Agile timeline! Did you ever wonder how we got to where we are today? Who were the personalities that influenced the course of history? Wonder what were the events instrumental in shaping the future that we know as present today?
If these are the questions that peak your curiosity, you are in luck! Here is my attempt at chronicling the events that started the Agile revolution.
Along with the events, I also list the personalities, the artifacts (books, white papers) that shaped what Agile is today. Most of these items are clickable, leading you to a source with even more information
Enjoy the Agile timeline! Relive those moments, and walk with those personalities.
Think we missed some important event, book, or personality? Please do write to us and we will update the timeline accordingly.
Write better User Stories with this Visual Worksheet
User Stories are the lifeline of an Agile team. Even the BEST, high performing teams will struggle to deliver Value if they are fed bad Stories. As they say, INVEST in your User Stories!
Use this visual worksheet to help you, guide you in writing better User Stories. Help your team Help you with this worksheet.
Onwards to writing user stories that help teams in creating value, frequently and on a regular cadence.
See how easily you can minimize the impact of dependencies to ensure Success on your project
Can dependencies derail your project? What is the impact of these dependencies on your initiative?
In today’s hyper connected world, it will be difficult to have a project that did not have any dependencies, internal or external, upstream or downstream on other projects or initiatives, vendors, tools, or functionality.
Impacts of Dependencies
If you are not careful about the dependencies, if you do not put any effort in identifying them, they will sneak up on you and derail your initiative:
The later you identify, the more costly it will be to address them, the more time it will add to your delivery time, the more negative impact it will have on the quality of work you can deliver.
You will be dealing with hot heads! The stakeholders will not be happy to hear you that ‘it will take more time!’
Your estimates will be way off, if you ignored the dependencies
So, why not be intentional about them as you start on an initiative and through the execution of it; why not spend some time upfront talking about potential dependencies.
I use this simple tool with the teams I coach. It is a simple, intuitive, easy to use, yet very effective tool.
Start this session with your team by drawing a circle at the center of whiteboard or flip chart sheet. Put your program/team name in the center. All the spikes on this wheel are the dependencies that are known at the time. As you identify new dependency, just draw another spike.
The more rims you have on the dependency wheel, the more air it has to cut through, the more friction it has to push through. Similarly, your program/project will have to cut through more of the red carpet and push through more friction from other projects if you have more rims on your dependency wheel.
The more rims you have on this dependency wheel, the more difficult and complex the project will be. It also helps you in setting the expectations with you stakeholders, it also helps team when they are providing their estimation.
Here is a sample, from a team I coached in the past at a client.
Why identify Dependencies?
As you can see, it is of paramount importance to spend some time on thinking about them and identify them upfront. Granted that you will not know all the dependencies. But, mere fact that you are putting some time to think about them upfront is a huge win. It gives you a gauge as to how much additional force you will need to push through the friction.
Above all, it helps you in setting the expectations of all the parties. It helps you ground the expectations of stakeholders. It also helps ground the team and provide more realistic estimates.
As I mentioned, it adds tremendous value and increases your chances of success on a program or initiative. You can start reaching out to those partier (on whom you are dependent, or who are dependent on you). The cross functional team, works on the initial version of this wheel as they go through the planning activity (Release planning, Sprint planning.) And, then it can be a good artifact to take to your Scrum of Scrum.
In Scrum, you go into a Sprint having already made a commitment to a number of stories. What happens when your manager, supervisor, or one of the stakeholders comes to you requesting to take on one new thing on your plate. Are you a people pleaser? Do you say ‘Yes’?
If you said ‘Yes’, you already undermined the commitment the Team made to the sprint. A better approach would be to say ‘No’. But, how do you say ‘No’ to your manager, supervisor, or the stakeholder (who might be paying the bills)?
The “No” Repertoire
In the book, Greg suggests having a ‘No’ repertoire handy. You can get to this list when faced with a situation where you have to say ‘No’, and say it gracefully. Here is my version of the ‘No’ repertoire for Scrum teams.
No. We can not take on this new Story as we are already ‘in flight’ into a new Sprint.
Yes, we may be able to take on this new Story. But, what are you willing to de-prioritize from our current Sprint?
Thanks for this new Story. We can put it on our Product Backlog, and take it on in the next Sprint if it is still your Priority.
We can take on this new Story, but are you willing to put the success of the current Sprint on the line for this new Story?
Can you please explain the business reasons behind this urgency (on this new Story)?
Why can’t this new Story wait till we get into next Sprint?
Each column represents a Sprint in the release cycle. Each row represents a team that will be participating in this release planning exercise.
Based on the history, makeup of the teams, and what is needed for the functionality, the Chief Product Owner (CPO) may decide to pre-assign some of the work slices (open for discussion and negotiations with the team later on).
Agile timeline! Did you ever wonder how we got to where we are today? Who were the personalities that influenced the course of history? Wonder what were the events instrumental in shaping the future that we know as present today?
