The value of value stream mapping in software engineering

Charan/ March 15, 2015/ Agile/ 0 comments

“We are Agile. We don’t need to follow a process”, declared Chris. Tina was aghast. “How do you think we deliver solutions, Chris?” “What do you mean? We do Agile. We follow Scrum. We don’t follow processes like the Waterfall guys do.  We neither need a whole lot of planning nor documentation. We don’t do BDUF (big design upfront). We love

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Kanban your way to breakthrough profitability

Charan/ July 19, 2014/ Agile/ 0 comments

Kanbans are an unbelievably simple way to improve throughput. It does not require you to begin with significant change which most process improvement initiatives do. It helps you experiment within your span of control and learn through those simple non-threatening experiments.

Transforming from waterfall to agile

Charan/ January 12, 2013/ Agile/ 4 comments

Introducing agility into traditional systems development processes is never easy. Firstly, you have got to want to change. Secondly, you need to have a vision of what to change to. Finally, you need the tenacity to forge ahead in the face of stiff resistance. It is usually the third that is the most difficult journey to undertake. The hardest part

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The power of pull

Charan/ August 13, 2012/ Agile/ 1 comments

Joe sighed and returned to his desk. He had been waiting for Jane to provide him with information for the last two days. If Jane could only take a few hours to do it, he could get on with his work and check it off his list. Instead he would now have to wait for a week before Jane can

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Scope creep? Bring it on

Charan/ May 21, 2012/ Agile/ 1 comments

Ask any project manager the reasons why projects fail and one of the reasons cited will definitely be scope creep. But is scope creep really that bad? I don’t think so. Your view of the scope creep will depend on how you manage projects. You can manage projects as a contract or you can collaborate. I think there will be

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You’ve got more capacity than you think

Charan/ May 11, 2012/ Agile/ 0 comments

In the current era of economic uncertainty, there is no dearth of gloom and doom news. Europe, Asia, the Americas all have fallen like dominoes to the credit crisis of 2008. Austerity measures have been put in place in a number of countries. Economies are spiraling downward. There is talk of the breakup of the Eurozone with Greece being the

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Flow in traditional project management process

Charan/ March 4, 2012/ Agile/ 0 comments

Traditional project management works this way: Charter the project – include scope, ROM budget and ROM timelines Create a business requirements document. All requirements needs to be documented upfront and signed off by the customer. To me this is a contract that says what we will deliver. Architect then designs the solution. S/he provides technical specification to developers. Somewhere along

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Implement Kanban: Implement virtuous cycle of ongoing improvement

Charan/ February 19, 2012/ Agile/ 2 comments

The hardest thing about implementing the Kanban is the paradigm shift in policies it leads to. “How can just visualizing work and limiting work improve throughput?” It’s so counter-intuitive. However, the very act of visualizing and limiting work highlights bottlenecks as they appear, giving you a chance to fix things before they become big issues. Implementing Kanban enterprise-wide, however, will

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Predict project failure using cumulative flow diagrams

Charan/ February 12, 2012/ Agile/ 5 comments

One of the biggest challenges I face as a project manager is the ability to predict the project or program’s future. What impact would the change request have on the project? Are we going fast enough to meet the program deadlines? Are the team’s estimates good enough? Assuming the team will meet most of its estimates, what can we do

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