Best Kanban Books

Looking for a good Kanban book? Here's a share of my recommended selection.

Introduction to Scrum Basics in Less than 10 Minute - My collection Favorites

There are so many short, less than 10 minutes scrum introduction videos. Here's my favorite collection to choose from to learn or train for the basics of the scrum development framework.

"leaders who don’t acknowledge their limitations are doomed to fail"

Why do people stop believing in a leader they once followed with confidence?  Why did a successful leader failed in some point and succeeded in others? There are warning signs as in life that intended for our good. They protect us from disaster, and we would be foolish to ignore them. Each of us has limitations, just as each of us has potential. From personal limitation, market changes, common leadership knowledge … all of these might break a leader and drive him to the slippery slope of failure. So what are those limitation and to overcome them?  

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis using is a key part of any business planning or analysis. It allows you to create a plan of action based not on what you’re interested in doing or on your gut-feel, but what you need to do given the situation in the marketplace. In this Roojoom you'll find a SWOT explained a long with templates, Case study and even advanced SWOT usages such as personal SWOT.

CMMI & Agile Friends or Foes?

While Agile principles and practices have been followed for many years, there is increasing confusion as to whether Agile practices can supplement CMMI process areas. We are learning that the traditional ways of developing process need improvement, we are learning that agilehas a lot to do with improving that.

CMMI exists for one reason: To make Engineering and Software Development Better 

(Regardless of what process you decide to use)  It isn’t about LEVELS! Both CMMI and Agile are about solving Business Problems.

CMMI and Agile can complement each other in ways that enhance each other. 

Getting Started with Atlassian Greenhopper

This Roojoom is targeted at new Scrum and Kanban teams that are looking to get started quickly with  GreenHopper-a fine agile tool. This Roojoom  will explore the tool and methodologies.

The Roles of Scrum Master and Project Manager Debate

The roles of Scrum Master and Project Manager continue to be the center of a debate and confusion as the majority of organizations undergo some degree of Agile transformation. The Scrum Master does not play the part of the traditional project manager. In fact, the Scrum Master is an entirely new role. The Scrum Master and project manager roles are completely different. They both hold characters that clearly distinguish between the two roles and therefore are not suited to be combined.

Retrospective Exercises

Feedback is a cornerstone of Agile approaches. It's the important pause teams regularly take to "inspect-and-adapt", to learn and improve.  Great retrospectives have a way of really getting a team to work together and to energize them ahead of a new challenge. Running one retrospective is easy, but even a good retrospective can become boring in time.  There are lot’s of creative, amazing and fun ways to do retrospectives. Here is a fine collection as recommended by  the agile world professionals.

Dialogue Mapping - Another Fine Collaborative Tool

“Dialogue Mapping is a radically inclusive facilitation process that creates a diagram or ‘maps' that during the discussion in a meeting, captures participants' comments as a meeting conversation unfolds. Dialogue Mapping creates forward progress in situations that have been stuck; it clears the way for robust decisions that last. It is effective because it works with the non-linear way humans really think, communicate, and make decisions…”

In this Roojoom will cover the technique a long with some examples and real “how-to’s”.

Enjoy :)

One Piece Flow - There is no Place for Problems to Hide

One-Piece flow is one of the most important principles of lean manufacturing. In simple words it means To finish building one product before starting to build the next. That is, the right parts can be made in the right quantity at the right time. Once work on a product begins, it should never go back into storage, and it should never stop moving until it is a finished product.  This principle leads to the elimination of batches. When we eliminate batches, we complete a product sooner. Let’s explore what  is it and how it works (Including its implementation in software development).

Lean Humor Collection

Lean can also be fun. Here’s a Roojoom with a fine collection of lean humor, funny production lines and more lean related amusing videos. I usually use that stuff during workshops and training sessions.

So… Enjoy

What Moves the World Forward? The Production Lines.

I love production lines; i think assembly line is one of the important invention ever. Its the motion that moves the world forward and without this continues flow of material to product we would have been left with a lot less then we have today: from food , to machines, technology, close , house and whatever you may think of. I like the way people think of improvements, team work and early feedback as part of having a better and efficient production line.  Here is a collection of my favorite with some of the finest exists, new technologies and production line brake throe and .. Some oldies.

Dealing with The unknown? You can "Spike" your Backlog

Spikes are a really good way for teams to figure out stuff that they don't know and need to know in order to understand the complexity so that it can be properly estimated, or quoted on or simply to find out if something is technically possible or not. [agilebuddy]. The work is not focused on the finished product. It may even be designed to be thrown away at the end. When do you need a spike? When no shippable product is the goal,  What god comes out of it after all?

Are you limited by Yesterday’s Tester Job Defininition?

Automated testers?! Everything changes for them. What is that new mindset expected form them? How are they expected to integrate a good automation framework with agile concepts? what are the “new” skills needed?  and how do they deal with all types of tests in the agile environment?  JoEllen had this to say: "Be aware of the change in mindset/culture. Experiment with modern tools. Keep the big picture of the application in mind and consider individual user stories within the bigger context. Think holistically, and encourage the rest of the team to do so as well."

Agile & Scrum Smells

Scrum Smells are signs that something might be wrong. Those are symptoms in a process 'that possibly indicates a deeper problem.  It doesn’t always mean the bad smell is indicative of a true problem, but most times it is" [charlesbradley]. Here's a fine collection from the web of more than just a few scrum smells.

The Manager Role in Scrum - Just Get Rid of ‘em All?!

In complex, dynamic environments such as software development, Traditional management approach tends to break down.  A common misconception about agile is that managers are unnecessary. After all, agile is based on self-organizing teams.  A frequently cited barrier to agile adoption is managers who don't know what to do when their teams become self-managing. In simplest terms, the manager in Scrum is less of a "nanny" for the Team and more of a mentor or "guru," helping them learn, grow and perform. So who are they and what is expected from those managers?

ATDD Tools

ATDD isn't about a tool. “ATDD is about making sure that your development team develops the right product. A particular tool may  help you in doing that, but it will also expose problems in your approach if you started on the wrong foot”. Assuming you built a working approach here’s a relevant information about some tools that may come handy.

Look at the Dark Side: Coaching - How NOT to do it!

Over the past decade, it has become more popular to hire coaches for executives, personal coach, life coach and many types of coaches. No doubt these people help their clients improve their performance in many areas. But in some situations, coaches who lack the proper psychological training or proper techniques and knowledge might do more harm than good. Sometimes by just not understand coaches can make bad situation worse or in the least case, spend your money for nothing. Let’s see then, how not to do it.

From Good to Great

"Built To Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the very beginning. Over five years, Jim Collins and his research team have analyzed the histories of 28 companies, discovering why some companies make the leap and others don't."

But some say it’s not that good or great and some implement it till that day in a variety of ways. Here it is, you judge.

The Definition of Ready in Agile Development

Ready stories are the output of the product backlog grooming work.   A “ready” item should be clear, feasible and testable. Ready items can be then pulled into the sprint and quickly turned into a product increment. but "ready"concept should apply to the entire life cycle (ready Sprint, story,backlog..  whatever). What Ready really means is that when its ready you have a productivity booster , defects reducer (prevention) and waste reducer. How to we get there? What a Ready Story Looks Like?

Are You the T Shape Person We're Looking For?

Innovative companies look for people who not only have disciplinary knowledge and would be able to do a specific task but also for people who know how to effectively collaborate and build on other people’s ideas.  A T-shaped man is, in short, a jack-of-all-trades, but a master of one.

What to Look For in the Agile Candidate?

If you are an HR recruiter, and this is your first intake with an agile candidate? What should you look for and ask this person to know if he is a good fit to the agile mindset?

Gen X Gen Y in the Modern Workplace. How Does it Work?

Gen Y has become one of the generations that's most open to change of any that came before. Gen Y'ers want stimulating work that gives them lots of opportunity for change and growth, both personally and professionally. Gen Y loves Agile but will Gen X be able to handle?  Gen Y developers will manage to work productively in an Agile way if they are well guided. It will demand a more supportive organization culture and structure and the Agile team needs to get the full trust, otherwise it won’t work. This demands a dramatic attitude change of Gen X.   And who are those Zder”s?

RASCI -Responsibility Assignment

Using this model, you can define which people should be Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, or Informed in a project, for a set of tasks or deliverables. It keeps everybody on the same page on who is accountable for a particular task. Keeps all the necessary people in the loop and reduces miscommunications. There are some issues with this model when we go agile, but it is defiantly a good initial step for roles visualization and understanding. It can also work as a good workshop toll and eventually create discussion and agreement over collaborative effort.

BDD -Behavior Driven Development

“Behavior-driven development (BDD) is an agile software development technique that encourages collaboration between developers, QA and non-technical or business participants BDD focuses on obtaining a clear understanding of desired software behavior through discussion. It extends TDD by writing test cases in a natural language in combination with the ubiquitous language of domain-driven design and describe the purpose and benefit of their code. This allows the developers to focus on why the code should be created, rather than the technical details.”

Coaching Books List

There are lots of books related to coaching out there – few of them are really worth reading. From the life coaching area to executive and mangers coaching and on to other areas. Here are some books I find to recommend.

The Whiner - A Productivity Reducer

Most creative teams are going to have at least one member who’s a whiner. Whiner’s focus on the negative, and thrive on complaining – often about the most insignificant things you can imagine. Complainers don't just waste their own time; they also consume the time of the other people (including you). Complainers also spread a toxic negativity, making it more difficult for everyone to get their jobs done. And sometimes, they are worth listening to. So how do we deal with them, and how do we distinguish between winners and whiners?

Facilitating Meetings & Workshops Techniques

Meeting won’t bring the results you want just by brining a bunch of smart people together. Groups are more complex. What can we do? Effective facilitation will get the results you thought you are capable to bring. Good facilitation skills cannot just “be taught” – they need to be learned.  There are thousands of good techniques and ore then just a few facilitation Tips to make our meetings, workshop or virtual meetings productive, participative, friendly, cooperative... and fun! Go and see inside.

ATDD - "Acceptance Test Driven Development"

Many teams struggle with the discussion of acceptance criteria of user stories and building a shared understanding about the expected outcomes. TDD can help to address these challenges. ATDD stands for "acceptance test driven development" Analogous to test-driven development, this practice consists in the use of automated acceptance tests with the additional constraint that these tests be written in advance of implementing the corresponding functionality. The whole team collaboratively discusses acceptance criteria, with examples.