InfoQ Homepage Planning Content on InfoQ
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Vacations: Creative Work Requires Rest
Summer has traditionally been a time for vacations and get-aways, a time to clear the mind and "recreate" oneself. Yet, according to a recent study, one third of people expect to take work with them on their holidays this year. Is this healthy? Can it be changed?
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Strategies for Remaining Focussed on Your Project's Goal
Catalysts' Christoph Steindl describes strategies for how you can stay focused on the true goal(s) which your project team is chartered to achieve via effective use of strategic objectives maps and related agile project management strategies.
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Strategies for Initiating an Agile Project
This article describes what happens during "Cycle 0" to kick off an agile project. This includes feasibility assessment, initial requirements modeling, initial architectural modeling, building the initial team, and initial estimating and planning.
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Microsoft Motion Light: Rapid Business Architecture Techniques
Microsoft Motion is a dynamic and systematic approach to decomposing a businesss into discreet capabilities. It organizes, measures and evaluates these capabilities and is a compliment to process mapping.
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Imagine the End, to Begin Well
Agile trainer and coach Andy Pols has reported that at SPA2006, retrospectives guru Norm Kerth described the practice of "Kick-Off Retrospectives", which ask participants to imagine how they will answer at a future retrospective: "What was so good about this project that you'd like to repeat it on future projects?" This can set expectations and inform the team's planning for collaboration.
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Planning 101 for Agile Teams
Detractors have propagated the myth that "Agile teams don't plan", which couldn't be farther from the truth. Planning is essential to Agile, because of its empirical nature: plan, execute, inspect, adapt... plan again. Stacia Heimgartner outlines the five levels of planning required to set good expectations with all levels of the organization.
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Worth Repeating: The BigBook Technique
Mark Hedlund has a favourite story: he tells of the BigBook Technique, a simple ploy engineers once used to communicate with their CEO about a death-march project. With yet another big-project implosion in the news, Hedlund felt the need to roll out this simple remedy, again. In effect: nine women simply cannot deliver a baby in one month. If that sounds familiar, this story may be of use to you.
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Discussion: "Decide as Late as Possible"
Lean Software Development says "decide as late as possible", but this goes against the grain for new Agile managers and team leads, who used to be responsible for careful up-front planning. Can this possibly be right? A group of ScrumMasters recently discussed the topic.