Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Feb 8, 2012, 4:00 pm
Story Mapping is an Agile technique for managing product backlogs developed by Jeff Patton.  I first discovered the term Story Mapping via a blog post by Jeff called The New User Story Backlog is a Map.  The blog post is a very insightful and clear explanation of Jeff's motivation for...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Feb 7, 2012, 5:00 pm
A topic I still haven't reconciled in my study of management theory is whether systems are 95% of the success or failure of a process (Deming) or whether it's People over Process (Agile Manifesto.) Of course it's neither, and that both systems and people matter, but I haven't squared away th...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Feb 7, 2012, 5:27 am
Karl Scotland has done a nice blog series on the science underpinning the Kanban Method (with a little help from Clark Ching's multi tasking game.)  I highly recommend reading the following posts: Kanban, Flow and Cadence (Setting the scene) The Science of Kanban The Science o...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Feb 6, 2012, 10:32 pm
I signed up as a line manager of a team of business analysts and web developers at a large corporation. My role was to manage the team which had three main functions; (1) identify and implement process improvements into call centres an back office processing centres, (2) co-ordin...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Feb 1, 2012, 4:00 pm
I have been at Wikipedia again. This time at the User Story page.  I didn't like the contents as usual, and this time I drafted a variation on the Wikipedia page and published it in the Business Analysts Handbook. A copy is recreated below for your interest.  It also serves well as a f...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 31, 2012, 4:00 pm
I thought I might try something different with my blogging: A structured approach. In the early days of this blog I was exploring and discovering techniques and models from the engineering paradigm of project management and requirements.  I learned a great deal of useful stuff, some of whi...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 31, 2012, 2:51 pm
Check lists beat templates hand down.  Checklists say "Have you done enough?"  They help you think through the issues. And they can become mindless activities as well.  Checking the box unthinkingly, or adding new items to the checklist without ever taking the time to trim some unnecessary...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 29, 2012, 5:00 pm
You're in the weekly project status update meeting. The agenda has been reviewed. Last week's minutes are quickly discussed. The PM asks for any new business and finally its time to do that last task we all dread... Review the project schedule. &...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 29, 2012, 6:56 am
This sat in draft for a while.  It's about bureaucracy, PMOs and change. Some quick questions to get you involved; Do you know the people in your PMO? Do they know you? Are they committed to seeing your project succeed? Really? Or are they just about pr...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 26, 2012, 11:18 pm
You've heard the phrase "All models are wrong: Some are useful," by George Box, a chemist who taught himself to be a statistician.  My takeaway from this is that all models - and that is everything written down in all management texts and training manuals everywhere - is that the model ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 23, 2012, 4:00 pm
Back in June of last year, I wrote a post entitled A new Facebook Use Case where I suggested that what FB really needed was a translation utility for comments. Called it.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Jan 18, 2012, 9:14 pm
One of the members of my QA team recently said something about me that made me smile. It wasn't that the comment was some kind of over the top suck-up or a snarky jab, but something that was a subtle reminder, in the midst of a sentence on an only vaguely related topic, of why I ge...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 29, 2011, 7:52 pm
Here is six case studies presented so you can learn lessons from others. two sets of three cases. Part 1 Build It and They Will Come- David JoyceScheduling work in Kanban- Sami HonkonenPitfalls of a large kanban implementation- Jasper Sonnevelt Case Studies from AGILEMinds on Vimeo. Part 2 Kanban ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 29, 2011, 7:42 am
David Anderson - Kanban - when is it not appropriate? from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 28, 2011, 7:36 pm
I think this was my favourite session for the series.  The win for me is in seeing a simple message (aka meme) about why this stuff works.  What do you think? Jim Benson - The Psychology of Kanban from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 28, 2011, 7:23 am
We all know who John Seddon is. What is interesting is hearing these ideas in the context of some of the other presenters such as Karl Scotland, Don Reinerstein and Dave Snowden. Hear what he had to say. John Seddon - It’s the system stupid! from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 27, 2011, 7:38 pm
I always like a sceptic.   Don Reinertsen - Is It Time to Rethink Deming? from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 27, 2011, 7:15 am
