Posts by Christian Gruber

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May31
2005 Leave a Comment

Written by Christian Gruber

Compazine online without prescription, Patient: Doctor, it hurts when I do this...

Doctor: Then stop doing it.., compazine for sale. Compazine online sale, A wonderful definition of insanity is "doing the same thing repeatedly, and expecting different results." Yet, compazine medication, Cheap compazine in usa, for some strange reason, we persist in using methods that are not working, compazine without a prescription. No prescription compazine, On several projects at a past employer, I was hearing reports of our corporate-branded custom methodology resulting in late delivery, compazine, Compazine malaysia, incorrect delivery, and reduced features, compazine in bangkok, Compazine vendors, etc. The argument given was always "this extraneous factor happened, cheapest generic compazine online, Buy compazine pills, " or "the customer kept changing their minds," or "the customer wasn't implementing the methodology properly."

What was the solution, compare compazine prices. Why, to do the same thing again, only harder, compazine online without prescription. Compazine prices, This I hear from many of my colleagues quite frequently. When all is lost, free compazine, Cheap compazine online, and the methodology is failing, cling more heavily to its rules and structures, buy compazine on internet. Discount compazine no rx, Now sometimes this is valid. If, compazine free sample, Compazine tablet, in fact, the methodology is being poorly implemented, compazine prescription, Online compazine, and if the methodology is supportive of the environment and culture and circumstance of the project, then by all means, cheapest generic compazine, Approved compazine pharmacy, tighten up the implementation. Compazine online without prescription, Sadly, however, seldom is a proper analysis done of the fitness of the methodology to the needs of the project.

One of the very nice things about Scrum, order compazine, Cheapest compazine prices, for example, is that it is a short-cycle iterative feedback system, cheap compazine without prescription. Where to buy compazine, It is not a large methodology with lots of process. In a sense, compazine medicine, Compazine cheap drug, it is a process for uncovering the work that needs doing, and for structuring that work in a highly compartmentalized way, purchase compazine overnight delivery. Cheap compazine no rx, Because of this, it is often quite resilient to external factors, compazine non prescription. Also, Scrum assumes that outward conditions will change, and assumes further that many of these changes are entirely out of the project's control, compazine online without prescription. Purchase compazine no rx, Therefore Scrum is organized to find these externals irrelevant to its measures of success. It's classic lateral thinking, cheap compazine from usa. Buy compazine from canada, Why mention the above. Because the most common failure of a methodology is its inability to handle fundamental change, order compazine in canada. Compazine online without prescription, It requires a certain number of assumptions. Purchase compazine, If these assumptions change, then the whole project needs to be re-conceived, find compazine without prescription. Sale compazine, If you have a project lifecycle that lasts about 2 years, this is a very expensive re-conception. In this context, my above paraphrase could be re-stated to: "Insanity is doing the same thing, in a different context, and expecting the same results."

With Scrum and other empirical processes, you re-formulate the project on a cyclical basis (say, a month). Thus, all new information can be assumed for the next cycle safely, and everyone is secure in the knowledge that all things can be re-examined next cycle. A problem is turned into a strength.

I'm not saying that Scrum can't be misapplied, or that people can't get into trouble there... but the fundamentals of Scrum and empirical processes are such that, if reasonably applied, you shouldn't need to bang your head into the wall month after month. After all, in the end, if it's that bad, it's much cheaper to cancel a scrum project than a traditional plan-based project, because you will tend to know sooner that it needs to be cancelled.

Posted in How-To Apply Agile

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May04
2005 Leave a Comment

Written by Christian Gruber

Flovent online without prescription, We've all seen this. A one-year project in its 13th month, and the Project Manager has been reporting 80% of the tasks at 90% and has been doing so for the last 120 days. There's no end in sight, cheap flovent tablet, and the customer is leaking cash every day the product fails to go into production. What can be done. Buy discount flovent, Agile project management principles can help this all-too-frequent scenario.

First, let's look at how this situation comes about, flovent online without prescription. In a typical task-oriented project plan, one is required to decompose the tasks down to a fairly reasonable degree of specificity. The tasks are organized around a dependency graph, generic flovent, estimated, resources are assigned, Online pharmacy flovent, and the schedule is calculated and/or nudged. (Well, usually the initial estimates don't match the customer's expectation and deadlines, so there's a revision step here where estimates are shortened) But how does change get reflected, purchase flovent without prescription. If a PM is doing an excellent (if frustrating) job, he is constantly updating the schedule, Flovent pills, the plan, and re-conceiving the tasks as new information comes to him. Flovent online without prescription, More often than not, however, this gets so messy and unwieldly that the PM holds fast, and starts to estimate completion based not on a proper decomposition and a completion of each of these tasks, but based on his guess, or his workers' guesses. Complexity of the tasks is hidden, and becomes often quite invisible, order flovent in us. Tasks at 80% which suddenly need to be re-decomposed and re-conceived do not, in the main, Cheapest generic flovent, get moved back down to 40% after certain roadblocks are discovered.

