I despise story points. Not dislike: despise. I’ve tried to like them, almost always driven an internal evangelist who’s convinced a team cannot truly adopt agile without story points. I’ve used story point poker, fibonacci sequences, and
Software
About software development, including Agile & Scrum
The Age of Software
A couple weeks ago I attended a conference held by Pacific Crest, an investment banking firm that underwrites many of the tech IPOs in our market (e.g. Wayfair, Hubspot, Apigee). The keynote speaker was Bill Ruh, Chief Digital Officer
Software Development: Adjusting Execution To Need
Before my company achieved product market fit, we had certain unspoken values within our software team. These included: move fast, take risks, minimize process / management overhead, empower individuals, prioritize features over infrastructure, find the MVF (Minimum Viable Feature), execute in
3 Steps To Making Good Group Decision
One of the most common soft skill gaps with software engineers is the ability to influence others. This gap of course is a byproduct of the nature of our work. From the time we graduate college, our influence is directed
Dust-Up in the Agile World
I read a recent blog post by Adam Pisoni, CTO & co-founder of Yammer, titled I’m Sorry But Agile Won’t Fix Your Products. It’s a great read and drives home a truth that often gets overlooked in
Software: The Process Is the Constraint
A few years ago I had a project manager from my team in Scotland send me a copy of Eliyahu Goldratt’s The Goal after learning I’d never read the 1984 classic. At the time, the constraint this team