The best compliment ever paid to me in the workplace was "Working for you is like being a rat in a lab; I never know what next week's experiment is going to be." Gather data, for hypotheses and test them.  You can also look backwards at past successes and use regression analysis to work out your ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 26, 2011, 7:11 am
A lot of what I read about Lean and Kanban is about workflow management. It's all familiar stuff from the days I worked with call centres and very mathematical.  But what I hear when I talk with people in the Lean/Kanban  community is always about people.  Hear what Alan Shalloway has to say on t...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 25, 2011, 7:13 pm
As I work on our 2012 budget this sings to me.  If only we were there now...   Thomas Lissajoux - A lean approach to portfolio management from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 24, 2011, 7:45 pm
Make things explicit. This is a challenge I have been grappling with over recent weeks. How do you go about this challenge?I believe that being explicit acceptance criteria at each step of the value chain are the means to this ends. See what Mathais thinks. Matthias Bohlen - A team and their cont...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 24, 2011, 7:04 pm
Dave is in Melbourne (and other pats of Australia) next week. this is worth watching. For me an appealing point is his suggesting systems thinking is a modern day Taylorism. This is also particularly useful for some of our Business Analyst readers, as he has some techniques mentioned for manag...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 23, 2011, 6:56 pm
The second presentation from Lean Central Europe 2011 is Yves Hanoulle on the mindset behind agile methods. I have a post on values coming up in the next few weeks.  Enjoy. Yves Hanoulle - Agile Mindset from AGILEMinds on Vimeo.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 23, 2011, 7:33 am
Bob (aka @flowchainsensei) had a double header session at the conference.  It's about organisational growth.  You might need to accompany this one with a whiskey or two. Part 1; What is Right Shifting? Bob Marshall - Grant Rule - Understanding Effectiveness: Rightshifting and the Marshall Model...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 23, 2011, 6:53 am
The Lean / Central Europe / conference was held last week.  A number of presentations have been published to the web.  To help you keep up, and digest what went on I a going to help out by publishing a bunch of presentations - one per day for the rest of this week The first I'll bring to your atte...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 21, 2011, 7:48 am
Watch "Greetings from Munich - Episode 1 with Pawel Brodzinski" on YouTube
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 18, 2011, 6:53 am
I am offering another round of my "Introduction to User Stories" course. The first round received very good feedback from the pilot participants.  As a result I am making a few minor changes, but essentially it remains the same.  The next course is available to sign on here (for the bargain price...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 14, 2011, 8:07 am
Personally I am overloaded with lessons from this week.  Dozens of great stories and learning experiences.  I think I need some quiet time to reflect on them all. What was your learning highlight?
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 11, 2011, 7:39 am
Tonight I did a talk to the local agile community on cumulative flow diagrams, requirements traceability and scope management.  I recycled the PMOZ slide deck (below) but added in the above diagram.  Thanks people for the good conversation afterwards. The four CFD charts come from four really grea...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 5, 2011, 8:31 am
I am trying my hand at online training.  To kick the process off I have a free pilot of a User Story course starting next week. It is hosted on Ruzuku here. Given that you are a regular reader, I thought you might like to sign in and test drive it.  All free, except your time.  It starts on Monda...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 4, 2011, 1:12 am
We ran a lunchtime session talking about values and how they underpin the way we work.  The session closed out with a whiteboard exercise which is described on the last page of this deck. If you use this I'd appreciate your sharing your experiences and feedback via the comments or by email. Thanks!...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Oct 2, 2011, 6:00 pm
Over the course of the last several months a couple of Melbourne meet-up groups have established an ongoing community.  I have been lucky enough to be a part of this process. The two groups are called Agile Business Analysts and the Melbourne Scrum User group.  I thought I would share my experien...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 30, 2011, 8:49 am
A few days ago I asked the question; what sort of metrics can help analysts learn about their effectiveness and improve? Of course there are disclaimers around metrics;  Don't let metrics drive unthinking behaviour.  Use metrics as a tool to improve.  It's probably wise to throw metrics away if y...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 30, 2011, 6:22 am
