A real conversation I had two weeks ago: Executive: “What project management method do you use?  Please don’t tell me it’s Scrum.” Me: “Actually, we are Agile and use Scrum.” Executive: “Oh, no! I have seen so many Scrum projects go bad!” Other Executive: “Well, this is more of a hybrid project…” Me: “We could […]

Over the last couple of months, we have had quite a few conversations about how to create an innovative, creative environment for our team and in our company. It all started when the Creative Director for our project circulated a 2008 Harvard Business Review article on How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity.  This article has circulated […]

Have you ever felt that your to-do list was longer than what you can possibly get done?  Or your product had a ton of features that need to be developed but it still needs to be shipped way too soon?   We often respond to this pressure by trying to do more, often at the same […]

When converting to Scrum or other Agile techniques, managers often wonder whether it will really improve productivity.  The whole process seems chaotic, so how can teams be more productive than traditional project management and development practices? This is the story of three teams in the same department and how we were able to measure their […]

When you start to plan a project where do you start?  Do you open MS Project and start entering tasks?  Do you start building a backlog and apply your favorite Agile planning techniques?  As I mentioned in my Best Scrum-ban-plan Board post, I have been using that board a lot for high level project planning […]

Four years ago, I needed to design a Scrum board to use with my teams.  Teams moved around a lot, so I wanted something I could enlarge and laminate so we could easily roll up the scrum boards and move them.  We also didn’t have to depend on having white boards or cork boards in […]