Author Archives: Liz

Commitment – a novel about managing project risk

Posted on March 31, 2012 by Liz

If you’ve heard me speak at any conferences or read my blog over the last few years, you’ll know that I’m really, really into Real Options. I’m half-tempted to get “Options have value. Options expire,” added to my tattoo. The … Continue reading →

Posted in business value, life, stories | 2 Comments

Cynefin for Devs

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Liz

Every now and then, someone comes up with a new way of looking at the world that becomes the next fashionable thing to do. Every time I’ve seen this, there’s usually a space of time in which a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in complexity, cynefin | 40 Comments

The Myth of “What” and “How”

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Liz

I often hear things like, “Tell the team what to build, but don’t tell them how to build it.” Or, “A feature is what you’re building. A story is how you’re going to build it.” Or, “When you’re doing TDD, … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, business value, stories, testing | 1 Comment

BDD Tutorial Slides are up

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Liz

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. I have released my BDD Tutorial slides on SlideShare. There are notes underneath each slide which are a cut-down version of the kind of things I talk about. I’ve even left … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

It’s about the examples you can’t find, not the ones you can

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Liz

A long time ago, I was toying with the idea of starting my test methods with “will”, instead of “should”. Dan explained to me, “If you start with the word ‘will’, you’re already making the assumption that you understand what … Continue reading →

Posted in bdd, breaking models, real options | Leave a comment

CALMalpha – the second request

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Liz

CALMalpha was meant to be a mash-up between the Lean, Agile and Cynefin / Complexity Theory practitioners. The outcome of the unconference wasn’t really stated. When you understand that a complex domain is one in which the cause of an … Continue reading →

Posted in conference, learning | 12 Comments

CALMalpha – the first request

Posted on February 18, 2012 by Liz

I came away from CALMalpha with a profound sense of depression. Our industry is in an awful state. A really awful state. It took me a day and a half to recognize one of the problems. There’s a prevailing sentiment … Continue reading →

Posted in conference | 14 Comments

The Real Cost of Change

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Liz

We have a strange desire for control. I was in a planning meeting with my project manager and several of the devs. “What happened?” the project manager said. “Why did this one story take so long?” “There was some functionality … Continue reading →

Posted in breaking models, cynefin, learning, spike and stabilize, testing, uncertainty | 14 Comments

You’re doing it wrong

Posted on December 23, 2011 by Liz

The first time I did it wrong, it was because I didn’t know any better. The second time I did it wrong, it was because I forgot about the first time. The third time I did it wrong, it was … Continue reading →

Posted in breaking models | 1 Comment

Scrum and Kanban: both the same, only different

Posted on November 20, 2011 by Liz

When I started coaching Agile methodologies, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. I had come from Thoughtworks, a company whose tools and processes are mostly driven by Extreme Programming, aka XP. In that respect, most of what I … Continue reading →

Posted in coaching, kanban, scrum | 29 Comments