Straight-Talking, No-Nonsense,  Software Delivery Experts.

We believe that effective software delivery is more than just Agile. It's time to move on! Software is embedded so deeply into modern organisations, that an approach which focuses only on software development is naive by today's standards. 

In the real world, Enterprise Scrum has inadvertently created more misalignment than it managed to avoid.

It does not have to be that way! 

We can show you how to embed the principles of lean and agile with the broader business without having to throw away your org chart and help you design, estimate, build, test and ship your products effectively using purpose, flow, measurement and science.

 
 

Latest Thoughts from the Blog

How We Think
Don't Be Average
Agile, Scrum Planning, Statistics David Huntley Comment
Agile, Scrum Planning, Statistics David Huntley Comment
Don't Be Average
Agile, Scrum Planning, Statistics David Huntley Comment
Agile, Scrum Planning, Statistics David Huntley Comment

A common thing agile teams are asked to do is plan, given historical performance, how much work they think they can reasonably commit to in a fixed increment of time. I'm going to tell you that in most cases, this is the most destructive thing you can do to a team, a product and your business.

Why? Because you are passively planning to be mediocre.

Agile, Scrum Planning, Statistics David Huntley Comment
Agile, Scrum Planning, Statistics David Huntley Comment
The Frightening Truth About Success.
Culture David Huntley Comment
Culture David Huntley Comment
The Frightening Truth About Success.
Culture David Huntley Comment
Culture David Huntley Comment

In the spirit of the new year, I'm going to share a confession and resolution. One that, at face value is significantly simpler and easier to keep than any gym membership you might have in mind. In practice, though, this takes real courage and confidence to bring to the workplace but when harnessed properly, I'm convinced it brings results like nothing else. 

Culture David Huntley Comment
Culture David Huntley Comment
Don't Manage For Happiness
Culture Happiness David Huntley Comment
Culture Happiness David Huntley Comment
Don't Manage For Happiness
Culture Happiness David Huntley Comment
Culture Happiness David Huntley Comment

In our efforts to create a better workplace (which is a good cause), some cultures have grown into a state where we expect positivity from everybody we work with at all times. So much so, that negativity, scepticism and uncertainty have started to become socially unacceptable attitudes. 

Culture Happiness David Huntley Comment
Culture Happiness David Huntley Comment
Laser Focus with Hoshin Kanri
Strategy, Lean, Six-Sigma David Huntley Comment
Strategy, Lean, Six-Sigma David Huntley Comment
Laser Focus with Hoshin Kanri
Strategy, Lean, Six-Sigma David Huntley Comment
Strategy, Lean, Six-Sigma David Huntley Comment

I wrote recently about how important it is to know your 'True North'. Having a crystal-clear picture of what you as an organisation stand for, is the single most important thing you can agree on. When you apply that practice to strategic planning and alignment, what you have is Hoshin Kanri.

Strategy, Lean, Six-Sigma David Huntley Comment
Strategy, Lean, Six-Sigma David Huntley Comment
Be Professional
Culture David Huntley Comment
Culture David Huntley Comment
Be Professional
Culture David Huntley Comment
Culture David Huntley Comment

Open yourself a new tab and do a quick image search for the term 'Professional'. You won't be surprised by the results. What you're inevitably confronted with is an abject sea of pinstripe, handshaking, and clipboards. Why is it that the notion of professionalism has become so inextricably linked with appearance? Is there really a meaningful correlation between how we dress and how we act? I think there is, but not in a good way.

Culture David Huntley Comment
Culture David Huntley Comment
More != Better
Strategy Product Development David Huntley Comment
Strategy Product Development David Huntley Comment
More != Better
Strategy Product Development David Huntley Comment
Strategy Product Development David Huntley Comment

The majority of businesses that produce a software product choose to sell their wares by having the most features, or as I've most commonly heard it put; the 'richest feature set'. Businesses like this will court new clients only to find that winning that particular deal comes with a catch.

Strategy Product Development David Huntley Comment
Strategy Product Development David Huntley Comment
Scrum Surgery: Holiday Season & Broken Burndowns
Scrum Scrum Surgery David Huntley Comment
Scrum Scrum Surgery David Huntley Comment
Scrum Surgery: Holiday Season & Broken Burndowns
Scrum Scrum Surgery David Huntley Comment
Scrum Scrum Surgery David Huntley Comment

Sometimes the capacity and skill set of the team vary drastically from sprint to sprint and even mid-sprint. When that happens you'll want to pay close attention to how the team is doing against the sprint backlog. All else being equal, that's the job of the burndown chart.

