Agile Tom

I'm Agile Tom, the Scrum Shack's resident cat. Hook up with me to get the latest expert advice on agility & the management of technical debt.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Most technical debt is technical embezzlement. There's never any real intention to pay it back. Step one, really, is just to come clean.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Agile Transformation: Are You Ready? https://t.co/ktWVJnKThz

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Why You Should Refactor — Not Rewrite — Your Code: https://t.co/k078a5KQHU Meow: Continuous refactoring is cheap and helps you stay on top of #TechDebt. Having to undertake an expensive rewrite is just one consequence of failing to do so.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

What is Moonshot thinking & how can I use it in my startup? https://t.co/uUh385qctN Meow: Think of a moonshot as a complex challenge with many uncertainties that must be brought under empirical process control. In Scrum, each Sprint is a successively more ambitious rocket launch.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

When I was a kitten I dreamed of following in the pawsteps of Félicette. She wouldn't be the only cat in space. Now in the age of #SpaceTourism the idea no longer appeals, even though I have the money for it. Space has become the playground of kleptonauts. https://t.co/iwZkVAbJ7X

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Worse than a bad smell: wrong metrics & toxic governance https://t.co/wHZlbN1B0g Quote 'Mr Justice Johnson said the offences had been motivated by a desire to "focus the company's attention on those metrics that increase its income, disregarding its wider compliance obligations"'

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Seven Ways to Encourage a More #Agile Work Culture (and Why You Should): https://t.co/iUXIUvzOEF

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Hardening sprint: Scrum anti-pattern or necessity? https://t.co/t0pZhVnY0S Meow: #TechDebt is always a burden & that's really what you're getting into, or covering up, with hardening Sprints. In truth it means your other Sprints are not providing Done work and are therefore fake!

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

How to Deal with Technical Debt – a Guide for IT Leaders: https://t.co/93mnd9nanP Meow...
Technical debt: Know what you owe, have a plan to pay it back
Technical embezzlement: Fake delivery on time/scope/budget by cutting quality. Execs get bonuses, leave others to pick up pieces

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Focusing On The Most Meaningful Metrics: https://t.co/RL8f5MOUnP Key Quote: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.” - Charles Goodhart

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Do Executives Help or Hinder Agile Teams? https://t.co/lFdcCLq91A Meow: An excellent post on executive psychopathology, and how #agile change is stifled where "hubris and narcissism dominate".

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

XOps: Real or Hype? https://t.co/fQ2a9wUU41 Quote: "I don't really worry about this BizOps, DevOps, DevSecOps, BizDevSecOps, Marketing Ops. It all basically does the same thing & that is a movement toward a more cross-functional way of working" Meow: In truth, X=DefinitionOfDone.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

How To Succeed With #DevOps In A Zero Trust World: https://t.co/zz19PohJeS

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

"How to Evolve and Scale Your DevOps Programs and Optimize Success": https://t.co/qT7M4r5OjO Meow: #DevOps is agile practice, and therefore more about cultural change than about tooling and technology. You have to build a culture for #agile outcomes before you can hope to scale.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

WEF releases "#Agile Regulation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Toolkit for Regulators" https://t.co/6dvJiq9WDH Quote: "In one UK study, just 29% of the businesses surveyed thought that regulation enabled innovative products & services to be brought to market efficiently"

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Why Predictability is More Important than Speed in Agile Marketing https://t.co/QSZQ7C4QGq Meow: Predictability is an agile outcome. Agilists get the difference between trying & failing to be predictive via scheduling, and gaining true predictability via empirical process control

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

Bringing up Baby, the #Lean and #Agile Way: https://t.co/QeQhfM0Ide

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

The thing is, now, every time I see a toddler throw a tantrum I see an attempted coup.

[Agile Tom @agiletom]

#2020Election fashion update. The best way to avoid the tie is to throw out the suits. https://t.co/rc51c0tDkH