Author Archives: Liz

There’s no such thing as Declarative and Imperative

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Liz

I finally managed to catch up with Dan North last week at NDC Oslo (since we don’t seem to be able to do that in our home city). We were talking about Declarative vs. Imperative, when Dan said something that … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, nlp | 6 Comments

Deliberate Discovery, Real Options and Cynefin

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Liz

Last week, I held a hangout with a few people from the ALE community. A few people very much enjoyed it and got quite a lot out of it – it’s far less formal than most presentations. It takes me a … Continue reading →

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BDD and Complexity Thinking tutorials at NDC Oslo

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Liz

This year I’ll be running two 1-day workshops at NDC Oslo: Behaviour-Driven Development Have you ever wanted to know exactly what your customers want? Or helped them to clarify their requirements? Have you ever wanted to quickly pick up a … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, complexity, conference | Leave a comment

Respect for People: it’s a Test, not a Pillar

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Liz

On Monday at LKNA13, I ran an ignite talk on the title above. It was prompted by a video clip of John Seddon talking to Jeffrey Liker, suggesting that running interventions to make people more respectful might not be a … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, feedback, real options | 3 Comments

If you can’t write tests first, at least write tests second

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Liz

I had a very interesting discussion at GOTO Chicago with the awesome Corey Haines, software journeyman and founder of the Code Retreat movement. We were talking about the “Spike and Stabilize” pattern, and whether it was a good idea to … Continue reading →

Posted in spike and stabilize | 4 Comments

The Five Whos

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Liz

Many of the companies I visit start with much the same problem: the development team aren’t collaborating effectively either internally or with the business, so they would like to adopt Agile, or better forms of Agile. Usually these are pretty … Continue reading →

Posted in business value, stakeholders, stories | Leave a comment

BDD for Life – revisited at GOTO Chicago

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Liz

A couple of years back, I ran a talk on how to apply some of BDD’s techniques to your whole life, and to life coaching. I am very excited to announce that this year, at GOTO Chicago (April 23rd – … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, conference, life | Leave a comment

Two exercises, one puzzle

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Liz

Today Benjamin Mitchell played a small exercise I really liked during his Kanban talk. Benjamin gave each of two people 5 A4 envelopes and 5 pieces of paper. The two people were given instructions to either write a letter sequentially, … Continue reading →

Posted in kanban | 22 Comments

The Eighth Day

Posted on December 21, 2012 by Liz

Scholars immersed in books Rise blearily, wiping their eyes, And gather in knots of threes and fours In the angles of the square. They avoid each other’s anxious looks; The crowds who gathered to hear the wise Are turned away … Continue reading →

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How to run Safety Checks

Posted on December 5, 2012 by Liz

Before I run a retrospective, I often run a safety check. The purpose of the safety check is to see how safe people feel sharing their opinions or problems in the room. I’ve been doing this for some years now, … Continue reading →

Posted in learning, values | 3 Comments