Do you Know Your Personal Values?

Personal values are the general expression of what is most important for us and the essence of who we are. 
Our values help guide us in our daily decisions, Choice, Behavior and motivate us. When you'll get them right you'll be swift and focused, with clear direction. Get them wrong or leave them ambiguous and you'll constantly wonder how you got into this mess. Though when we are not true to our values we tend to feel uncomfortable and unfulfilled.

User stories Business Value

Although it may look easy user story business value might be really hard to measure. Where do we need to start, do we need to assign value to tons of small user stories ending up with lots of waste? What are the problems with assigning business value? How do we know the business value? And how do we assign it?

User Stories: How to write an effective user story? @BAEXPERTS

Medici Effect - Diversity drives innovation

The Medici Effect is an idea developed by Frans Johansson that promotes diversity (of cultures, backgrounds, industries etc.) as the best way to produce groundbreaking innovation.

Adjacent Possible - Piecing together innovation

.And ending with ideas that you never have thought to invent. "The adjacent possible is a kind of shadow future, hovering on the edges of the present state of things, a map of all the ways in which the present can reinvent itself. The strange and beautiful truth about the adjacent possible is that its boundaries grow as you explore them. Each new combination opens up the possibility of other new combinations. "Steven Johnson

Story Points

In simple terms its a number that tells the team how hard the story is. Hard could be related to complexity, Unknowns and effort. this roojoom explains this concept and, do we do it? whats the relation between time estimate and user stories sizing? and how do we scale?

Sprint Forecasting vs. Sprint Commitment

There has been much debate about whether a team, at the start of a sprint, commits to a sprint , to a goal, or merely forecasts what they currently understand will be completed by the end of a sprint. What is it then? Is commitment long gone (2011 scrum guide)? Is it such really a bad idea to commit? What do we commit to then? To a goal? To improve? To learn? Here is how it works.  

Measure Throughput ? ! - It focuses on delivered value.

Throughput what is it? And how and why use it in agile project? 

Throughput focuses on delivered value. It measures how effectively the system moves the Investment value through the system . It seeks to maximize the efficiency of the flow. Throughput is not commonly used in software development, but is becoming more reverent with the introduction of lean concepts.

This is how it works:

The Impact of Agile. Quantified. @RallySoftware

Rally Software series on the Impact of Agile (Quantified) for the aspects of: Process Choices, Team Stability, Team size and WIP. Here are the findings:

'Lean Coffee' - Run a lightweight, structured meeting

Are your meetings out of scope? Does your boss sets the agenda and there are urgent issues that everyone else knows the group needs to discuss, but they aren’t front-of-mind for the boss, so they’re not on the agenda?

 Learn how to use Lean Coffee to run a lightweight, structured, agenda-less meeting.  A meeting format where people build an agenda at the beginning of the meeting and talking about the important stuff .

Agile Hardware - We’re Not That Different After All!

What are the issues of applying Agile in hardware development?  Can the agile values and principles that guide agile software teams guide hardware development as well?  Or are the differences between these two disciplines too great? After all Hardware developers tend to see software development as a foreign land with odd people, languages, tools and techniques. Well, we’re not so deferent after all, and agile can be applied to hardware considering specific hardware related aspects; after all agile is a mindset with some great offerings. 

Facilitating Transparency ,Trust and Openness in Coaching

We must model transparency so that our leader clients can step fully into their own style and substance in a meaningful and authentic way.” we must also gain their trust and establish a healthy and open relationship as part of the coaching journeyer. but how?

Kaizen & Kaikaku: Changes for the Good & Break Through with Innovation

While kaizen means change for the better, kaikaku means reform or innovate and has been taken as referring to large change. So when use what?

The GROW model of Coaching

The GROW (Goals , Reality, Options, Wil ): 

The primary role of any coach is to raise both the awareness of an individual to their situation by asking searching and clarifying questions and to ensure that the individual takes personal responsibility to actively pursue any resulting actions. The coach is present to help the individual work out what needs to be done, not to provide the answer.

Cover Story Game

Cover Story is an exercise in visioning. The purpose is to think expansively around an ideal future state for the organization.This game is worth playing because it not only encourages people to “think big,” but also actually plants the seeds for a future that perhaps wasn’t possible before the game was played.

Radically Transparent Organization Culture.

Only few people have confidence in their leaders or mangers. Becoming completely, radically transparent is one of the answers for those issues. When people know why something's happening, and have all the information they could possibly want or need, they don't waste time. People that know why something's being done perform better than people simply told to carry out a task. It’s not easy, and it’s not like a switch you can flip on and instantly motivate employees. But the idea of everyone knowing everything could actually be a major driver of increased organizational performance.

The problem with Performance Appraisal as a Rating Device

Thought by Luis Goncalves ( @lgoncalves1979) Traditionally, companies think that objective measurement can happen within an appraisal process, but is this really true? Performance Appraisals are inaccurate, blends with Stereotype thinking and personal influence. In fact true employee performance has nothing to do with the final “evaluation”.

Curiosity- the restlessness of seeking knowledge

We tend to dismiss curiosity as a childish, but it can actually give us profound advantages.

Companies that want to grow improve and avoid stagnancy need curious people. It isn’t a luxury or a bonus; it should be a core part of your business strategy. (Forbes)

 Curiosity, though, is about more than keeping an open mind. Curious people are ‘seekers’ — they not only enjoy new experiences, but actively look for challenges.it is a muscle that every person brings with them but curiosity can also fade.

What does it look like? What are its benefits? How to encourage it? 

Evolving to Multiban - Visualize all levels of work

With Kanban, a board is just one board to which the cards are pinned. With Multiban, a board is a slate of switchable data axes (or lanes), with custom intersections. Multiban, as the visual process management system, is presented by a set of views, reports, controls and boards that comply with any diversity, and any complexity of workflow, or organizational structure. It a visualization evolution.  Here it is: 

Rapid-Application-Development (RAD) & Agile

"Rapid application development (RAD) is a software development methodology that uses minimal planning in favor of rapid prototyping. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself. The lack of extensive pre-planning generally allows software to be written much faster, and makes it easier to change requirements." Where does RAD fit in the project development regarding agile (and waterfall) ?

Kaizen Boards

The Kaizen board is a tool to implement improvement ideas. It guides to initiate new ideas with and develop them from idea to done following the PDCA philosophy.

Here's how it’s done..

Top 10 Characteristics of an Agile Organization:

@RallySoftware

Agile for the Whole Organization

“Agility is the ability of an organization in whole, or in part as required, to  Transform it competently in order to manage or exploit a new situation. 

Systemic agility is achieved by preparing people culturally for change and Structuring flexibility for change into the processes, systems and infrastructure that they use. “

From software development to being agile everywhere… how to do it? Here are recommendations from the best.

What yours?

In 59 seconds: Think a little - Change a lot!

59 Seconds exposes self-help myths, and presents scientifically proven techniques that help you achieve your aims and ambitions in less than a minute. From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, and resilience to relationships, 59 Seconds presents the new science of rapid change.

#jidoka -'automation with a human touch' - manufacturing excellence

It is about Quality.  It’s about stopping whenever an abnormal condition is detected, fixing the defect, and then counter measuring to prevent further occurrences.  Quality must be built in during the manufacturing process! Here’s expiation and some real life examples.