Scrum is not an agile methodology

People have lost sight of the fact that Scrum is not a methodology. I see comments such as “Scrum is killing agile” and it drives home, with emphasis, that there’s a huge disconnect between understanding what an agile methodology is and what Scrum is (and I know I’m beating a dead horse, but it’s important [...]

Why heroes are bad

Most project leaders have been there before: The hero saves the day, yet again. Everyone is grateful because, obviously, if not for the hero the project would have crashed and burned. It seems so lucky that the team can benefit from this all-star who pulls the project out of the fire time and again. So, what exactly would we do without him (or her)?

Software cost estimation: Where’s the silver bullet?

Recently Kirk Gray wrote a piece — more of a plea really — titled Software Estimation is Hard. The problem at hand is that there doesn’t seem to be a silver bullet that delivers accurate software project cost estimation. Software cost estimation (and here, I mean “cost” in the sense of effort, time and money) [...]

Finding strategic learning funds

Training Industry Times recently published some rather disappointing statistics: Over 92% of surveyed business have experienced pressure to reduce their training budget in 2007. Worse, 56% reported that the pressure to reduce or altogether cut training costs were “significant.”
Is this attitude regarding education part-and-parcel of the declining attitude toward education in the United States? More [...]

The case for certification

I had to read the Agile Alliance’s position on certification a few times before I could decide whether I liked their position or not. Part of this is that the opinion is not that well written. Getting past that, I came away with these core statements:

Employers should not require certification.
Non-skill-based certification testing procedures have little [...]

Mission impossible — the art of choosing the right project

How do you know when right is right? Being careful in choosing “what’s next” isn’t always easy… but it always has long-term consequences. (Reposted from my original article.)

Organizational evolution

A little while ago I started a topic on “Why smart people defend bad ideas.” After some of my recent work touched closely on similar topics I felt the urge to put down ink and revisit the whole subject in more depth.
Scott Berkun brings up some good points that are all too often at the root [...]