Agile Methodology News, Latest Updates and Recent Announcements on Techminis

A naukri.com initiative

New

Home

Agile Methodology News

Medium

Image Credit: Medium

Advocating for Refactoring: Prioritization in the Context of Business Goals

Refactoring boosts software maintainability, scalability, and reliability.
Clean code leads to faster feature delivery, reduced defect rates, scalability for growth, and increased developer productivity.
Inadequate coding practices and weak testing methods make refactoring essential later on.
Teams struggle with prioritizing refactoring because it offers indirect benefits.
Value Stream Management and Product Operating Model bridge the gap between value of refactoring and its efficient prioritization.
Flow metrics offer quantifiable insights into areas where technical debt interferes with impact or throughput.
Technical debt should be prioritized based on outcomes and business goals instead of silos.
Leadership advocates for a culture that values refactoring and documents decisions with tools like Jira.
Refactoring is a strategic investment in your product's health and ability to deliver long-term value to your customers and business.

Read Full Article

5 Likes

Medium

Image Credit: Medium

The Lean Canvas: Turning a Big Idea into a Clear Action Plan

YourGuide, a traveler's tool, transformed into a platform for local communities and small vendors to co-create experiences.
Unique Value Proposition focused on personalized and curated local insights.
Future possibilities like volunteer docents at museums and offline kids' trivia pack considered.
Lean Canvas provided direction and confidence in the idea's viability.

Read Full Article

Dev

436

Image Credit: Dev

The Dev’s Guide to Surviving Standups

The key to surviving standups is perfecting the ability to sound busy without actually providing any details.
Blame it on dependencies when you haven’t finished your task.
Unleash the jargon to overwhelm with technical terms if someone starts asking too many questions.
Just toss in a comment about how you’re coordinating with another team, and everyone will think you’re a hero.
Have a reusable blocker excuse ready to sound productive but not incompetent.
Offer to handle something vague and unmeasurable to dodge real work while sounding like a team player.
Regardless of how messy your situation is, end your update with those magical two words: “No blockers.”
The ultimate standup power move is brevity. The less you say, the fewer questions you’ll invite.
Standups are an opportunity to stay connected with your team.
Take the humor, enjoy the laughs, but keep the standup spirit alive.

Read Full Article

26 Likes

Medium

182

Image Credit: Medium

How Product Management Can Become an Unnecessary Maze — and How to Break Free

Product Management roles have become unnecessarily complex due to the explosion of titles, frameworks, and processes.
To break free from this complexity, it is essential to focus on delighting customers and driving meaningful outcomes.
Stay close to customers, simplify decision making, measure the right metrics, and celebrate learning in order to succeed in Product Management.
The key is to refocus on delivering products that solve real problems and make a meaningful difference in people's lives.

Read Full Article

10 Likes

Alvinashcraft

115

Image Credit: Alvinashcraft

Dew Drop – January 17, 2025 (4344)

Our Favorite NEW Visual Studio Features of 2024 (Jason Chlus)
Fine-Tuning and Deploying Phi-3.5 Model with Azure and AI Toolkit (Sharda Kaur)
AI Transformations for Sustainability (Brad Smith & Melanie Nakagawa)
The Hanselminutes Podcast – The Quantum Advantage with Dr Krysta Svore (Scott Hanselman)

Read Full Article

6 Likes

Medium

142

Image Credit: Medium

Food for Agile Thought #476: PM Career-Defining AI Skills, Graph Theory for Orgs, Budget for…

This week's edition of Food for Agile Thought features various topics related to agile principles, organizational change, engineering patterns, product management, career-defining AI skills, and scaling high-performance teams.
John Cutler discusses how Lean principles can help stabilize scaling challenges.
Simon Powers shares budgeting strategies for impactful organizational change.
Steven Sinofsky dissects engineering patterns that may fail despite sounding practical.
James Hawkins addresses escaping the 'deadline doom loop'.
Steve Denning explores the synergy of hierarchies and networks in fostering innovation and competence.
Dan Olsen debunks claims of product management's demise and highlights AI's role in enhancing PM effectiveness.
Peter Yang interviews Aman Khan on PM Career-Defining AI Skills in 2025.
Mihika Kapoor shares her playbook for turning bold ideas into viral internal successes.
David Pereira offers practical guidance on refactoring and bridging technical and business priorities.
Stefan Lindegaard presents a toolbox for scaling high-performance teams with tools like the Capability Gap Map.
Petra Wille highlights trust and generosity as keys to thriving communities.
Melissa Suzuno showcases Vistaly's role in continuous improvement.

