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Picture of the Holy Grail

Our industry loves a fad - and in particular, we love to discover the Next Big Thing in development approaches. Each time we are promised a new (or improved) framework or playbook that will solve all our problems, and that we should immediately roll out to all our teams. And each time, we end up disappointed, without the results promised or anticipated, needing to look for a new Next Big Thing to repeat the cycle. It doesn't have to be that way, and the alternative needn't be as scary as it may seem. And it isn't another big framework!

Image of the Scrum Practice Sprint Review card. Pulled from the Scrum Essentials Practice developed in conjunction with Scrum Inc.

Scrum and its hybrids are the dominant approaches used by Agile teams today. However, despite Scrum being a seemingly simple framework, many teams struggle to apply Scrum well and fail to achieve the faster delivery of higher value products that are promised. Playing the Practice Spotlight game is a simple way to improve any team's understanding and application of Scrum.

The Scaled Agile Framework's recommended approach for prioritisation within the Portfolio is to use Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF), but there are some challenges when trying to run WSJF at the Portfolio level. This series of posts explores those challenges, with this post focusing on what happens when the Investment Horizons are used to group the Epics to run the WSJF on a per-horizon basis.

Image of some of the cards from the Essence based Method Agnostic Agility Cards used to help people learn about some key agile principles.

The following blog provides a set of free, downloadable agile coaching cards that can be used by Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters and teams working in many different contexts. These cards have been developed while working outside of software and product development with government Defence teams and I’ve used these cards to teach agility and help develop an agile mind set.

Image of part of a concept map used by IJI consultants to explain Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) principles in this instance structuring portfolio events.

In this series of posts we wil explore the Events that either perform, schedule or track the activities that affect the Lifecycle of an Epic. This second post looks at how the events that run the Portfolio could be structured.

Image of part of a concept map used by IJI consultants to explain Lean Portfolio Management (LPM) principles in this instance Portfolio Events - exploring the decisions being made.

In this series of posts we wil explore the Events that either perform, schedule or track the activities that affect the Lifecycle of an Epic. This first post looks at the activites that the Portfolio needs to perform in order for it to make progress.

Image depicting Lean Portfolio Management LPM portfolio kanban board or canvas.  Part of the LPM series, this article specifically covers On The Nature Of Portfolios - Portfolio Kanban - Alternative Scenarios

Epics have a lifecycle, they don’t magically appear fully formed. There is work to be done to progressively elaborate a business case and if the Epic is approved then there is further work to progress the Epic through implementation. This post looks at some of the alternate scenarios that might be seen in the Epic lifecycle, covering Bad Ideas, Small Ideas, Lean-Startup and Exploring Options.

Image depicting Lean Portfolio Management LPM portfolio kanban board or canvas.  Part of the LPM series, this article specifically covers On The Nature Of Portfolios - Portfolio Kanban - Normal Scenarios

Epics have a lifecycle, they don’t magically appear fully formed. There is work to be done to progressively elaborate a business case and if the Epic is approved then there is further work to progress the Epic through implementation. In this post we’ll explore the Portfolio Kanban that visualises the lifecycle of an Epic and look at some of the decisions that influence the Epic’s progress through its lifecycle.  

scaled agile portfolio epic lifecycle and epic states

Epics have a lifecycle, they don’t magically appear fully formed. There is work to be done to progressively elaborate a business case and if the Epic is approved then there is further work to progress the Epic through implementation. This post explores the Lifecycle of an Epic and the states it progresses through in that Lifecycle.

SAFe Participatory Budgeting Image - agile development budget management

This post is an exploration of whether you should be estimating Expense or Effort. Both are required from different processes within the Scaled Agile Framework and there is a route to convert between the two, but which should be the principal estimate and which the derivation?

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