Articles for category: Drive

May 17, 2022

Greg Thomas

Metrics from the Top

Whenever work with a client, I always ask them what they want to get out of the system, what do they need to see happening, and what metrics matter? Sometimes I’ll get the answer – “We can’t talk about that now, we need to get this working.” Which is a big red flag to whatever process they have because that means they are managing my urgency, exception, and the next big fire that comes in. If you don’t know what you are trying to get out of the system, how are you ever going to know what you put into

May 16, 2022

Greg Thomas

A Bug is a Bug

Not to be confused with a task, a delivery, or a story. Bugs are code that yields unexpected results. Whether they operate as a feature, like design, or unintended – they are a disconnect between what we expect, and what is happening.

May 14, 2022

Greg Thomas

Options Analysis

When doing an Options Analysis of a variety of solutions, it’s imperative that before you start, everyone agrees on what options you are looking at. If you don’t, the road ahead will be much harder than if they all agreed to what you were looking at ahead of time. Save yourself the pain, if needs be, and break it out into two different discussions – what the options are and what the analysis is.

May 10, 2022

Greg Thomas

The Uphill Battle

If every battle was an easy win, it wouldn’t be called a battle, it would be called a gimme. It would be an easy win. There would be no challenge. No purpose. No path. But an uphill battle? Well, that’s where it gets fun, because now it’s not a gimme, now you need to work for it.

May 8, 2022

Greg Thomas

Your Last Sprint

Your last sprint will invariably be the best sprint you have ever worked on. You will put in all the extra time needed to get all those bugs in that have been bothering you forever. You’ll put that extra polish on those stories so they zip through QA without a bug. You’ll comment the heck out of your code so people can understand it. It will be your masterpiece. The question is – what’s stopping you from doing that now?