Reddit reviews Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business
We found 10 Reddit comments about Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
Scrum doesn't have failed stories, anything that doesn't get accepted by the PO is not counted against velocity, especially if it's been abandoned entirely. I've used TFS for scrum, but based on your type of work, the fact that you are running 1-week sprints (rarely recommended) and that you are tracking velocity/capacity per person rather than your team (also very rarely recommended) I would make the switch to Kanban, specifically operational Kanban detailed in David Anderson's Kanban bluebook:
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https://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3R9PO4NATTFZT
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You will then change what you are tracking to concentrate on flow control (with cycle times per class of service, etc.) rather than worrying about velocity.
Kanban is just a way to visualize your work, and by doing so to limit your work in progress (WIP). I've worked on Agile teams that used Kanban boards to track all their deliverables and to make the work visible so that there was absolute clarity on what was in the backlog, what was in progress, and what was done.
Tools like Trello are good, and a lot of project management/issue tracking systems aimed at Agile organization have a way to do Kanban. Jira, for example, has a way to use it. To me, however, Kanban works best with an actual physical board that you move cards or sticky notes across. It's easy to close and ignore a browser tab or an application window, it's a bit harder to do that when you've got a whiteboard mounted to the wall with brightly colored sticky notes on it.
This is a good book that explains the theory and methodology behind Kanban: Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business
I really enjoyed "Kanban" by David J Anderson. https://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402
If you're interested in Scrum (it's not an acronym) then an easy way to get started is to take training as a CSM (Certified Scrum Master). It's a 2-day course with a fairly easy multiple-choice exam.
If you're already a Product Manager, you could also look at the CSPO (Certified Scrum Product Owner) which will help you understand the differences in the way requirements are treated.
Scrum isn't the be-all and end-all of Agile methods, so do keep your mind open after the training! But it will help you to get your foot in the door.
After that, try looking for local Agile or Scrum groups; most big cities have them. Look out for Agile conferences too; even if you can't make it, a lot of them post the talks online.
If you do end up as a PM and you're struggling to understand something, don't be afraid to hire an Agile Coach for a few days. They'll help to mentor you, explain how Agile works, and fine-tune your processes.
The most important thing to remember about Agile methods is that they're there to help handle uncertainty. For anything you do that's new, and you've never done before, it's useful to make discoveries early rather than later and to get feedback quickly on those discoveries. In Waterfall we made sure we we're getting it right. In Agile, we assume we can't know everything up front and will inevitably get some of it wrong.
I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention Kanban, which is related to Agile and originally derived from the Lean techniques used at Toyota, and Cynefin (my blog, the Wikipedia page is also good). Mike Cohn's books are a pretty good first stop for basic Scrum, but Kanban and Cynefin will help you to see beyond that.
Finally, if you get stuck, http://pm.stackexchange.com is your friend. You can also shout out on Twitter; there's always people willing to help and pass you links and ideas.
(Oh, and don't worry too much about the formality. I work as a Lean / Kanban and Agile consultant, have no formal qualifications in it, and am internationally recognized. Doing it and having the metrics and stories to show that you've done it is more important than a qualification.)
Some additional information can help a lot in recommendations. I'd like to know the following:
What is your team size?
Is your team co-located (all in one place)?
Can you describe the type and flow of your work?
Do you have open channels of communication with your customer, and if not, do you have people who can stand in and more or less speak for the customer?
Do you think the leadership would be on board for a drastic change?
It is unlikely that the visibility and continuous improvement of an agile framework will not bring about significant improvements within your company. Also, if you are the type that thrives on facilitating a team and helping them grow to excellence, then this will be a great career change. Personally, I love my job and enjoy every day. With the above simple questions answered, it would be a lot easier to spark a conversation.
Jeff Southerland's book (already mentioned) is a great intro for Scrum, and not a boring read. I also like David Anderson's Kanban, if you have a more steady continuous workflow like a compliance or support team, this can fit better. Also, a good read. The Scrum Guide is rather short and is the definitive guide for the Scrum framework. Exactly how you execute under that framework is largely up to the team, but everything is based on the idea of iterative continuous improvement. Once you get this idea down in practice, you'll be hooked.
We used Kanban to sort out publishing production. It was not “agile” really it was “lean”.
Map your process and tasks flow through the process.
Read David Anderson’s book
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/0984521402/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_IaJ-Bb394Y1FH
I don't think I'd start with a certification class. I'd start with two books:
I'd also look at some other online resources (like this agile roadmap to get a sense of what you actually want to implement and change.
From there, that will guide you to what classes, or as /u/mlucero14 pointed out, if you'd prefer to bring in a coach or trainer.
Given that it looks like you all are in Costa Rica, you might want to talk to the team from Pernix Solutions. I've worked with them before, and they understand the agile and craftsmanship side of things.
Hope that helps!
Read these books to get to grips with the latest techniques and ways of working. As an employer I'd be extremely impressed if you'd read these books. They will give you a big head start when trying to move into the professional work environment. Most of them will apply to any programming language but they mainly use Java as the example language but it's very similar to C#. It's books like these that are the difference between a beginner and an expert, but don't forget when you start coding 9-5 with good developers you will very quickly pick things up. We were all in your position at one point, if you get these read it'll all be worth it in the end!
Coding
C# in depth - I've not read this one since I do Java but I've just had a quick glance. This should be pretty useful and it's a respected publisher. I think you should start with this one.
Clean Code - Great book which explains how to write clean concise code, this 1,000,000x. It doesn't matter what language you are using it should apply where ever you write code.
Cleaner Coder - Another Robert Martin book, this one is easy to read and quite short, it's all about conducting yourself in a professional manner when you are coding. Estimating time, working with co-workers, etc.. Another good read.
Growing Object-Oriented Software - This book is about writing code using test driven development. It explains the ideas and methodologies and then has a large example of a project that you build with TDD. I just read this recently and it is really good.
Head first design patterns - This book goes through essential design patterns when coding with an object orientated language. Another essential read. Very easy to read, lots of diagrams so no excuses to not read it!
Work Methodologys
Kanban
Succeeding with Agile
p.s
Start building stuff, get an account on linked in and state the languages you are working with. This will help as well because having something to show an employer is priceless.
Kanban by David J. Anderson
The Phoenix Project is a great book and has some really interesting (though a bit idealistic in my opinion) theories about organization and execution. That book really jump-started my Kanban efforts. I don't think I could recommend a single book to cover everything because my current efforts have grown organically over years of trial and error and I pulled from a lot of different places to accomplish it all.
As I mentioned, I use Kanban to manage workflow and a bit of Agile/Scrum concepts for meetings. Some good resources along those lines are...
http://www.agilesysadmin.net/kanban_sysadmin
http://blog.digite.com/kanban-in-it-operations/
http://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-Technology-Business/dp/0984521402
You may also want to look more into retrospectives, where you look back on what happened and discuss what worked, what didn't, what you could do better, how the process can be improved, etc. But also pulling in Agile concepts of iterations so your retrospectives don't wait until the end of a 6 month project, instead you'd hold them more frequently so you can derive more value throughout the process and make frequent changes/adjustments.