Articles for category: Delivery

June 27, 2023

Greg Thomas

The Gap Between Codes and Tickets

There is much discussion about what is written in a ticket and what is actually coded. In some cases, there is alignment, in others, it’s a quick close and onto the next ticket. In this case, the ticket doesn’t tell the story. The solution isn’t to shut down the world while you’re building and reworking all your tickets. The solution is to ensure there is alignment on what the final solution and if there is some “figuring out to do” while you’re coding, to update the ticket after the fact. When teams do this, not only do the developers know

June 21, 2023

Greg Thomas

Where Agile Burndowns Break

We all aim for the lines to intersect on a Burndown, and if we’re doing it right they intersect in the middle. The goal of course is to start with what you work on and finish it by the end of your sprint. The problem with Burndown charts is that if you add work, they don’t change, the math is the same as any history says – you add more work to do in a short time frame, and some of it isn’t getting done without herculean efforts. But regardless, we run the burndown and spend all of 30 seconds

June 20, 2023

Greg Thomas

The Farmer’s Advice

If you want to reap the benefits in four months, you can’t start the week before, the month before, two months, or three months before. They’ve done the math, they know the equation, and there are no shortcuts, it’s a simple matter of working backward and starting from the date you want to deliver on. That’s the first part. The second part is doing the little bits, the daily tasks, each day, that will make the four-month journey possible. Miss a day, push out the date. Forget to water for a week, start over on some, and may you’ll make

June 18, 2023

Greg Thomas

Extending Sprints

If you don’t get your work done in a week… we can’t add the eighth or ninth day… all we can do is try again the next week, starting again on Sunday or Monday (in my case, the week always begins anew on a Thursday). The same with Sprints – once you set the duration – that’s what you’re working within in – if you do or don’t get it done – that’s part of the process. To figure out what you need to tweak for next time, to figure out what you have to change. If you keep extending

June 16, 2023

Greg Thomas

Swing for the Fences

I know bunts and singles are good. I know they make sense from a numbers perspective. But whenever I played baseball, I always had to swing for the fences at least once a game. Sometimes you just have to evaluate the right pitch, speed, and velocity, give it your all – and swing for the fences.

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