tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23272303956302736812024-09-16T10:13:40.839-07:00The practical "bytes" of Agile And DevOps Transformation Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-60915396728042917632023-07-14T10:21:00.003-07:002023-07-14T10:21:54.123-07:00

 When it comes to robust and maintainable software development, several key principles can greatly contribute to the quality and longevity of the software. Here are some important principles to keep in mind:1. Modularity: Divide your software into smaller, self-contained modules or components that perform specific tasks. This approach allows for easier development, testing, and maintenance.

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-58487409322658499542023-06-20T18:02:00.002-07:002023-06-20T18:02:15.850-07:00

 Technology is changing very rapidly. Every few decades we might see disruptive technologies which might have a huge impact on our society. Artificial Intelligence is such a technology which can improve the quality of our lives in a positive way. I am sure that in our lifetime we will see its incredible impact on various areas of our lives.Many months ago everyone was behind crypto, “bit” or

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 One of my favorite story is about how Google Chrome surpassed Microsoft's Internet Explorer by leveraging its rapid release strategy. Without fail I repeat this in almost every training I give to my team. In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the traditional approach of infrequent software releases is being replaced by a more agile and dynamic methodology: frequent delivery.

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-4651188119606791082023-06-16T20:00:00.001-07:002023-06-16T20:00:11.122-07:00

 

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-19445981369494981412021-07-26T07:19:00.001-07:002021-08-03T07:22:25.404-07:00

 From childhood we are programmed to fear the failure, the opposite behavior is rewarded. I still see many companies & people trying to recruit people with a “Failure is not an option” requirement. Such practices reinforce this behavior. In many cases the “prevention” causes more problem & costs more than the actual issue.Without failure there is no learning. Any process/framework/

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-13697190759051051212020-03-05T09:41:00.000-08:002020-03-05T10:03:51.180-08:00

Agile teams work in iterations. During this period, they are supposed to work on product increments which can be “delivered” at the end of iteration. But how you know that the correct product was delivered? Many teams have different kinds of acceptance criteria and Definition of Done (DoD). But in many cases, this “done” is not the real “done” there might be some testing pending, some

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I like user stories a lot. They help everyone talk the same language and results in a better product. User story alone does not constitute product requirement. User story is supposed to be a place holder for discussion which should happen between the team, Product Owner and the customer. This discussion result in a common understanding which along with the user story content is the product

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Daily stand up meeting serves a very important role in agile teams. In a way they are the risk mitigation meeting. Team members talk about the risk for the iteration and overall product delivery. The need of a daily stand up for a new team and a matured team is different and hence the need for different rules for different teams. Teams who are starting the agile/scrum journey needs a lot of

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Lot of companies start on the Agile transformation and find it very difficult. Some even go back to their old process. I have seen this in lot of "large" companies who have "established" process which they are following for many years. Process control Most of these companies have lots of process, checklists and control to manage the "work" which is then  manged by complex hierarchy of

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I get a lot of request for “help” for  agile and DevOps transformation. Many sincerely want to do this but many do this because everyone else is doing and they contacted some some consultants who gave them their marketing pitch with all the technical jargon and modern buzzwords.  There is a lot of hype around DevOps and most of the consultant companies I interacted had many nice

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-24943705360901178142020-02-09T21:04:00.002-08:002020-02-15T21:20:51.222-08:00

Many large companies make the fundamental mistake of scaling agile without understanding the whole idea behind agile principles. Being large shouldn't prevent you from looking at the fundamentals. I have heard many highly paid "agile" consultants say that the agile principles and process is all theory and the "big" companies should do things in a different way. After many years of "

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-19222776783639208362020-02-09T17:46:00.001-08:002020-02-15T21:22:55.906-08:00

This is a good place to be. But if this happens a lot then you may have to look into commitments you are making. You may be committing less. Work on the next priority items in the backlog. Inform the Product owner. He/she may have some ideas also. You don't have to complete the additional "stories" you pull into the sprint  but if there are stories which you can complete then do it. Work

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-53371687115710588282020-02-08T11:18:00.000-08:002020-02-15T21:24:50.332-08:00

