Articles for category: Delivery

August 9, 2021

Greg Thomas

Why are we late?

Easily, the most asked question in software. The answer, not as easy to come by and is different for every company and team out there. It can range from the dev team to product management to support to sales to someone being sick to code not working to platform problems to project issues to anything and anything and anything. That was a very long rambling sentence, but you get the idea, it’s not easy to answer. When asked this question, my gut check, instant response is always the same. Good question, better question – who knew when we were going

August 7, 2021

Greg Thomas

Managing Your Backlog

One of the most difficult tasks of a software manager is to take stock of their backlog. What needs to be pruned? What needs more data? What needs to be turfed? What is valuable? What is duplicated and needs to be escalated? An organized team has a decent backlog. You don’t need to be quoting ticket numbers and requests, but when you open it, it’s organized, it’s clear. The value proposition of what is in there makes sense. What you want to avoid is having a backlog that is bloated and filled with unknowns. When this happens, the team won’t

August 5, 2021

Greg Thomas

Sticking To It

It’s tempting at some point during a project, epic, feature, or any piece unit of work to go back to the way you used to do it because it was “easier”. But the question that has to be asked in that equation is – “Easier for who?” For your team? For your stakeholders? For your QA team? For who, this is the question. It might be easier for you to go back to how you did it before, but chances are all those steps, checkpoints, processes, balances, everything (although they might not be much) might be exactly what your team

August 3, 2021

Greg Thomas

The Question I Always Get Asked

How can we deliver faster. And my gutshot initial reaction? “Let’s talk with your team.” There is generally shock on everyone’s face when I answer the question in that way particularly because they initially think – “but they are the team that is currently delivering slowly?”. Yes, but do know why they are delivering slowly, what is holding them back, what is blocking them, what ideas they have to make it better? These are the people closest to the problem than you and I will ever be. Listen to them, learn from them, take from them and get better.

August 2, 2021

Greg Thomas

Ramming Change Through

It never works. It never works because people have questions and you’re not answering them. Ramming change through your team without hearing their concerns or input is about as valuable as ramming a car into a tree to take it down. Sure you might “get the job done” but in the process, you’ll destroy the car, hurt the driver and leave the downed tree a mess so it can’t be reused for anything else. Ask your team for help, get their input, you might find a chainsaw and a rope would be much simpler, have everyone on board and get

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