Release Planning: How to Decide How Much Work to Commit to In Your Next Release Without Counting Hours (or Story Points)
Release planning is essential to fulfilling the expectations of both your customers and your teams. However, often the approaches we use to create a release plan are inherently unreliable. One of the senior managers that I’m currently consulting came to…
When is the Right Time to Say “Yes” to New Commitments?
Saying “Yes” to the right commitments (and “No” to the wrong ones) is all about making reliable decisions on what work to take on next. These are paramount to managing a steady flow of work and meeting your customers’ expectations….
Keep Your Teddy Bear! Introducing Probabilistic Forecasting to Your Team
When it comes to introducing probabilistic forecasting, it is paramount that you tackle any resistance head-on. Do you have kids? My son David is 4 years old, and my daughter Louise is now 6. She will start first grade in…
Why Using Averages to Make Delivery Predictions Will Land You in Hot Water
Often, managers use average delivery times to make future predictions. Even though this method is intuitive and widely spread, making delivery commitments based on averages is not reliable. Let’s explore the challenges that come with this approach. What Are Delivery…
How to Make Commitments for New Teams using Probabilistic Forecasting
Often, new projects start with a team that just has been brought together, and it’s a constant struggle for managers to make realistic commitments for new teams. When the team has never worked together before, using historical data to make…
How to Stay on Track with Your Commitments & Enable a Supportive Environment
Whether you’re managing your projects or working against the wire to meet a deadline, it is crucial to keep tracking your progress so that, if you go off track, you can quickly adjust the direction you’re heading in, meet your…
Why You Will Keep Struggling to Deliver on Your Commitments If You Don’t Quit Assigning Due Dates
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy New Year! We hope that the start of 2021 brings health, joy, prosperity and happiness for you, your family and your teams. When it comes to project…
3 Strategies for Effective Demand Management
Effective demand management is the cornerstone of delivering results in a consistent manner and keeping your commitments. And the balance between demand and capacity is in its foundation. When demand exceeds your capability, delivery times increase and, in the end,…
The Top 5 Kanban Hits of 2020
2020 has been, undoubtedly, a markedly unusual year for a variety of businesses. Teamwork and collaboration have had all sorts of new challenges thrown their way, and so assessing our performance has never been so vital. Luckily, 2020 has also…
Are You Ready to Stop Starting and Start Finishing? The Smart Way to Introduce WIP Limits
Introducing WIP limits is one of the most powerful approaches to reduce delivery times by aligning demand with capacity and keeping the focus on the most important work. Often though, introducing WIP limits meets resistance from within the team. People…
