Tag Archives: agile development

Agile, Featured

3 ways to have a very agile Thanksgiving

As we head rapidly into the holiday season, taking vacation to celebrate with family and friends is bound to occur. For most, it is a time to relax and reflect on what to be thankful for, accompanied by turkey (or tofurkey for the meat-conscious) and cranberry sauce. For others, it can be a hectic time of delegating responsibility and tying up loose ends. Not so for this product owner! The following are 3 golden rules I follow before vacationing to keep the holidays happy and the hectic at bay.

#1 – Give someone the executive power!

Since the product owner makes the decisions, it is important to appoint someone else to make all of these choices. I usually pick someone who has a similar mindset when it comes to the product and prioritizing customer issues. That way, even if I don’t make the decisions, the outcomes are usually the way I would have wanted them.

#2 – Plan ahead, but don’t plan too much.

One of the luxuries of being a Scrum product owner, is that Scrum is a system that adapts well to change. If the unexpected happens (as it frequently does), having well-defined stories, a prioritized backlog, and someone with the decision-making power, goes a long way. Rather than plan for every possibility (because we all know that polar bear is going to destroy the server room), Continue reading 3 ways to have a very agile Thanksgiving →

Agile, Enterprise Software, Office Life, Programming

Agile Development: 5 Lessons Learned

Working in software development can be challenging and tricky without the right plan in place, especially without a plan that caters to your employees’ work styles. Here at SoftArtisans our development team follows the agile dogma and we’ve discovered several lessons along the way. Wondering if agile development is right for your team? See below for 5 things to keep in mind when implementing this work style.

1. You absolutely need backup from higher-ups.

Too often I have seen or heard of departments that were “going agile,” but management was not behind them. No matter how enthusiastic about it the developers were, their plans were ruined every time management expected something to be “like it used to.” Managers who don’t give things time to adjust create developers who don’t give things time to adjust, and then everything is doomed to fail.

2. Retros are vital.

One important thing about agile is that you can change things quickly when you need to. This applies to the direction the software is taking, but it also applies to the processes and mindsets of team members. This is what retrospectives are for. A good team will be able to be honest about what’s working and what isn’t and subsequently make changes for future sprints.
This whole process is much easier when…

3. Retros don’t include higher-ups.

Management usually wants to know what’s going on, and that’s great, but retros are not the place for it. Continue reading Agile Development: 5 Lessons Learned →