Author Archives: Liz

A Really Common Problem

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Liz

I haven’t written in a while for various reasons, and will probably post more about the climate later (being an even bigger and more important problem), but today I wanted to write about a Really Common Problem that I keep … Continue reading →

Posted in business value, complexity, scrum | 2 Comments

Out of Time

Posted on August 22, 2021 by Liz

A couple of years back, I wrote about the 2018 IPCC reports. We were, at the time and as a species, doing pretty badly at safeguarding the planet which is our only home. CO2, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

5 Rules of Coaching

Posted on June 11, 2021 by Liz

These rules have nothing to do with any methodology (except maybe complexity thinking, because human.) I have found it useful to bear these in mind while I coach. I’ve passed them on in various forms to people who are learning … Continue reading →

Posted in coaching, life, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

How Agile Manages Out Innovation

Posted on December 11, 2020 by Liz

The Oatmeal has a fantastic comic on the Backfire Effect that was so popular, they rewrote it with, um, cleaner language. It starts simply. “You’re not going to believe what I’m about to tell you.” And it goes on to … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin | 9 Comments

Constraints and Cynefin

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Liz

A short reminder of Cynefin and the difference between domains: Obvious situations can be categorized and have fixed constraints. Complicated situations can be analyzed and have governing constraints. Complex situations can be probed (trying something out that’s safe-to-fail) and have enabling constraints. Chaotic situations require you … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin | 2 Comments

A Probe by Any Other Name

Posted on November 20, 2019 by Liz

In complexity (new stuff is complex) we prefer to probe; which means to try something out that’s safe-to-fail. Knowing things are failing or succeeding relies on feedback loops; but who do we get feedback from? And what do we do … Continue reading →

Posted in cynefin, feedback, real options, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Scenarios using custom DSLs

Posted on August 27, 2019 by Liz

One of my clients recently asked me how often I use Cucumber or JBehave in my own projects. Hardly ever, is the answer, so I want to show you what I do instead. The English-language Gherkin syntax is hard to … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd | 13 Comments

Off the Charts

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Liz

If you’re following me on Twitter, you’ll have noticed that the amount I’m talking about the environment and climate change has ramped up recently. I want to explain why, and why this is probably the most important blog post I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in life | 5 Comments

On Multiple Givens, Whens and Thens

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Liz

I wrote this as a reply to user RHarris’s question on StackOverflow, but thought it might be easier to find here too. The login scenario and the access record here are adapted from their question. What contexts should we include … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, stakeholders | 5 Comments

How to run a Futurespective

Posted on September 12, 2018 by Liz

Futurespectives, like Retrospectives, look back at the past… from the future! I find them very useful when there isn’t much to retrospect on: at the start of a project or initiative. I’ve run them for myself, for other individuals, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments