kanban

Articles

Tech support representative at a desk with several computer monitors How to Implement an Agile Methodology into Tech Support

Tech support is notorious for having a bad reputation about their service, both on the receiving side and the serving side. Fortunately, the situation is improving, particularly in innovative organizations that are adopting an agile approach to tech support. Agile is helping customer service teams prioritize tasks, collaborate, and continuously improve. What can you do to be agile in your organization’s tech support?

Ashley Wilson's picture Ashley Wilson
Person playing the piano Using Agile to Learn Anything

Acquiring new skills is always admirable, and it can even help you find new opportunities in an increasingly competitive job market. By going in with a plan and organizing your self-improvement activities, you’ll be learning new skills in no time. Agile can help. Here's how forty-five minutes a day and a structured approach using kanban can set you up for success.

Shakeel Muhammad's picture Shakeel Muhammad
Signs saying "Continue doing," "Start doing," and "Stop doing" 5 Tips for Getting Retrospectives Done Right

Unfortunately, many retrospectives are not productive. It may be that the discussions are unfocused, not enough data was gathered to be helpful for analysis, or the team concentrates too much on issues they can’t control. Retrospectives should be a key part of an agile process for helping the team improve. Here are five tips that will help you have more valuable retrospectives.

Marco Corona's picture Marco Corona
Agile task board Using Agile to Lead Your Agile Transformation

There's something ironic about starting an agile transformation by spending six months creating a detailed transformation plan. We have to move away from a prescriptive playbook and toward a more responsive transformation model. Why not use the agile transformation as your first opportunity to be agile?

Joel Bancroft-Connors's picture Joel Bancroft-Connors

Better Software Magazine Articles

Scrum Basics Scrum: Back to Basics

So you think you know Scrum? Using the whimsical notion of farm animals and light-hearted visuals, take a refreshing review of the entire Scrum lifecycle as an intuitive set of roles, responsibilities, and handoffs. Particular attention is placed on what the ScrumMaster and product owner are expected to do at each handoff.

Brian M.  Rabon's picture Brian M. Rabon
From Curmudgeon to Kanban

It didn't take long for Stacia Viscardi to realize that as effective as agile can be, a plan-driven mindset may not be the best approach for every project or every team. Breaking the rules and embracing whatever it takes to motivate the team to get a project to doneness—and delighting the customer along the way—is a much better approach, even if it means breaking away from fixed iterations.

Stacia Viscardi's picture Stacia Viscardi
Scrum or Kanban—Which Is Better?

In this FAQ column, Arlen Bankston defines the roles of Scrum and kanban and describes how the two agile methodologies can be complementary, each ideal for different situations, or blended to achieve the desired outcome.

Arlen Bankston's picture Arlen Bankston
Process Frameworks, Not Fixed Processes

The software development field has been consumed with process management ranging from inflexible, predictive waterfall all the way to self-governing, adaptable agile approaches. You probably already utilize a specific process methodology on your projects, but have you considered adopting an evolutionary learning cycle process framework instead?

Ryan Olivett's picture Ryan Olivett Bob Payne

Interviews

Sanjiv Augustine discusses scaling agile Scaling Agile: A Guide for the Perplexed: An Interview with Sanjiv Augustine
Podcast

In this interview, Sanjiv Augustine, the president of LitheSpeed, sheds light on a handful of scaling frameworks, including the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), and the simple scrum of scrums meeting.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Jeff Payne The Fundamentals of Agile: An Interview with Jeff Payne
Podcast

In this interview, Coveros CEO and agile instructor Jeff Payne discusses why you should make the move to agile, its many benefits, and how to transition. He also explains his SQE Training course, Fundamentals of Agile Certification.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Cory Foy discusses Scrum and kanban Scrum Versus Kanban: An Interview with Cory Foy

In this interview, Cory Foy speaks about his upcoming presentation at Agile Development & Better Software Conference East, why choosing Scrum or kanban is similar to climbing a mountain, how organizational change is all about experimentation, and why companies should use Innovation Games.

Cameron Philipp-Edmonds's picture Cameron Philipp-Edmonds
Ken Schwaber talks about the next big idea for the Scrum framework The Origins and Future of Scrum: An Interview with Ken Schwaber

In this interview with Dr. Charles Suscheck, Ken Schwaber, one of the signatories of the 2001 Agile Manifesto, describes the first days of Scrum, the biggest threats to agile, and the next big idea in the Scrum framework: evidence-based management.

Charles Suscheck's picture Charles Suscheck

Conference Presentations

Agile Dev West 2018, Better Software West 2018, DevOps West 2018 Measuring Flow: Metrics That Matter
Slideshow

Are you considering kanban but not sure how you’ll predict delivery without story points, velocity, and a burndown chart? Or are you part of a Scrum team but feeling like your team could benefit from improved flow within your sprints? In this session, join Julie Wyman and Hunter Tammaro as they explore key kanban metrics for measuring team flow and predictability. In the first half, they will introduce metrics including lead and cycle time, throughput, and the cumulative flow diagram. They’ll review what each represents, discuss easy ways to collect them, and show how they are similar and different from common waterfall and Scrum metrics. In the second half of the session, Julie and Hunter will provide a couple of different sample sets of these metrics for you to work in small groups, practicing how to read them in order to find opportunities for team improvement.

Julie Wyman
Collocated East Logo Scrum, Kanban, or Scrumban: Which Is Right for You?
Slideshow

Agile is on everyone’s minds today, as more and more organizations are eager to reap the benefits of rapid iterations using customer-centric approaches. Organizations tend to run to Scrum first because it is the most recognized agile framework. But is Scrum always the right answer for a...

Heidi Araya
Manage a Complex Test Effort with Lean and Kanban
Slideshow

“How absurd! She swallowed a bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die.” The silly nursery rhyme teaches a serious lesson. Because software products are complex, we seek to manage...

Mike Duskis, 10-4 Systems
Extreme Agile: Managing Fully-Distributed Teams
Slideshow

It is challenging—if not impossible—to find local experts in low-level Linux or specific open-source software projects. However, this isn’t a challenge with a fully-distributed organization which has this talent worldwide. So the challenge becomes how to effectively manage, motivate, and...

Alan Bennett, Linaro

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