Crisp's BlogPage 25

Here follows a crash course how-to visualize the health of your CI server or live system. Buy a TellStick from Kjell & Company,  http://www.kjell.com/content/templates/shop_main_details.aspx?item=50200&path=&sms_ss=favorites&at_xt=4d336e97c742b49d,1. Buy a remote switch from Kjell & Company, http://www.kjell.com/content/templates/shop_main_details.aspx?item=50219&path=&sms_ss=favorites&at_xt=4d336ec00712cf8f,0. Buy your favorite lava lamp/warning light that will indicate the status of your project/live system. Install the TellStick software as described at

The Bun protocol ("Bullprotokollet" in Swedish) is a lightweight, decentralized request routing protocol. It is designed to be the simplest possible way to handle requests that are shared by a distributed group of people.

I introduced this to Crisp a few years ago because we had just create a lightweight recruitment process, and later when we were creating a lightweight sales process I saw many similarities. So I did an "extract to interface" refactoring and created this "Bun Protocol" :o)

• "Hmmm… we’re starting to get a lot of requests to teach training courses. How are we going to manage these?"
• "Let’s use the Bun Protocol for now!"
• "OK!"

We have used this protocol for all kinds of external client requests for years now, and it works surprisingly well, so I’d like to share it.

I have rounded up 10  (ahum..)  12 different kanban boards as used in operations, development, sales and marketing. Maybe it can help to spark some ideas.

I didn’t make the boards perfect, you need to think about what WIP limits and policies that fits you. After all, a system is best if it has been designed by the people who works in that context.

You can download it here

Hi there.

Just wanted to show you our latest widget: The TDD Pen.

You may think that it is an ordinary pen but it is not. When you hold this pen you immediately become a superb programmer. Not only will you write tests that cover all your code, you will also write bug-free code and refactor everything into stunning beauty!

You only have to figure out how to hold a pen in one hand and still type the keyboard without being embarrassingly slow. 🙂

Here are the slides for my session "Kanban and Scrum – making the most of both" at Øredev. Also includes the "extra" topics that didn’t fit into the timebox. Enjoy! There’s also a video recording of the whole session.

Here are the slides for my keynote at Øredev: "Software Development – an invisible proess (or The Power of Visualization)". Thanks for coming!

There are a lot of interesting experimentation going on within the kanban community regarding visualization. While I truly support this (seeing the problem is the key to understanding it’s nature) and find this promising and exciting, I doesn’t correspond all that well to the problems team’s I have helped have had to struggle with.

Let’s face it:

• What good do WIP limits do if there is no one ready to take a stand for them?
• What’s the added benefit if visualizing a problem that no one cares about solving?

So a question (going through my mind for quite a while) is: Shouldn’t we be expecting something from management, and if so, then what?

Here is the Russian translation of my book Kanban and Scrum – making the most of both. Thanks Mariia Yevgrashyna, Tanya Kobzar, Sergiy Movchan, Artjom Serdyuk, Borys Lebeda, Aleksey Solntsev, Alina Marusyk, Alexander Zhovnuvaty, Aleksey Goncharenko, Lina Shishkina, Roman Kononov, Tim Yevgrashyn, Yaroslav Gnatyuk, and Andrey Bibichev. If anyone else wants to make translations feel

Here are the slides from my seminar "Vad är ett agilt projekt" (What is an agile project) at PMI in Stockholm. I was happy to see so many participants, and impressed that you managed to stay awake & engaged despite the fact that it was an evening seminar with very comfortable chairs :o) "Vad är

We got some really cool workshops coming up during the next couple of months together with some of the "founding fathers" of Lean and Agile software development :o) David Anderson is the pioneer of Kanban in software development and author of the book Kanban – Successful evolutionary change for your technology business. Nov 8 –

Have you ever dealt with time reports? Filled them in? Approved them? Shuffled them around? Did it feel like well spent time? Can you imagine a world without time reports? Here’s the story about how we got rid of time reports at the company described in Scrum and XP from the Trenches. How we got

Ekonomen George Akerlof skrev 1970 en uppsats som beskrev informationsassymmetri i vad han kallade "Market For Lemons". Det exempel han använde var marknaden för begagnade bilar, där säljaren alltid vet mer om den bil som säljs än potentiella köpare. Säljaren vet oftast hur välskött den är, hur den körts, etc.

Köparen, däremot, har svårare att avgöra bilens kvaliteter. Visst, det finns ofta en servicehandbok han kan läsa, men hur är bilen körd? Buskörd av en yngling, eller av en försiktig 47-åring?

Detta skapar informationsassymmetri, vilket ger intressanta följder. Säljaren av en bra bil vill ha bra betalt, medan köparen sällan är villig att betala mer än för en bil som har genomsnittskvalitet. Detta gör att säljare av välskötta bilar missgynnas, vilket gör att de inte tycker det är lönt besväret. Kanske försöker de sälja bilen på annat sätt, exempelvis till en bekant som litar på kvaliteten. Detta betyder att de bästa bilarna sakta men säkert försvinner från den öppna marknaden, eftersom genomsnittspriset bara sjunker. Kvar blir bara dåliga bilar, och då har man fått en "Market For Lemons".

Denna terori om informationsassymetri gav Akerlof och två andra nobelpris i ekonomi 2001.

Men har detta någon som helst relevans för konsultmarknaden? Ja, jag menar det.