At work people are asking "Are we going to use agile processes now?" Do we have to do these stand ups? What's going on, are our methods changing? I don't have any particular view on process or methods that I want to impose except; be professional and don't do stupid things on purpose. For me that en...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 28, 2011, 7:00 pm
One of the things I look for when hiring a business analyst is a good grounding in liberal arts. That might seem odd, given that business analysis regularly lives at the intersection of business and technology. Yes, those skills are vitally important and it is difficult, but not impossible, to be a ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 25, 2011, 7:00 pm
I love Ars Technica. Its a fabulous site. For what is the first time I can remember, they actually used the words 'business analysts' in a post, so I was naturally drawn to this post about Teradata combining SQL and NoSQL databases into a single product. In all fairness, the article really isn't abo...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 20, 2011, 4:50 pm
Yesterday Pete Cohen published his first post at Better Projects.  The post was on improving risk management techniques.  It reminded me of one of my earlier series Risk Management 101.  We hope to see more of his posting here, and I am sure we will. Pete is an analyst and consultant in Melbourn...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 20, 2011, 4:35 pm
Let me start by saying this: You can't manage by metrics. But metrics are important tools that help you understand how you are performing today.  Measuring things can help you understand how you are performing against past performance, against expectations or competitors.  They can help you find ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 19, 2011, 10:05 am
Capturing risk is something which we all do as part of the projects we work on (or at least should do). The risk registers I have encountered vary greatly in terms of the language used and the level of detail they go into. Sometimes a risk is expressed as just a couple of words, which although may s...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 18, 2011, 7:00 pm
One of my favorite bloggers right now is Timothy B. Lee. Several months ago (yes, I'm working through my backlog of articles to write about) was about how the online news business had caused major disruption in the business model of traditional news media. If you've watched any media in the last dec...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 14, 2011, 7:00 pm
I love finishing something. Being able to check that item off my list is an awesome feeling. I'm a huge fan of the Inbox Zero concept because of this. This is why items like the Cult of Done Manifesto makes me so happy. For those who don't want to click the link (although I suggest you do for the co...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 13, 2011, 9:39 pm
A great deck about thinking. make sure you watch the video mid way through. Think View more presentations from Matthew Redmond
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 12, 2011, 9:27 pm
Over the last few weeks I have been doing Tuesday lunchtime 'lecture-style' talks to the local software dev teams. The first week was "agile 101" with a run through scrum. The second week was a description of Kanban's visualise the workflow and limit work in progress ideas. This week is going to ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 11, 2011, 7:00 pm
One of the bloggers I follow on Twitter, who has nothing to do with our chosen field of work, pointed me towards the website for the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics. While there, I spent some time reviewing the job prospects and salary ranges for BAs and PMs (which I am going to assume fit into th...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 10, 2011, 6:35 am
This idea has been with me for a while. The various agile methods are all fine but seem to lead into this common mix of XP, Scrum and Kanban techniques, with some additional Crystal methods thrown in for good measure.Rachel Davies published a nice deck on the topic. What does your agile team do? R...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 7, 2011, 3:59 am
Another video in a video filled week!
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 5, 2011, 4:00 pm
Great tips here, but best quote is this: Many people take refuge in headphones, but they turn big public spaces like this, shared soundscapes, into millions of tiny little personal sound bubbles. In this situation, no one is listening to anyone.
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 4, 2011, 9:42 am

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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Sep 1, 2011, 4:00 pm
As I've talked about in the past, I'm a pretty big fan of social media and especially the ways it can be used as a driver for projects. One of the areas of social media that has always seemed a bit silly and frivolous is the concept of 'badges'. Foursquare was my first experience with them, but now ...
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Craig B. posted an article on Better Projects - Aug 31, 2011, 9:51 am
 While doing some research into user stories and use cases I came across the below article by Jens Coldewey.  The original is in German, and with the help of Translate.Google I transcribed the post into English. The original article is here. Methodology: use cases, user stories and acceptance test...
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