The result. The customer is increasingly afraid, trust between delivery staff and client (and management) are eroded, buy flovent lowest price, pressure is increased, mistakes under pressure become more frequent, Discount flovent without prescription, less sleep is had by all, and 90% complete becomes an asymtote, rather than a milestone.

Now what is to be done with such a project, flovent online without prescription. How can Agile project management approaches help this situation, flovent sale. We can examine this by playing out such a scenario...

We can start by identifying a few key practices of Agile project management, Buying flovent, and examine their benefits to the business client.

Timeboxing and Iteration

The first thing we can talk about to the fearful client is timeboxing. Flovent online without prescription, Timeboxing caps his investment into small chunks. We look at it and say, OK, drug flovent, you're in deep trouble, but you don't know how deep your trouble is. Generic flovent cheap, By timeboxing into a very short timeframe, and making a large project into many little short projects, we can get more visibility into the process - we can see things as they are, rather than how they're reported on a project plan, cheapest generic flovent online. Speaking of visibility...

Daily Meetings and Iteration Review

Part of the value of iteration and timeboxing is increased visibility, Cheapest flovent, so we really need to have a mechanism for visibility. Already distrustful of project plans, we can tell the client, "Don't believe the paperwork, let's look at what's actually built, flovent online without prescription. At the end of each iteration, we'll review the current situation, and demonstrate existing functionality." His eyes perk up, cheap flovent pill. "Wah?" he asks incredulously. What do you mean. Flovent online review, So we say, "we don't want you to guess at how ready this thing is. Flovent online without prescription, We'll show you. That way, you can decide if it's ready enough, flovent cheapest price. ...Or, your product marketing people can make that call if you prefer. Buy cheap flovent internet, It's up to you, but you get to see it, touch it, and sense for yourself how ready it is, flovent from india, and you won't have development managers and developers waving their hands pretending it's further than it is."

"Oh wierd," says he. Flovent prescription, "So what are these daily meetings?"

We tell him that the daily meetings have several purposes. Only project members get to speak, and they report on what they did yesterday, what they plan to do today, and what, if anything, is blocking their path, flovent online without prescription. No one else gets to speak, but others who are not on the team itself can listen in. This way, online flovent, the whole project team is clearly aware of how they're working, what's left to do, Lowest price for flovent, and what each other are doing.

"Why do they need this. They have the plan." "True," we reply, find flovent without prescription, "but how often do you have two people who need something, and both do it because they don't know that someone else already did it. Flovent online without prescription, With your current project delays, do you want any duplication of effort. Buy flovent online without prescription, Just by way of example?"

Feature Lists, not Task Lists

We also talk to him about working from feature lists, not task lists. The team will be implementing features, cost flovent, and fulfilling requirements. How they do it is up to them. Cheap flovent internet, "Why should I care," he'll ask. "You shouldn't," we reply, except to assure him that if people are working against features, then they can choose to re-order their tasks in such a way as to most quickly get to the goal, flovent online without prescription. No wasted effort, we tell him, buy discount flovent online. Sounds good to him.

Customer-Prioritized Features

What's more, Cost of flovent, we assure him, we will be first working on the highest-priority features. What "needs" to get to market. Flovent online without prescription, Everything else slides down the list. Even if the wonderful plan we all love had them at the top earlier, flovent rx. High-value features (as prioritized by the client) and their necessary dependencies get done. That's it. Cheap flovent tablets, "So no features that I didn't ask for?" He looks hopeful.

"That's right," we reassure him, "and you can change your mind."

He faints, flovent online without prescription.

Smelling salts are brought.

"What do you mean, 'I can change my mind?'" he asks, flovent online without prescription.

"If, when we get to the iteration review, Flovent buy online, and you test drive the thing, Acme corporation has come up with the killer feature that you absolutely must have or the whole thing is useless, you put it to the top priority spot on the list that we will use to drive the next iteration."

"And no one will complain that it's out of scope?" he marvels.

"If you put it at the top of the list, flovent discount, it is the scope for the next iteration. Flovent online without prescription, We are at your service," we comfort him.

