Category Archives: Retrospectives

Tips On Submitting A Conference Session

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Derick Bailey

In the last 3 or so years, I’ve had every conference submission I’ve entered, rejected. Now that doesn’t mean I haven’t spoken at any conferences – I’ve been invited to a handful and have had a ton of fun at … Continue reading →

Also posted in AntiPatterns, Community, Education | 10 Comments

Failure Is Not An Option, It Is A Requirement.

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Derick Bailey

Of course that statement on it’s own can obviously be shown to be fallacy. When you consider the context of continuous improvement, learning or generally advancing our own capabilities and understanding, though, this statement can be quit liberating. Why? Because … Continue reading →

Also posted in Agile, Continuous Improvement, Education, Kaizen, Lean Systems | 6 Comments

How To Get Started With Kanban In Software Development

Posted on August 5, 2009 by Derick Bailey

There’s a lot of great talk around the inter-weber-net-o-sphere on why Kanban works in software development, how to do specific details of Kanban, how to effectively talk about it, and other such subjects. If you’re interested in a great set … Continue reading →

Also posted in Agile, Kanban, Lean Systems, Management, Productivity, Quality, Throughput, Workflow | 14 Comments

Why “No Issues” Is Not An Acceptable Answer

Posted on March 24, 2009 by Derick Bailey

Many of the software development teams at my company now practice the daily standup from Scrum project management. There’s a lot of great value in these meetings, even if a team is not practicing anything else from Scrum. The Anti-Pattern … Continue reading →

Also posted in Agile, Daily Standups, Education, Lean Systems, Management, Principles and Patterns | 15 Comments

On The ‘Success’ Of A Project

Posted on January 28, 2009 by Derick Bailey

I recently saw this question asked and answered in an after-project retrospective paper. Was The Project A Technical Success? While I am not trying to address who asked the question or what the answer was, the question on it’s on … Continue reading →

Also posted in Management, Philosophy of Software | Leave a comment

Kanban in Software Development. Part 2: Completing the Kanban Board with Queues, Order Points and Limits

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Derick Bailey

In Part 1 of Kanban in Software Development, I introduced the concepts of kanban boards and pipelines. I also showed a very simple example of creating a pipeline for our development process. However, there were some obvious limitations in what … Continue reading →

Also posted in Agile, Kanban, Lean Systems, Management, Philosophy of Software | 4 Comments

Adventures In Lean

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Derick Bailey

In the last six months, my team has undergone some very radical changes and has turned into a full blown Agile team. I’m very happy with our success and I consider this team to be the shining example in our … Continue reading →

Also posted in Agile, Lean Systems, Management, Standardized Work | 2 Comments