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The key to recognizing employees is to do it in a way that reinforces the actions and behaviors you most want to see people repeat. Providing ongoing recognition can go a long way toward keeping employees' morale up and getting the work results you want. Naomi Karten has some tips on doing it right.
Some managers just don’t realize when they should be delegating tasks or projects. While delegation is one of the underdeveloped management capabilities, very few companies offer training in how to do it. Naomi Karten gives warning signs you're taking on too much and tips on improving delegation.
Developing software is a complex undertaking and one that’s typically deadline driven. It’s impossible to test every conceivable scenario or even to conceive of every conceivable scenario. The result is that mistakes surface. The challenge is to find the balance between speed and quality.
Not every boss is bossy. But some are. And it’s no fun working for one. If your bossy boss piles on an unreasonable workload, shouts down suggestions, makes all decisions unilaterally, and issues orders and directives with no hint of caring about employees, Naomi Karten has some tips for you.
In the agile community there is a movement called “no estimates”—where people are challenging the value and validity of estimating the work required to develop software. Scott Sehlhorst looks at the different perspectives of those who challenge estimation.
When the government suddenly passes regulations that impact the development of a product, an organization's investments could suddenly turn to waste. Venkatesh Krishnamurthy explains how to deal with the waste as well as some methods to better handle inventories.
Working with vendors can pose challenges to an agile team, especially when it comes to contracting practices. How do you deal with contract relationships when trying to follow a philosophy that values collaboration over negotiation? Kent McDonald gives some suggestions for creating agile contracts.
Are projects ever completed ahead of schedule? It turns out the answer is yes, and interestingly, just as with projects that fall behind, issues can arise with projects completed ahead of schedule. Naomi Karten writes about some of these problems and what to do if you finish a project early.
Agile approaches have changed the conversation about measuring project success, from comparing against cost, time, and scope projections to looking at how much value the project is going to deliver. The problem that remains, however, is determining what value really is and how to measure it.
Joe Townsend examines why software professionals continue to fail at requirements management (RM). Some of the ways to address RM issues include using the right RM tools, proper requirements prioritization, and requirements churn.