User Acceptance when done properly is very effective.  But in most cases i have seen companies taking this to the extreme especially in companies who were following traditional waterfall process People are used to do certain things in certain way for long. It is difficult for them to change. Moreover there is a trust factor. They don't (or wont) trust the quality of the software unless

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Amazon has one of the best DevOps model and this help them to release their product at a very much faster pace than any of their competitors. They are able to do continuous improvement in a very short cycle which results in a better process and products. It is no surprise that they were able to eliminate competition from all the sectors they venture into. This was from a presentation in year

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Many teams are measured on the velocity numbers. There are scrum masters who forces the team to "achieve" the numbers without understating the science behind it. Sometime such people even ask team to put numbers against the "research and learning  " work which the team has to do. And because of this velocity focus sometime they don't allow the team to learn or invest the time to reduce the

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-88185055330628807452020-02-03T19:18:00.000-08:002020-02-09T19:19:52.369-08:00

When Microsoft started our own DevOps journey, we quickly realized that our transformation to DevOps would have broad organizational impact. Every DevOps conversation needs to focus equally on people, processes, and tools to ensure a successful transformation. Our DevOps journey began by gradually changing the way we work. For example, on the people front, we were able to reduce team

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-36439357218954983242020-02-02T18:14:00.000-08:002020-02-15T21:27:11.799-08:00

The best benefits of scrum or agile is in shorter iterations. There are no major advantage of doing longer sprints for most of the teams/products. If teams can do shorter iterations/sprints then they should definitely do it. Longer sprints might be good for teams 1) who were doing waterfall for long and being transitioned to Agile. A longer sprint will be more suitable for them until they can

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Microsoft has rapidly rising revenues and today is the most valuable firm on the planet—worth more than a trillion dollars. In 2004, I would never have predicted this. At the time, I was visiting Microsoft for a short consultancy. I was shocked to find how bureaucratic it was. After working for several decades in another notorious bureaucracy, I knew the problems bureaucracy caused. But

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I have done that !!!! Many years ago i inherited a team which had lot of issues . The PO and team didn't trust each other. I had my first retrospective with Product Owner (PO) alone and my second retrospective with team but without PO. Usually followed by a third retro meeting with PO and team . During the first two meetings PO and team talked about the issues they had with each other. I

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-44762879183228876902020-01-16T16:02:00.000-08:002020-02-07T16:03:10.578-08:00

Agile has many different process . For the certifications I will limit the scope to Kanban & Scrum because these are the most popular agile practices There are many companies providing these certifications so the cost will vary. I am listing few companies which provides these. They are leaders/pioneers in this space & I have undergone/reviewed their training. Kanban – https://

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Software development has been experiencing disruptive innovation over the last few years, and with the rising expectations of customers looking to get a superior experience, they are always searching for ways to release their products with faster time to market. According to a Forrester study conducted in 2012, 17% of entrepreneurs need strategic IT services or software products,

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Agile innovation methods have revolutionized information technology. Over the past 25 to 30 years they have greatly increased success rates in software development, improved quality and speed to market, and boosted the motivation and productivity of IT teams. Now agile methodologies—which involve new values, principles, practices, and benefits and are a radical alternative to

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Budgeting, as most corporations practice it, should be abolished.” —Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser, Harvard Business Review, 2003 The budget often constitutes one of the last—and largest—stumbling blocks to creating a truly Agile organization. Budgeting as practiced in most large organizations today is cumbersome, expensive, time-consuming and wasteful. It often cripples innovation. It

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In one scene of the TV show Mad Men, a young advertising copywriter (Peggy Olson) asks her boss (Don Draper) how to know which of her advertising ideas will work best. He tells her she can’t know in advance, which frustrates her. He then adds that part of her job is “living in the not knowing.” Part of our job, too, is living in the not knowing. To survive--perhaps even thrive--here

Abhilash Chandranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00585050100369708773noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2327230395630273681.post-89797116421872514372016-09-29T11:13:00.000-07:002020-02-07T09:45:52.925-08:00

Last many months i am hearing a lot about scaling agile. We have a lot of certifications and  new "frameworks" for scaling. Personally i don't like the idea of the frameworks i have seen till now.  For companies this will soon become another checklist for them  https://www.scrum.org/Portals/0/NexusGuide%20v1.1.pdf Purpose of the

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