isn't just an Agile essential, it's an essential whatever you're doing, but I think it is a good indicator of how successful your Agile practices are. You can't force people to trust you but you can do some things that will prevent them from trusting you. This post is about why it's important and … Continue reading Agile essentials 2: Trust →

Agile essentials 7: Own your own processI'm not a huge fan of orthodoxies and methodologies, but they have their merits. Agile is a mindset. I argue that if you put the mindset first then you are in a better position to judge the performance of a methodology in your team. I go on to define … Continue reading Agile essentials 1: Agile, but what kind? →

Work hard on one thing, not one main thing and the eight hundred other things you've volunteered yourself for