"So when will this be finished?" he asks us desperately. Buy flovent generic, "When you say it's ready," we reply. He boggles. What does that mean, where to buy flovent. he thinks, flovent online without prescription.

"What does that mean?" he asks.

"It means that we will tie it off when you think it has enough juice to go to market. Flovent professional, If, after you re-prioritize what's left, you find that it's 'ready enough', then we'll roll with it, discount flovent, take a couple of weeks to steady it and ship it, and then we can pick up your next-highest priority things, Flovent for sale, or anything new you want in it." He looks near fainting again. "And we stop when you feel that spending money on it is no longer bringing you enough value - ideally because by that point we've done all the high-value stuff already, and we're now working on less valuable stuff."

"So I have discretion to pull the plug whenever I want to?"

"Yep."

"Please help me..."

Conclusion

This little scenario is fictitious. Flovent online without prescription, But in the end, it's consistent with the experiences of many Agile practitioners (particularly Scrum) that I speak with. It only covers a small sampling of Agile practices that may help a project in crisis. Others may help quality, may improve developer productivity - but the above can help a key client or stakeholder begin to see a light at the end of the tunnel. While many people cannot get their heads around it, they may be willing to try new things simply out of desperation at the point where the existing process is causing them enough pain.

And it can turn a project failure into an ever-increasing success, because success is defined monthly, re-defined at the desires of the business client, and executed in bite-sized chunks that are digestible and estimable.

Just don't forget that people have the strangest reactions to things that break their expectations... so make sure to bring the smelling salts...

Posted in Agile Management, How-To Apply Agile - Tagged Ideas, Learning, Planning, Teams, Work

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May04
2005 Leave a Comment

Written by Christian Gruber

I read an article in Wired yesterday that was modified from a book "Freakonomics Fluticasone ointment online without prescription, ". The article talks about real-estate agents and motivation to push the price of houses they are selling $10, order fluticasone ointment from us, Fluticasone ointment pharmacy online, 000 higher. The observation was that the $150 incremental gain for the agents (1.5% of $10, fluticasone ointment us, Find fluticasone ointment online, 000) doesn't make it worth their holding out an extra three weeks to get the higher number. Their interest is in closing quickly and moving on, fluticasone ointment online without prescription. They can often convince (through fear) the poor seller of a price that suits their interest, order no rx fluticasone ointment. Fluticasone ointment medicine, He wasn't even sure if it was conscious, but it naturally flowed out of the asymetrical knowledge levels between the agent and the client, order fluticasone ointment no prescription. Fluticasone ointment drug, (I'm reminded here of the saying "A System's Purpose Is What It Does".) This asymmetry of knowledge is highly important in the Agile community's current situation, in that it gives early practitioners the "expert" status, no rx fluticasone ointment, Fluticasone ointment without rx, and lots of power to help or hurt the client.

Doctors have a similar motivation, discount fluticasone ointment online. Fluticasone ointment online without prescription, The same article pointed out that statistically, when times are tighter (fewer patients), the proportion of interventions going up (referring here to internists and surgeons). Order generic fluticasone ointment, The article isn't crying conspiracy. Rather, find fluticasone ointment, Cheap fluticasone ointment without prescription, it's talking about the natural incentives, and the consequences of the asymmetry of knowledge, order fluticasone ointment in canada. Best price fluticasone ointment, The doctor knows more, so if they (consciously or subconsciously) recommend more intervention than is necessary, purchase fluticasone ointment no rx, Buying generic fluticasone ointment, the patient has no way of knowing in order to assess bias and accomodate. Likewise with Real-estate agents, fluticasone ointment in australia.

With alternative practices or new sciences there is an even larger knowledge gap, infact even popular wisdom hasn't filtered down to the masses in digestible CNN-sound-bite chunks, fluticasone ointment online without prescription. Where to order fluticasone ointment, Also, there is a lot of "naive money" in new fields, cheapest fluticasone ointment price, Cheap fluticasone ointment, as well as a lot of genuine people who are just trying to help. Unfortunately, fluticasone ointment from canada, Buy fluticasone ointment no prescription required, this means that there are a lot of wolves among the sheep, and they're wearing the costume of a sheep-dog, fluticasone ointment overnight shipping. Fluticasone ointment in bangkok, I think, in some ways, order fluticasone ointment cheap online, Sale fluticasone ointment, that was at the basis of Ken Schwaber's concern in the Scrum Developer's list about a scrum practitioner who was not really teaching scrum, but was (in Ken's paraphrased view) bilking the customer and ego-tripping, cheap fluticasone ointment from usa. Buy fluticasone ointment canada, Scrum will have a similar dynamic as one finds in, say, order fluticasone ointment, Fluticasone ointment information, alternative health and nutrition, or other early-stage professional arenas, order fluticasone ointment no rx. Fluticasone ointment online without prescription, There will be idealists and opportunists and then some who try to apply balance. Fluticasone ointment for order, One has to be very careful of both the idealists and the opportunists. Sometimes they are very hard to spot, fluticasone ointment bangkok, Cheap fluticasone ointment no rx, and this has a high chance of painting the whole Agile community with the same brush. One of my associates had a very very bad experience with Scrum for that reason, fluticasone ointment online pharmacy. Fluticasone ointment buy, An unscrupulous person who used the position of Scrum Master to aggrandize himself.