På mitt nuvarande uppdrag fick vi nyligen stora problem efter vi släppt senaste releasen. Jag försökte hjälpa till, men prestandaproblem är inte min starka sida. Det blev lätt att jag ville säga "Det där kan jag faktiskt inte".

Men vaddå "faktiskt"? Som om jag kunde allt annat, förutom prestandaproblem?

Here are the slides from my keynote “The Essence of Agile” from AgileEE 2010 in Kiev. Thanks for a great conference! Tbe Essence of Agile – PDF format The Essence of Agile – PPTX format Here’s a nice summary transcript of the session (thx Alexander Beletsky). Here is a video recording (minus the first 10

We have three interesting events coming up:

Kanban Training with David Anderson, Nov 8-9
– Learn how to introduce Kanban in your organisation from the source: David Anderson.

Kanban Coach Camp with David Anderson & Mattias Skarin, Nov 10-11
– As a kanban practitioner, evolve your skill in incremental improvement

Second generation Lean product development – as if economics matter, Don Reinertsen, Dec 2-3
– As a CEO or business owner, learn the principles and economics driving product development

We are especially pleased to welcome Don Reinertsen to Stockholm, he has been on our "people that we really have to bring to Stockholm" list for a long time! Don is author of one of our favorite books "Managing the Design Factory", and his teachings have been a key source of inspiration to other thought leaders such as Mary Poppendieck and David Anderson.

Don is keen on making us differentiate between Lean for manufacturing and Product development, and points out that understanding the economics involved helps us improve way beyond charters and improve our decision making. Be aware, you will not leave untouched.

  …or "how we learned the right process needed to solve our problems".

I presented at Lean & Kanban Europe yesterday. It was great to meet people from so many disciplines, Here are my slides.

Once upon a time all we had was java.util.Date and it was not good… then Sun introduced java.util.Calendar, and it got worse! How often do you sit at your keyboard and wonder how you can avoid writing date manipulation code just because you hate to look at the resulting mess? Maybe your project uses service or utility classes to hide the ugliness, but you know it’s still there. Well, stop hiding, there’s something better: Joda-Time!

Continue reading

Here are the slides from Mary Poppendieck’s seminar "Social-Technical Systems" at Crisp. And here’s the video presentation on "The surprising truth about what motivates us". Mandatory for anyone involved in managing people or setting up incentive systems! Thanks for coming!

First week of September we had Christian visiting us and demonstrating how Danish National IT & Telecom agency have utlized Agile contracts in real projects. I took the time to ask some questions to Christian about Agile contracts.

I have had the pleasure to hold a lightning talk for the Agila Sverige conference in Stockholm about “Scaling Scrum in the Enterprise with Kanban”.The talk went well but the format (10 minutes) made it more like an elevator pitch. You can find an enhanced – somewhat longer – version of the slides used during

To: English readers, this blogpost is about the ideal team-room, and I might post a translated version later.
Alltför ofta underskattas vikten av den fysiska miljön för effektivt teamsamarbete.
En konsekvens av detta förutom dåligt teamsamarbete är ett enormt och ständigt otillfredställt behov av konferensrum.
Med ett bra team-rum rätt utrustat minimerar detta behov, samtidigt som man får effektiva team. 
I denna bloggpost går jag igenom vilka krav jag tycker man skall ställa på en bra teamarbetsmiljö och hur man uppfyller dem.

Here are the slides from my keynote "The Thinking Tool Called Agile" from the Lean/Agile/Scrum conference in Zurich. The Thinking Tool Called Agile – PDF The Thinking Tool Called Agile – Powerpoint The slides from the value stream workshop with Mary Poppendieck and myself will be up on the LAS site soon.

In this day and age with unstable economics, constant change in how to work with software, new languages and databases popping up from nowhere, it is important to cement yourself into your position at work.

Follow this guide and be sure of never being fired, no matter what.Continue reading

Here are the slides from my keynote at the Scrum Gathering in Cape Town. What to do when Scrum doesn’t work – PDF What to do when Scrum doesn’t work – Powerpoint What to do when Scrum doesn’t work – Article Positive atmosphere and lots of laughs, really enjoyed the audience! The whole topic felt

Here are the slides from my deep-dive workshop at the Scrum Gathering, Cape Town: Kanban for Scrum practitioners, PDF format Kanban for Scrum practitioners, Powerpoint format Thanks for attending! Lots of interesting questions and insights came up during the workshop. Sample slide:

Hi

There is much talk about designing Agile contracts. What is missing I feel is experience from the field. So I brought in Christian Vindinge Rasmussen @  Danish Ministry of IT and Telecom, who have used Agile contracts as a client to software project for four years. Enjoy!

www.crisp.se/agilecontracts

On Sep 16-17 Tom & Mary Poppendieck will once again come to Stockholm and teach a lean course with me. "Leading Lean Software Development" is aimed at leaders in organisations that are serious about succeeding with Lean software development. The course also includes an evening seminar on Sep 15. Save SEK 2000 by registering this

Here are the slides for my session Kanban and Scrum – making the most of both at Agile 2010, Orlando. Thanks for participating! Slides in PDF format – if you don’t have powerpoint Slides in Powerpoint format – if you want the animations  Translations: Japanese slides in Powerpoint format (thx Kiro Harada) For those who

There’s a Scala User Group in Gothenburg that had several meetings during this summer.  In one of the meetings the group solved a Kata named KataRomanNumerals (A Kata is a small problem that you do over and over again to learn) The KataRomanNumerals says you should write a function to convert from normal numbers to