The path of a rock star normally begins in a garage. Long before performing in packed arenas, musicians toil in local venues, scrape together the money to release an EP or two, hone their sound and pray they attract a record label. Rockers travel along an incremental path, making numerous adjustments before reaching stardom. The…
Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. -Tom Peters Though just a teenager, Joan of Arc rallied the support of men and women alike and catalyzed a French revival during the Hundred Years’ War. Mahatma Gandhi, leading by example, guided India to independence through non-violence. Martin Luther King, Jr. demonstrated fierce courage and determination…
The reason many people dread Monday mornings can be seen in Douglas McGregor’s observation that “The conventional conception of management’s task in harnessing human energy to organizational requirements can be stated broadly in terms of three propositions.” It’s that word: harnessing. Even though few people have direct experience with using a harness to affix old…
Recently, we saw a picture of cows grazing peacefully at the foot of the Bøyabreen glacier in Fjærland, Norway. The stark black and white photo dates to 1890-1910. The cows stand among sod-roofed sheds and barns in a scene in which everyone appears totally unaware of the approaching river of ice. The pace of change…
When developing a product or software, one of the most important questions to ask is “What do we make first?” Popular approaches that help answer this question include Test-driven Development, Dynamic Systems Development, Crystal and Feature-driven Development. Since value is a primary reason for any organization to move forward with a project, Scrum emphasizes Value-driven…
User Stories adhere to a specific, predefined structure and are a simplistic way of documenting the requirements and desired end-user functionality. A User Story tells you three things about the requirement: Who, What, and Why. The requirements expressed in User Stories are short, simple, and easy-to-understand statements. The predefined, standard format results in enhanced communication…
Anyone who has taken an introductory psychology course is likely familiar with the work of a man named Abraham Maslow. Outside of Egypt, his pyramid is one of the best around. In 1943, Maslow presented a hierarchy illustrating that different people are at different levels in their needs. People usually start out looking to meet…
The Daily Scrum is one of the most important aspects of the Scrum framework. Scrum’s transparency comes from openly viewable information tools such as the Scrumboard, which shows the progress of the team. The team uses a Scrumboard to plan and track progress during each Sprint. The Scrumboard usually contains four to five columns to…
The Scrum framework is driven by the goal of delivering maximum business value in a minimum time span. One of the most effective tools for delivering the greatest value in the shortest amount of time is prioritization. Prioritization can be defined as “Determination of the order and separation of what must be done now, from…
You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. -John Lydgate In professional sports, whether you’re a benchwarmer or a superstar, when you become a “cancer” it is more…
