Agile

Creating the Best Environment for Succeeding at Agile:Part 1 of 2

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From one manager to another – you need to rethink your model of leadership. Agile Software development has its roots in iterative product development characterised by small, autonomous teams that are highly empowered. As early as 1986, Harvard Business professor of Strategy Hirota Takeuchi proposed changing the “relay race” or sequential approach of product development …

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University of Pretoria Guest Lecture: Agile in SA Organisations

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I presented to the MIT850 students at UP about the state of Agile in South African organisations. The slides and video of the lecture are below as well as the overall outline of the presentation; IT Projects Today Sample Survey Results (these questions were provided before the lecture) Evolution of Agile Thinking (the 8 pre-read papers …

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Being agile at becoming Agile, child's play right?

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The Agile Manifesto is not the 10 commandments, it’s principles; much like 50 shades of kid’s parties…. what? Software development is essentially a creative process requiring far more social psychology than many development methodologies allow for, even Agile ones. Some thought leaders argue that Agile software projects are like complex adaptive systems (CAS); related agents interacting in an environment of continually changing conditions. …

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Agile and DevOps, Cousins of Collaboration

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Africa DevOps Day was hosted by Barclays in Johannesburg recently; I spoke about experimental agility at scale using the recent FNB CodeFest as an example. DevOps seeks to drive increased levels of collaboration between developers and operations; much like the way Agile values “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. In his talk, Thomas Enoch …

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“Leadership and Agile” – My zero-text slides from Scrum Gathering 2015

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Top 3 takeaways: Agile environments in large organisations are unique and require effective leadership from management Management operates on transactional leadership; creates conflicts with Agile principles of empowerment It is possible for Agile teams to influence upwards; it is possible for management to adopt Agile successfully Slide 1 – Leadership is everything that comes to mind when …

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FNB CodeFest: Highlights from the coolest IT sprint in the FirstRand Group – Part 1

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“I was blown away by the energy and progressive thinking … world leading … streets ahead”; these comments from a business colleague after our second FNB CodeFest last week, read on to see why he felt that way. No matter how well you plan something or bring an expert team together, there’s a special magic …

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Codefests should also accelerate in-flight projects

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Prototyping new technology is exciting and important but speeding up current projects is equally valuable to business. A colleague emailed me this week about the next FNB codeFest which is being held 28 Sept – 2 Oct. She explained her team was keen to get involved but it would put strain on a big release that was …

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Transactional leadership and Agile; conflict or contrast?

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Also known as the management style of leadership, its principles and Agile’s seem at odds but does it really matter? Self-organising teams, building projects around individuals, giving them the environment they need and trusting them to get the job done. These are some concepts found in the principles of the Agile Manifesto, the widely accepted founding document …

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Codefests (aka Hackathons): What are they and why do them?

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It’s about rapid innovation with software, and a South African version even produced a solution that could stop patients dying in long hospital queues. One of the principles of Agile software development is to rapidly create working software rather than wait for detailed designs. The quicker you can prototype a concept, the faster you create a feedback loop between the development …

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