The Latest

Matthias Bohlen interviewed me as part of the preparation for the OOP conference. We spoke on a wide range of topics, not just my talk which is “Six Behaviors to Consider When Hiring for an Agile Team.” We spoke briefly about program management, which is why I’m leading my influence tutorial.

Analysts determine what needs to be created. Programmers create it. Testers find the holes in the work of both. That's one way to do it, but all three can collaborate to do these things better, and more easily, too.

An otherwise good project management book provokes Payson with definition of “success” that rubs him the wrong way. In this article, he presents his case.

So often we assume the worst and expect delivery and arrival times to be late. We're so convinced that we'll be disappointed that we fail to give proper credit when a promise is kept and a delivery goes as planned. Give a little bit of credit and allow yourself to be pleasantly surprised!

Get a head start on your New Year's resolution. Hone your business analysis skills or learn new ones, and make 2012 the highlight of your career.

I am writing a book about agile program management. I have some portion of the first draft written. I don’t know how much, because I have not had any review. When I write, I can’t tell how much I’ve written until I have my first review. Then I will know how much I have that is good and how much is throw-away. (When I write a book, I have to write enough so my reviewers have enough context to review, but not so much that I’ve gone too far. I find it difficult to know how much to write before review.)

With immediate availability, scalability, and dramatic cost savings, cloud computing is revolutionizing the way business works. While the economic justifications for this new technology cover a broad range of IT initiatives, developing software is perfect for the elasticity offered by the cloud.