The concept is so darn simple, it is a shame that it is not more prevalent. Struggling with seeing the big picture for your product or solution? Do you have user story explosion and it is difficult to see the roadmap and big picture? Afraid you are missing something? Backlog gold plating going on? Arguing about features, or worse technical implementation details related to features or stories?
Boulder Crest Retreat
Helping Veterans Re-engage
I recently visited Boulder Crest Retreat (BCR) in Bluemont, VA. What a fantastic place for veterans and their families to visit for a few days or up to a week. Here is not just a vacation or therapy program, but a ‘life’ training camp. Helping veterans relearn what makes them great and engage in society with their work, community, church, etc.
Your Agile Project is off to a challenging start when…
[su_dropcap]OK[/su_dropcap] – this isn’t the post your were probably looking for, but I had to point this one out. On a project I was supporting, there was much debate and consternation, not only about the solution itself, but an almost all consuming debate and discussion regarding the structure or hierarchy of the Product Backlog Items across the relevant Backlogs.
Value proposition with Agile
Avoid value atrophy with short releases
How does Value survive over Time?
I have found it difficult to describe the Agile pay off, or value proposition when introducing Agile. Perhaps your audience is aware of agile, maybe even attempting a few agile projects. But how do you describe the value proposition? Is it faster time to market? …True but not the entire scope initially. Is it higher quality? …quite possible. Is it more transparency? …sure but we have lots of meetings already. Is it Customer Delight? … Perhaps, but how do you measure that?
Google Timer
Need a countdown timer?
Google has a simple solution. Just jump on over to Google and in the search box try:
“set timer 1 minute”
And there you go, a handy-dandy countdown timer. An actual timer that you can click ‘Start’ and it begins counting down. You can stop and reset it, as well as change the countdown duration. There’s a beeping sound to signal time’s up.
Bonus
You can hit the 
icon and go full screen with the countdown. Super easy. Great for training sessions, Retrospectives, Daily Stand-ups.
Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with Software Products and Projects (Provoking Thoughts, 2012)
Having trouble trying to tease out user stories from your high-level Epics or Features? You’ll want to give Impact Mapping a try! Although the book “Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with Software Products and Projects” book has been out for several years, I recently revisited this book (quick read) and thought it had some valuable insight into how to your user stories oriented back towards the user. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a hundred times, the stories start to become tactical items, more technical, and we lose site as to why we are building what we are building. The quick summary:
Click ‘Continue Reading’ below for more…
Manage by principles, not practices.
Agile and Lean Program Management, by Johanna Rothmans
(Practical Ink, 2016), Kindle Location 401
The Rise and Fall of Agile Programs
Staying Agile at Scale
Just look, and you will see it. Newly minted Agile projects that are oozing with success and wonderment.
The more success, the more growth. As the Agile project succeeds and grows; we introduce more teams, more management, more bureaucracy. And, as if we were not looking, we will take a step back and see that in fact there is very little that we would recognize from that original Agile project.
Infinite Banking Concept
Exploring Dividend Paying Whole Life Policies
Did you know that you can structure a Whole Life insurance policy to accelerate the accumulation of the Cash Surrender value instead of maximizing the insurance death benefit? Why would you do such a thing you might ask?
Net Promoter Score
Net Promoter Score
NPS – How to Calculate (http://www.netpromoter.com/why-net-promoter/know/ )
The Net Promoter Score™ is simple to calculate and has been proven to be an effective way to gauge the health of a company’s growth engine. However, the crucial part is being able to adjust those specific areas of your business that will increase customer loyalty. Corsential’s solutions show you exactly why your clients rate you the way they do so you have the data to make those crucial decisions.