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April 20, 2010
What QSM and SLIM Are Finding re: Agile
This Thursday April 22nd I'm presenting case study research on Agile methods at the Nashua Scrum Club in Nashua NH. It's entitled, "The Good, the Bad, and the Puzzling; The Agile Experience at Five Companies (UPDATED!)"
This talk has elements of a keynote address from recent conferences like Better Software and Agile Development Practices. It also packed the house at the OOP Conference earlier this year in Munich Germany. Since you wouldn't have to fly though ash-laden skies in Europe to come join us, come to Nashua NH if you're in town.
The meeting will be held at 6:00 PM on Thursday, April 22. Registration and more information is available via Eventbrite.
The Good, Bad, and the Puzzling: The Agile Experience at Five Companies
Strategic software development - and failures - happen every day; Agile methods offer a major paradigm shift. But are they working? Drawing from industry statistics, Michael answers vital questions about Agile’s effectiveness, which may be turning the “law of software physics” upside down. Until now, there have been predictable relationships among schedule, staffing, quality; industry data indicates Agile may be changing all this. See productivity findings at 5 Agile companies, & the results for time-to-market, productivity, & quality. Learn the right practices for your environment, including characteristics of successful measurement. See how metrics reveal insights into Agile approaches that are becoming mainstream.
Posted by Mike at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)
April 13, 2010
Rightsizing Your Project In a Down Economy
Tomorrow at the Software Quality Group of New England, I'm giving a speech entitled, "Rightsizing Your Project In a Down Economy."
Truth be told, whether the economy is up or down for you, the ideas will strike a chord. I'll be showing QSM Industry Case Studies where technology managers set the wrong dates, over-committed on scope, and staffed a project entirely wrong. The good news out of these disasters - is that we see how to get it RIGHT!
If you're in Burlington MA near the Sun Microsystems campus, come on down. Directions are here.
Rightsizing Your Project In a Down Economy
Abstract: In tough times, both shoes drop and “scarcity thinking” often takes over for senior execs, managers, and development teams. In this environment, dysfunction can wreak havoc on your projects in the form of scope greed, death-march deadlines, and budget cuts. Often, the tendency is to say “yes” to impossible dates, take on too much, suffer the budget cuts, and pray that heroics might save the day. This is a sure-fire formula for sky-high defects.
But… Project disasters are NOT fait-accompli. It takes a skillful manager to “rightsize” critical projects – right team, right scope, right dates – at the beginning. Scarcity thinking threatens all three. Michael describes how to have these difficult conversations and discuss the “undiscussables.” He shares how to artfully frame these trade-offs for stakeholders to set priorities and get buy-in, using a blend of common sense, essential measurement concepts, and rules of software estimation. Whether you’re agile, waterfall, or offshore, you’ll discover information you need to make the right choices and get the support of your team.
Target Audience: CIOs, Directors, VPs, Software Engineering Managers
Pre-Requisites: Organizational and Project Leadership
Level: Intermediate- Advanced
Posted by Mike at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)