The Iron Triangle

You may have heard of the “Iron Cross”. Have you heard of the “Iron Triangle”? Quality (Deliver what’s expected. And account for all of the exceptional scenarios flows) Scope (How much stuff is delivered) Resources (Time, brains, tools, dollars, etc.) Pick any two, and the third is a variable. Inevitably, we will want “Quality” to be maxed out. So, we can only focus on “Scope” or “Resources.” If we want a larger scope of work completed, we need to increase the resources. Alternatively, if resources are fixed, we must accept and define how much scope of work we can realistically complete. ...

2025 January 27

The Iron Cross

You may have heard of the “Iron Cross”. Good (Quality) (Delivered) Fast Cheap (Under budget) (Everything) Done Focus on any three you like, but you can’t have the fourth. You can have a project that is good quality, delivered on time fast, and within budget and cheap. But! not everything will get done. Or, you can have a project that is all done, cheap, and fast, but it won’t be good quality. ...

2025 January 24

The Elephant in the Room: Agile Workflow Incompatibility

It’s important to not assume that the software your team is working is compatible with an agile workflow. Agile is about embracing change. And for that to happen, the software itself needs to be intentionally designed with adaptability in mind. I’ve joined many teams where the management and scrum master were on-board with following an agile approach, but they were completely oblivious to the fact that the software being built wasn’t compatible with an agile workflow. ...

2025 January 23

What Happened to The Agile Movement?

Agile was developed by technical people it was a creation of the software industry programmers sat in that room and created the agile Manifesto and the agile principles. And then came certification. And with certification hordes and hordes of project managers started to get certified and they would sit for two days in a class and get a piece of paper and feel that that was some how significant and they literally took over the agile movement the agile movement shifted dramatically towards the project management side. ...

2025 January 22

What is the Agile Software Development Approach?

The agile software development approach consists of working through a development project as a series of short, focused cycles. Often called “iterations” or “sprints”. After each iteration, the team evaluates the results and adjusts the plan as needed. The high level concept of Agile is: Deliver value first: Features are built in the order of business value, ensuring the most valuable work is completed first. Maintaining high quality: Quality is a top priority throughout the development process, not just at the end. ...

2025 January 21