The trouble is, it doesn't handle this situation very elegantly at all because it assumes even capacity and that isn't always the case.

Here's a simple way you can get around that problem.

Scrum Scrum Surgery David Huntley Comment
Scrum Scrum Surgery David Huntley Comment
Good Metrics, Bad Metrics
Strategy Metrics David Huntley Comment
Strategy Metrics David Huntley Comment
Good Metrics, Bad Metrics
Strategy Metrics David Huntley Comment
Strategy Metrics David Huntley Comment

That awesome quote is attributed to Peter Drucker; a man of many skills and one who's wisdom I have an enormous amount of respect for. Like all great ideas though, it's a little too abstract to be of practical use without some extra thought and effort.

Without the extra effort, these ideas will inevitably be abused by people in support of their own agendas. It's not their fault of course, we all do that. In this case, I see more and more that we are starting to miss the point in an attempt to measure everything.

Strategy Metrics David Huntley Comment
Strategy Metrics David Huntley Comment
Know Your True North
Strategy True North David Huntley Comment
Strategy True North David Huntley Comment
Know Your True North
Strategy True North David Huntley Comment
Strategy True North David Huntley Comment

I sat in a presentation once in which the topic of discussion was mission statements and vision statements.  I've got to be honest, I still don't think there's much difference. As a matter of fact, a lot of time seems to be spent talking about what the actual difference is. It's kinda confusing.

Most companies have them though. Do you know yours? Maybe you do, maybe you don't but let me ask you this. Does it have any effect at all, on your day-to-day activities? Do you use it to help focus critical decision making? Not in my experience. Not even once.

Strategy True North David Huntley Comment
Strategy True North David Huntley Comment
Two Options For Effective Daily Scrum Meetings
Agile Daily Scrum, Scrum David Huntley
Agile Daily Scrum, Scrum David Huntley
Two Options For Effective Daily Scrum Meetings
Agile Daily Scrum, Scrum David Huntley
Agile Daily Scrum, Scrum David Huntley

The purpose of the daily scrum (you might call it a standup), is for the team to plan the day. Think about that for a second.  When was the last time you left a daily scrum where the team had a plan? That isn't the way it normally plays out.

Agile Daily Scrum, Scrum David Huntley
Agile Daily Scrum, Scrum David Huntley

100% Opinion Free Advice.

We insist on starting with a free, one hour session with one of our consultants. You get a structured session, where we'll aim to understand what makes your organisation successful, how you get work done today and the challenges your currently facing.  A couple of days later we'll come back to you to offer some targeted next steps. If you want to carry on with us after that, great!

 
 

What we do.

RELEVANT adviCe.

You won't find us feeding you any cookie-cutter nonsense.  Every organisation is different so we'll spend a lot energy understanding how yours works.

 

THE ABSOLUTE, UNDILUTED TRUTH.

Especially when it's hard to swallow. We're allergic to office politics and we'll call it out at the first opportunity because there is no space for that in an effective workplace.

 

Hands-on, full-time, on-site coaching 

We don't believe that remote coaching is effective. We will be on-site the whole time. You won't be left you on your own, at any time, until you're ready.

 

Full-time, on-site and off-site development.

We are double-kick-ass developers. We can support your existing team or work on our own to help you get that project over the line.

 

What we don't do

 

IDEALISTIC DOGMA.

Getting good at software delivery is really, really hard. This wont be an easy ride but we'll stick with you until you're shipping high value, quality software, on time.

 

PASSENGERS.  

Some people aren't cut out for this.  Some people will feel threatened by it because they don't bring anything to the table. They don't tend to last too long in a results oriented environment.

 

Unrealistic or invisble plans.

We'll work with you to create a transformation plan that focuses and involves everybody. We will never tell you it will get worse before it get's better!

 

Powerpoint

Instead of 50 slides of waffle and manipulation tactics, we use the magic of human speech, teamwork and real-life experience to get our point across. We won't make you sit through another god-awful slideshow, ever.