Read Full Article

8 Likes

Scrum-Master-Toolbox

CTO Series: Engineering Leadership, Automation, and Trust with Dan Hollinger

Dan Hollinger, an engineering leader, shares insights on automation, trust, and leadership.
Automation allows engineers to focus on more impactful work and fosters creativity.
Self-correcting processes and consistent reviews ensure agile and resilient systems.
Bridging the gap between business and tech requires empathy and open communication.

Read Full Article

2 Likes

Scrum

151

Image Credit: Scrum

Scrum Increments: Building Value, One Step at a Time

In Scrum, an Increment represents a meaningful addition to the product that builds on everything delivered before it.
Every Increment is additive—it builds on all prior Increments, and everything works together seamlessly.
Each Increment is a concrete step forward toward the Product Goal, making it real progress.
In Scrum, progress isn’t about completing tasks but about delivering usable value incrementally.

Read Full Article

9 Likes

Alvinashcraft

290

Image Credit: Alvinashcraft

Dew Drop – January 16, 2025 (#4343)

PowerSchool data breach resulted in the theft of all historical student and teacher data.
Microsoft introduces Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, a collaborative tool for Copilot users.
Windows App SDK versions 1.6.4 and 1.5.9 have been released.
Google Workspace now offers generative AI for business customers.

Read Full Article

17 Likes

Medium

Image Credit: Medium

Continuously right-sizing your Azure DevOps Features using Power Automate

Right-sizing is a flow management practice to ensure work items are manageable. Teams often use historical Cycle Time data to determine a Service Level Expectation (SLE). Teams use Work Item Age to manage the flow of in-progress work.
Teams will use data to proactively check ‘open’ Features to ensure they are right-sized. This guide covers the use of Power Automate to continuously automate right-sizing features. This tool is used to optimise features and foster a culture of continuous improvement and efficiency.
First, add a new field into the ADO process template called Rightsized. We’ll set this up for Features. Each time using the field for different work item types will require a repetition of the same process.
In the second stage, Power Automate tool creates a cloud flow to run every day at a specified time before work. The next step is to create two ADO queries for automation both for ‘closed’ and ‘open’ Features several months old. Then, Power Automate initialized various variables to enact the right-sizing of Features.
The process involves applying the HTTP step with a GET method and adding in personalized Access Token details. Complicated steps such as the application of Parse JSON apply to each, Apply to each, and sorting variables are included in the process. The last step will be an update work item step to update Features based on whether they are or are not right-sized.
Automated right-sizing in Azure DevOps using Power Automate can lead to faster feedback loops, reduced delivery risks, and improved predictability.
In order to implement continuous right-sizing, teams would have to focus on maintaining manageable work sizes. The tool will ensure the data remains visible and actionable empowering teams to stay proactive.
Once this tool is implemented, it not only optimises features but fosters a culture of continuous improvement and efficiency. Stay tuned for upcoming articles exploring the application of this principle to Epics in Jira!

Read Full Article

5 Likes

Scrum-Master-Toolbox

174

CTO Series: Mastering the CTPO Role, Katrina Clokie’s Guide to Tech and Product Leadership

Katrina Clokie, Chief Technology and Product Officer, discusses the importance of seeking out challenging roles to facilitate growth.
Clokie leveraged her experience and expertise to structure cross-functional teams to achieve unified vision and an efficient structure.
Clokie highlights the importance of balancing strategic initiatives and business needs by allocating 60% of capacity to strategic initiatives and 40% to ongoing business needs.
Clokie emphasizes structured cross-functional teams, guarding against structure breakdown, and promoting healthy conflict resolution.
Clokie provides insight on developing a roadmap that allows for flexibility and focus by reserving 60% of capacity for roadmap initiatives and keeping annual plans light.
Clokie stresses batch hiring and partnering with finance and talent teams as an alternative to constant recruitment strategies. Avoiding constant recruitment helps avoid overwhelming managers and disrupting team cohesion.
Clokie discusses the importance of shifting leadership approach to decision-making when transitioning from hyper-growth to a more constrained SaaS company. She emphasizes clear communication and fostering trust and transparency in the decision-making process.
Clokie recommends several books that she believes are critical for developing leadership skills and driving organizational growth, including The Manager’s Path, Resilient Management, and The Engineering Executive’s Primer.
Katrina Clokie advocates for a leadership style that emphasizes empowering your team and staying open to continued learning as keys to successful leadership.

