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Feeding the Value Machine
In my effort to explore living the first principle of the Agile Manifesto this week I have found myself asking the question, “How can I provide value for you?” Of course that presumes I have something...
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Delivering Value With The Kids
“Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.” 1st principle, Agile Manifesto No, I’m not selling the kids to the circus…yet. Actually,...
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Welcome Changing Requirements, Even If You Don’t Want To
“Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.” Agile Manifesto, 2nd Principle I have a confession to make: I find...
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The Stance of Readiness for Change
I think this whole “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development” thing is a lot more challenging that I had first anticipated. It was a long week, and perhaps not my best. I pushed myself...
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The Fat Man Manifesto
Recently I was at a conference where people were decrying the fact that many folks didn’t even know what the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto were. Unfortunately this led to yet another...
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Stopping
The other day I was re-reading Robert Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I was looking for a metaphor for quality used in the book that I remembered reading long ago. I found myself...
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Over-Training
In the sports world there is a fairly well understood phenomena known as “over-training”. In broad terms, over training occurs when an athlete trains harder than their body is capable of adapting. It’s...
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Be Like Beaker: Experiment on Yourself
“Bunsen Honeydew here at Muppet Labs where the future is being made today.” As a kid, as soon as I heard those words from the good professor I just knew that something awful was going to happen to his...
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Slowing Down
Last week I led a session at Agile Open Northwest called, “Slowing Down”. The idea for this session was inspired by my own struggles with becoming quite over-committed to a variety of things (my job,...
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Slowing Down: Actions
In my last post, I summarized a talk, Slowing Down, that I had facilitated recently at Agile Open Northwest. There was a fair amount of interest in the topic and some folks mentioned that I should do...
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Announcing: The Little Book of Impediments
Impediments have long been a topic that is near and dear to my heart. I’ve just published the first draft of a book dedicated to managing impediments on Leanpub. It’s an idea that I’ve been thinking...
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Impediment Spotting
So there I was in a meeting the other day (saving the world…yawn). Everything was going smoothly (too smoothly) so I did a quick spot check for impediments. You know, “Hey folks, before we wrap things...
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Agile Coaching and Training is a Scam
In the Agile world, coaches and trainers are distinctions that were created in order to create different ways of making money. They have no useful business purpose outside of filling the pockets of...
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Pervasive Language
I was watching a movie with my brother the other day and the rating warning came up, “Rated PG-13 for Pervasive Language”. I found myself scratching my head and wondering: what the hell is pervasive...
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Experimenting with Cadence
Recently I’ve taken up running again. Don’t worry, this isn’t some story of how glorious it has made me feel. Running sucks. I’ve been doing it for months now, and I’ve yet to have that stupid...
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A Violent Introduction to Self-Experimentation
It’s early on the morning of December 12, 1954 in the desert near Edwards Air force base. Colonel John Stapp is surrounded by men who are in the process of strapping him to a large metal chair. A...
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I’m Helping!
I used to race with a really experienced crew on a J120 (a flippin’ nice sailboat). We were all very hardcore about our racing. Many on the crew had been racing sailboats since their childhood. These...
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Bob The Naked Agilist
Have I ever mentioned how much I hate interviews? I absolutely despise them. The average interview is like the worst kind of corporate speed dating. You know how it goes: What are your job...
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Witnessing Craftsmanship
Recently we hired a painter to do the exterior of our house. At the time I thought we had simply purchased the services of a painter, however I soon discovered that we were getting something more. We...
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The Agile Experience and The 5 Rules of Accelerated Learning
How do you experience Agile? I’m not talking about the process, the rituals, or the artifacts. I’m certainly not asking you to regurgitate any of the usual Agile jargon. I’m talking about how it makes...
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