Blog
Routines are a good way to operate.
But let’s face it: routines are a recipe for rut.
Ergo, systems.
With the help of 10 personalities—Vincent van Gogh, Ernest Hemingway, and Admiral McRaven, just to name a few—allow me to elaborate.
Wondering what this has to do with Agile? Agile is a system and, like any system, it will fail you if you reduce it to mere routines.
Read More
Agile teams often use points—is that a good thing? Points make things easier. They also create confusion and waste.
For many, Agile has come to mean “user stories.” So let’s talk user stories.
Read More
The first principle of the Agile Manifesto gets to the heart of the matter: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.
To be clear, Agile values process, so much so that it empowers you to make it your own and elevate it to an art form. It’s just a complete shift—from “the process comes first and people fit in” to “people come first, and it’s up to them to own and continuously improve the process they use.”
Things would be different if you could build software the way you build cars, on an assembly line. But the reality is, great software—like all creative work—is first and foremost about people.
And so, as someone who wants to work with great people and do great work, what should I pay attention to?
Read More
Technology organizations used to have two main functions: Development on one side and Operations on the other.
Development was in charge of building, integrating, and customizing systems. People used to call it Application Development. They now often call it Engineering.
And Operations was in charge of the environment to run those systems: hardware, networking, 24×7 operations—that sort of thing.
Each area has seen major changes over the last 15 years, most notably with the birth of Agile (for Development) and Cloud Computing (for Operations), and an increasing overlap between Development and Operations (DevOps).
This post draws parallels between Agile and Cloud; after all, both are meant to help you do things better, faster, cheaper.
This post also looks at what Agile and Cloud mean for startups and big companies.
