Tag Archives: collaboration

Offshore Development Anti-Patterns

Cost of connection, Group intercommunication formula: n(n − 1) / 2

“The Mythical Man Month” – Fred Brooks, 1975

Like most people I am currently working from home. The Corona pandemic is upon us and everything has changed. When we emerge from these hard times, we will see a new normal. I hope this new normal can also be better.

Because of the situation, our development teams are now 100% distributed, an unwanted but interesting experiment to study. Suddenly we are more equal, there’s no onsite and offshore, everyone is alone.

This post is about offshore development, or rather some learnings and “don’ts” from my own experience from the past seven years, through different setups. Continue reading →

From Push to Pull, My Summary

I have chosen to write about From Push to Pull because I think it’s one of the most important as well as difficult shifts to make in an organisation. You can find signs of a push culture in many areas and on many different levels: that’s why I think it’s critical to start change here.

Basically, it’s only about whether you assign tasks to people or let them pick up work when they’re ready. Can’t be that difficult or important, right?

Well, I think it defines the workplace. Here are some typical characteristics in different areas. Continue reading →

The Agile PMO’s Dictionary

Seek first to understand, then to be understood – 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey

For some time, I’ve been collecting expressions that often lead to misunderstanding, confusion, or even frustration and conflicts. And these expressions clearly stand in the way of organisational and process improvement.

You always have a choice to either try to understand and find a way, or to spot flaws and come to a dead-end. Even though it’s the message that matters most, sometimes using a different word or expression will help carry your message further without confusion.

This Agile PMO dictionary should help you choose alternative expressions for some commonly misunderstood ones.

Continue reading →

From Push to Pull, Lesson One: Enterprise Communication

One of my first observations at my new job was that I had come to a very meeting- and mail-intense workplace. After one day my calendar was fully booked and my inbox flooded. I realised my big plans for fast changes would soon be shattered, since I would be so busy running to important meetings and reading even more important emails.

Having coworkers enthusiastically filling each other’s calendars and inboxes creates a destructive Push culture. These basic actions form whether someone else controls your time (Push) or you decide yourself how to make the best of it (Pull). Continue reading →

The Enterprise and Mob Programming

This post is about learnings and reflections of our mob programming teams from an enterprise perspective. Not so much about the benefits for the team itself, but the impact on the organisation and its processes, the obstacles that may appear, and the ways to navigate around those obstacles. Continue reading →

The Enterprise and Getting Things Done

In April 2010, the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull’s dramatic eruption caused an ash cloud that kept the travel industry in its vicious hands for several days. The closure of the european airspace resulted in 100,000 cancelled flights…

Seven years later, one morning in March, two meetings take place.

Meeting 1: Replanning of Enterprise Project X

Project X has been running for more than two years and has reached a serious state. The implementation involves 10+ teams and an external vendor. Not only are the budget, plans and scope dark red from a traditional PMO RAG status view, but energy and motivation are drained, teams are exhausted, and project management is lost. Continue reading →

Applied Kanban Values: Transforming the PMO

An agile PMO is really a contradiction; the PMO is a conservative enterprise project-centered administrative function. Not the first association that comes to mind when someone says agile.  At the same time, in a large company the PMO can provide a lot of valuable support.

So, in my new role as PMO Lead I thought I could do things differently. But after six months I found myself stuck in vicious circles of reporting and planning further and further away from the real work. (Meanwhile the real work didn’t exactly go in the right direction either…)

This story is about how I transformed my PMO role and what a more agile PMO could be like. Continue reading →