“Can Agile be used for data science research projects?” An architect at a local research-heavy technology company posted that question in our community Slack channel. My immediate reaction was “Of course!”, but I didn’t post an answer. While I have led R&D teams, the work we did was more development than research. I was only […]

For over 15 years in my career, I had never been tasked. Not even as a young engineer, straight out of school. Not even when I changed roles, nor during my first weeks at a new company. I have always had autonomy within an understanding of my role on the project and within the organization. […]

With the rush that was 2014 coming to a close, it’s time for the Top 10 year-end review. Even with unpredictable posting, Sockets and Lightbulbs continued to grow in 2014, with 81% more views and 35% more followers. Thank you so much! Reading, liking, commenting and sharing my posts mean a lot and boost my motivation to […]

When asked what I do, I often tell people “I’m on the Dark Side” as a reference to an engineer’s view of management and/or project management. Little did I realize what Darth Vader’s role was in the construction of the Death Star! I have watched the classic Star Wars movies multiple times and only thought […]

“The Kanban Racing Challenge is an immersive workshop where you learn the basic practices of a Kanban team by building an obstacle course for radio-controlled cars.” Really? Build an obstacle course, race a remote-controlled car and practice Kanban in a half-day workshop? Sign me up! This was the first time Nate Oster ran the Kanban Racing […]

  Today I launched a new blog on projectmanagement.com. As a leader of the PMI Agile Community of Practice, I had the opportunity to be a Trailblazer in PMI’s new online community and set up a blog. Ask An Agilist will be focused on answering questions about Agile development and leadership from the projectmanagement.com and […]