Agile

The Detriments of Context Switching

Here is a great article on the detriments of context switching: https://blog.rescuetime.com/context-switching/ Research has shown that we lose 20% of our productivity when switching between contexts. We all know the experience of switching between different tasks, projects, tools, etc. We may not always be aware of how detrimental it is when it happens too often. …

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Agile Best Practices

Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping While preparing for the PMI-ACP exam, I was introduced to Value Stream Mapping in Mike Griffith’s PMI-ACP Exam Prep book. Determined to give it an immediate try, I enlisted the help of my colleague, Piya Mewa, a business analyst on my team. Together we visualized the value stream for a feature our …

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Agile Management

The Agile Value Proposition

The Agile Value Proposition What is the value of Agile? Maybe you find yourself on a team that is using an Agile framework, such as Scrum. Maybe your team mutually decided to work in an Agile manner. Or maybe it has been prescribed by your management. Maybe you’re not very clear as to WHY your team …

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Career Development

Maybe You Need a Coach

Paul Cecala - Career Coach

(Photo:  Paul Cecala presenting at the PMINJ Career Fair on October 18, 2019) Maybe You Need a Coach Are you feeling stuck in your career? Have you lost a sense of direction? Have circumstances changed in your job and you don’t know what to do now? Well, maybe you need a coach. Let me tell you …

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Agile Career Development

I am a PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)

(Mike Griffiths’ book is an excellent study guide for the PMI-ACP exam.) PMI Agile Certified Practitioner I passed the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) exam yesterday. This is PMI’s fastest growing certification. It’s value is becoming more significant as the trend toward Agile in many companies continues. (Click the image above to see details on …

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Agile The Scrum Diaries

The Scrum Diaries – #8: A Happy Stakeholder

The Scrum Diaries

EMAIL March 8, 2019 From: Business Stakeholder Subject: Thank You for New System X Functionality! Dear Scrum Team:   I’m happy to report that the work for the Business Product Board has been completed. We are using the System X process that you worked so hard to put into production.  Also, the Product Board is …

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Agile The Scrum Diaries

The Scrum Diaries – #7: The Product Demo

The Scrum Diaries

The Product Demo In my first Scrum Diary post (“The Scrum Diaries – #1: Steps in the Right Direction”) I wrote about the first product demo we conducted for our business partners. At that time we discovered that there was actually another team of folks who primarily used our application. It was suggested that we …

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Agile The Scrum Diaries

The Scrum Diaries – #6: Improving Our Sprint Retrospectives

The Scrum Diaries

Improving Our Sprint Retrospectives In previous Scrum Diary entries I’ve written about efforts to help my team understand the value of Scrum events. The team became interested in conducting a Sprint Retrospective. (Read “The Scrum Diaries – #4: Empowerment”.) I’ve been emphasizing our need to have retrospectives on a recurring basis for each sprint. With …

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Agile The Scrum Diaries

The Scrum Diaries – #5: Logistics

The Scrum Diaries

Logistics This entry is very simple. It’s just a short list of pain points my team is experiencing. Pain points that we are finding difficult to solve primarily due to enterprise environmental factors. These difficulties are all related to logistics. Pain Points Here are our challenges: DevOps – By DevOps I mean activities like code …

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