March 20th, 2017
My simple answer: “No, it does not.” Ok, before you get your nickers in a twist, I am not saying you should get rid of the Q/A team or ship a product that’s hanging together by dental floss. On the contrary, we should always ship a product of the highest quality. But despite that, I […]
Experimentation Means it’s OK to Fail
December 5th, 2016
Experimentation is the key to learning and continuous learning is the core of Agile and iterative methods. A wise man once told me that we know the least about our product and the optimum process to build that product when we first start. I could never (or never wanted to) argue that point. When we […]
ScrumMasters are not Task Masters
September 20th, 2016
It always bewilders me to think about the amount of teams out there who designate the ScrumMaster as a ‘Task Master’. In these teams, the ScrumMaster’s role is often seen as that of an administrator. This ScrumMaster schedules, plans and runs the meetings, including the Daily Scrum. His job is to make sure all the […]
Experimentation Means it’s OK to Fail
December 5th, 2016
Experimentation is the key to learning and continuous learning is the core of Agile and iterative methods. A wise man once told me that we know the least about our product and the optimum process to build that product when we first start. I could never (or never wanted to) argue that point. When we […]
ScrumMasters are not Task Masters
September 20th, 2016
It always bewilders me to think about the amount of teams out there who designate the ScrumMaster as a ‘Task Master’. In these teams, the ScrumMaster’s role is often seen as that of an administrator. This ScrumMaster schedules, plans and runs the meetings, including the Daily Scrum. His job is to make sure all the […]
July 20th, 2016
It is almost guaranteed that when I work with new organizations, one of the first questions that comes up is “How does the development organization work with the Q/A organization?” This question is a stinker. A seemingly simple question actually is pointing out much deeper organizational issues that go beyond testers to how we see […]
I Didn’t Learn to Drive by Reading the Manual
February 20th, 2016
I remember that day like it was yesterday. The click of the camera, the awful picture, the waiting for what seemed like hours and finally, that moment where I was handed, still hot off the lamination machine, freedom, emancipation, liberation – or as you may call it, a driver’s license! That was one of the […]
Experimentation Means it’s OK to Fail
December 5th, 2016
Experimentation is the key to learning and continuous learning is the core of Agile and iterative methods. A wise man once told me that we know the least about our product and the optimum process to build that product when we first start. I could never (or never wanted to) argue that point. When we […]
ScrumMasters are not Task Masters
September 20th, 2016
It always bewilders me to think about the amount of teams out there who designate the ScrumMaster as a ‘Task Master’. In these teams, the ScrumMaster’s role is often seen as that of an administrator. This ScrumMaster schedules, plans and runs the meetings, including the Daily Scrum. His job is to make sure all the […]
July 20th, 2016
It is almost guaranteed that when I work with new organizations, one of the first questions that comes up is “How does the development organization work with the Q/A organization?” This question is a stinker. A seemingly simple question actually is pointing out much deeper organizational issues that go beyond testers to how we see […]
I Didn’t Learn to Drive by Reading the Manual
February 20th, 2016
I remember that day like it was yesterday. The click of the camera, the awful picture, the waiting for what seemed like hours and finally, that moment where I was handed, still hot off the lamination machine, freedom, emancipation, liberation – or as you may call it, a driver’s license! That was one of the […]
We here at Agile Ethos are obviously kind of huge fans of automation, be it test automation or otherwise. Having lived through much proverbial bloodshed and having witnessed too many large-scale applications drown in their own regression bugs, we feel our obsession is well merited. Most organizations we’ve worked with had a large chunk of the […]
My simple answer: “No, it does not.” Ok, before you get your nickers in a twist, I am not saying you should get rid of the Q/A team or ship a product that’s hanging together by dental floss. On the contrary, we should always ship a product of the highest quality. But despite that, I […]
My simple answer: “No, it does not.” Ok, before you get your nickers in a twist, I am not saying you should get rid of the Q/A team or ship a product that’s hanging together by dental floss. On the contrary, we should always ship a product of the highest quality. But despite that, I […]
Experimentation is the key to learning and continuous learning is the core of Agile and iterative methods. A wise man once told me that we know the least about our product and the optimum process to build that product when we first start. I could never (or never wanted to) argue that point. When we […]
It always bewilders me to think about the amount of teams out there who designate the ScrumMaster as a ‘Task Master’. In these teams, the ScrumMaster’s role is often seen as that of an administrator. This ScrumMaster schedules, plans and runs the meetings, including the Daily Scrum. His job is to make sure all the […]
It is almost guaranteed that when I work with new organizations, one of the first questions that comes up is “How does the development organization work with the Q/A organization?” This question is a stinker. A seemingly simple question actually is pointing out much deeper organizational issues that go beyond testers to how we see […]
I remember that day like it was yesterday. The click of the camera, the awful picture, the waiting for what seemed like hours and finally, that moment where I was handed, still hot off the lamination machine, freedom, emancipation, liberation – or as you may call it, a driver’s license! That was one of the […]
The Barrier This is the first post in the ‘Barriers to Organizational Transformation’ series and it is the Friday before Memorial Day so I thought I’d start with something light but important: Those corporate security policies that disallow openly displaying information on walls, hallways, etc. The Effect As you can imagine, the problem with […]
I’ve been noticing a disturbing trend lately where pundits, bloggers, and practitioners keep insisting there’s only one way to practice Agile software development, and it’s usually their way (go figure). I can’t tell you how many times I’ll read or hear about new Agile practitioners who asked a simple question on an online group or […]
One of the most misinterpreted and misapplied terms in our Industry is the term ‘empowered’. I hear it used over and over from organizations that are new to Agile concepts and have usually know just enough to be dangerous – and dangerous they become. Although I’ve seen this term misapplied in many different roles, it […]
Many pundits preach that the agile organization will not have managers – that teams will self-manage and can carry out all responsibilities of traditional functional management. This includes HR responsibilities, major conflict disputes, etc. “The team is self-managing, which includes all management responsibilities,” or so I keep hearing. Call me a heretic, but I’ve never […]