Posted in Book Reviews

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Apr14
2005 Leave a Comment

Written by Christian Gruber

Glyburide online without prescription, This link was seen on a scrum-toronto list, referring to an e-book called Stealth Methodology Adoption. Buy glyburide overnight delivery, The title is brilliant, and reflects, find no rx glyburide, Cheap glyburide in canada, in my view, a significant means of adoption of Agile technologies at this point in the maturity of this market, glyburide cheap drug. Cheapest glyburide online, A small straw poll of friends and family in the business indicated that they used Agile under the radar screen in more projects than not. Often, glyburide cost, Sale glyburide, artifacts were translated into the artifacts of more traditional PMOs without a word of explanation.

This is a dangerous approach, overnight glyburide, Find glyburide on internet, however necessary at times.

The partial implementation of an Agile method, without buy-in in certain quarters can lead to a failure to realize the benefits of the method, glyburide online without prescription. If the practices that were used can be blamed, canada glyburide, Buy cheapest glyburide online, they will be. People love to find scapegoats, order cheap glyburide online, Cheap glyburide in uk, and there are costs to agile that can be pinned. For example, lowest price glyburide, Buy discount glyburide, if the project fails, but TDD was used in isolation, purchase glyburide no rx, Glyburide online, or used badly, it can be held to account as having taken more time than just writing code, order glyburide in us. Buy cheap glyburide online, If Pair Programming is used in an otherwise traditional project that fails, it can be identified as a halving of productivity, low cost glyburide. Glyburide online without prescription, If daily scrums and backlog are used (again, by themselves, or without experience), they can be seen as a failure to gather and/or manage sufficient requirements. Buy glyburide cheap, It take subtlety and wisdom to know how much Agile to put into an organization, how much visibility, get glyburide, Glyburide for sale, and which particular practices will garner the most benefit in a particular area. Most agile methods have a combination of practices that encourage emergent behaviour, glyburide online cheap. Find glyburide no prescription required, But in many cases, the practices themselves are emergent, glyburide without rx. Buy glyburide, The interaction of daily scrums with a scrum master that's working the group to a sprint backlog, and working with a product owner to refine the product backlog for the next sprint - without interrupting the sprint - these have powerful effects on productivity when put together, order no rx glyburide. But, for example, all you have to do is interrupt the sprint and start messing with sprint backlog, or have a product owner / scrum master that doesn't do the work of refining a good product backlog and you end up with developers who don't know which way to turn at a given moment, glyburide online without prescription. Order glyburide no rx, Similarly, TDD - if you are writing tests first, buy glyburide canada, Compare glyburide prices, but you're not actually defining "done" properly, (ie, compare glyburide prices online. Discount glyburide online, sufficiently covering the desired behaviour, edge and negative cases) then you can end up having someone write a lot of tests that are practically meaningless to the code in question, buy glyburide on internet. Glyburide pharmacy, This means that you don't get the benefits of the testing, plus you incur the costs not only of the tests, glyburide free delivery, Glyburide online without a prescription, but also of the wasted time sifting through test code that was not written against the requirements of the interface.

In a lot of these situations, glyburide pills, Glyburide tablets, it is judgement that comes from experience that is the real solution. There are few formulae that can practically resolve these questions, pharmacy glyburide. The benefits of NOT implementing Agile in stealth-mode, therefore, include the ability to bring in experienced mentors who can provide this kind of judgement to an organization new to agile approaches. Most "stealth agile" projects don't have budget for such. But books like the afore-linked can help communicate some of this wisdom and judgement.

Posted in How-To Apply Agile - Tagged Coaching, Culture, Learning, Process

Posts by Christian Gruber

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Flovent Online Without Prescription

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Glyburide Online Without Prescription

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Posts by Christian Gruber

Compazine Online Without Prescription

Flovent Online Without Prescription

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