Lurking behind the ominous shadows is something so scary that the shadows cringe in fear. The mere mention of it sends people running and screaming as they trip over each other in their best efforts to get away.
If you are one to get scared easily, I recommend you stop here because this is a word that sends chills down spines, makes people cower, automatically arches cats' backs in a defense stance. The word is:
Estimation
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Estimating within an Agile project is an easy thing to do, but one of the hardest concepts to grasp. We just don't get it. If using points, we want to try to correlate points to days. If using ideal days, we want to use that to understand why something we said would take "two days" really took three or four.
10/24/2013
Attack of the Cop Out Words
We say about 10,000 to 25,000 words a day, according to the latest statistic I could find. Well, here's what I have to say to that...
If we're saying all these words, let's make them valuable. Let's make sure they do not minimize our intentions. Let's make sure they are powerful.
Below is my list of words to stay away from (in day-to-day work contexts).
10/22/2013
Iron Man's Initial Resistance to Teamwork
Walking through the front entrance where I'm currently consulting as a transformation coach, stands a life size replica of Iron Man. I don't yet know the significance of why it is there, but i
Iron Man's existence begins with a child prodigy who grew up to be a pretentious, mostly egocentric engineering genius named Tony Stark. During the movies, comics, and books, Stark takes on the Iron Man persona, saving people, being a hero, and letting his selfishness shine through. He can do it all. He is the one who is the genius. He doesn't want anyone else involved.
However, as things progress, it becomes apparent that Stark cannot do everything by himself. He needs his friends, his assistant/lover, his community to help him.
As I work with and coach teams, and organizations, I see this same mentality. Famous quotes I'm used to include:
"We're getting the product out the door, something must be right..."
"I'd rather just get my work done than have to worry about a process..."
"Having code reviews is a waste of time; I know what I'm doing..."
"I don't want anything else added that takes up more time..."
Iron Man's existence begins with a child prodigy who grew up to be a pretentious, mostly egocentric engineering genius named Tony Stark. During the movies, comics, and books, Stark takes on the Iron Man persona, saving people, being a hero, and letting his selfishness shine through. He can do it all. He is the one who is the genius. He doesn't want anyone else involved.
However, as things progress, it becomes apparent that Stark cannot do everything by himself. He needs his friends, his assistant/lover, his community to help him.
As I work with and coach teams, and organizations, I see this same mentality. Famous quotes I'm used to include:
"We're getting the product out the door, something must be right..."
"I'd rather just get my work done than have to worry about a process..."
"Having code reviews is a waste of time; I know what I'm doing..."
"I don't want anything else added that takes up more time..."
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