Read Full Article

10 Likes

Scrum

209

Image Credit: Scrum

Scrum and Lean Thinking - What's the relation?

The 2020 version of the Scrum Guide added Lean Thinking as a model to its founding principles, however, it does not give enough justification as to why the introduction was necessary or how Scrum and Lean Thinking are connected.
Lean Thinking focuses on achieving the shortest sustainable lead time with regards to quality and value, and is supported by two pillars - Respect for People and Continuous Improvement.
Lean Software Development, which focuses on applying Lean Thinking principles to software development, has seven principles, which are abbreviated as DEBASED.
The first principle of Lean Software Development is D, which stands for Deliver as early as possible. Scrum has a similar approach, with at least one DONE increment at the end of each Sprint that can be released if the Product Owner decides to do so.
The second principle of Lean Software Development is E, which stands for Eliminate Waste. Scrum also focuses on removing any waste in the development process, which can be achieved through the proper use of accountabilities, artifacts, and events.
The third principle of Lean Software Development is B, which stands for Build Integrity In. Scrum enforces this principle with the Definition of Done, which ensures that the Scrum Team adheres to certain attributes that make the Increment releasable and build integrity into the product from the very beginning.
The fourth principle of Lean Software Development is A, which stands for Amplify Learning. Scrum has two dedicated events every Sprint - Sprint Review and Sprint Retrospective - that aim to improve the learning process and understand changes in the market, customer needs, and stakeholder expectations.
The fifth principle of Lean Software Development is S, which stands for See the WHOLE. Scrum enables the big picture perspective with transparent artifacts and events that provide opportunities for cross-team and stakeholder collaboration.
The sixth principle of Lean Software Development is E, which stands for Empower The Team. Scrum promotes self-managing teams that are empowered to make decisions within their context and have the authority and freedom to be engaged in their work.
The seventh principle of Lean Software Development is D, which stands for Decide as late as possible. Scrum enables late decision-making through the Inspect & Adapt opportunities built into the Scrum events.

Read Full Article

12 Likes

Medium

254

Image Credit: Medium

Facilitator’s Notes — Rollback

This case focuses on handling public backlash and internal pressures after a major product redesign.
The communication plan should include in-app tutorials, a blog post, and an AMA with the design team.
To regain user trust, focus on short-term churn mitigation and demonstrating the value of the redesign.
The Product Owner should use data and comparisons to strengthen the case, maintain alignment with leadership, and manage stakeholder concerns.

Read Full Article

15 Likes

Alvinashcraft

178

Image Credit: Alvinashcraft

Dew Drop – January 15, 2025 (#4342)

Introducing the New .NET MAUI Bottom Sheet Control
THAT Conference 2025
Introducing MSBuild.Sdk.SqlProj 3.0 – create, build, validate, analyze, pack and deploy SQL database projects with .NET 9
.NET and .NET Framework January 2025 servicing releases updates

Read Full Article

10 Likes

Scrum

339

Image Credit: Scrum

My Journey to Becoming a PST: Lessons, Struggles, and Triumphs

The author documented his journey to become a Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) in a blog called 'Road to PSM III.'
The author underwent a period of intense learning and development with a commitment to high-quality standards, value-driven empiricism, and people-led self-management guided by Scrum values.
Professional Scrum emphasizes value-driven empiricism through evidence-based inspection and adaptation.
The author experienced humility after passing the PSM III exam, realizing how much more there was to learn.
The journey of becoming a PST can take two years or more and involves evaluations of motivation, alignment with Scrum.org’s mission and values, and a drive to improve oneself and the community.
The author learned that the PST journey isn't just about acquiring certifications but rather learning to guide others towards more meaningful work.
Certifications and training hold little value without real practice to back them up. Professionalism in Scrum means tackling challenges with skill, creativity, and integrity through diligent practice guided by a shared set of values and principles.
The author struggled with imposter syndrome and health challenges at the start of his journey, leading him to question his ability to become a PST.
The PST journey tested the author's resolve repeatedly, with each setback serving as an opportunity to grow both professionally and personally.
The author's key takeaways include authenticity in storytelling, the power of feedback, humility, challenging students, and being an instructor.

Read Full Article

20 Likes

For uninterrupted reading, download the app

Agile Methodology News

Discover more