Agile tips

A few years ago I worked with a product team who were keen to try using a pull model for their work. The idea is that instead of a product manager or tech lead pushing tasks to individuals, each team member has the autonomy to pull a task when they are ready to pick something up. The product manager should already be working on a prioritised backlog, with the highest … [Read more...] about How the pull model can make a Kanban board run smoothly

The classic, simplest Kanban board has three columns: This is fine to get started, particularly when the board doesn’t have many items on it. However, keeping the pure 3 column layout can mean you have many tasks sitting in the “In progress” column, and it’ll be harder to find out why. Splitting “In progress” into more columns can help to understand where things are. … [Read more...] about Why you shouldn’t have a Blocked column

Every task should deliver value. But until the task is Done, that value is only potential. Think of a feature that is partly built and not finished, or awaiting code review, or that has merge conflicts. At the sprint review, stakeholders ask about the feature. “Well, it’s nearly done.” For stakeholders - or indeed any user of your product - until it’s done, they … [Read more...] about Why teams should focus on the right side of the Kanban board

In “How to prioritise when everything is a priority”, I talked about risks: Risks: areas where there is uncertainty, and that could trip you up if they are looked at too late. Picking these up sooner gets them out of the way and helps increase confidence in completing the remainder of the stories. It’s normal for a new team to feel that there is uncertainty everywhere. … [Read more...] about Using spikes to gain confidence in stories