[marathon #165 / unique marathon #83 / 17 September 2017]
I was looking for an excuse to take a long weekend in the Mother City – and the Cape Town Marathon more than justified a trip down south.
Cape Town Marathon
The Power of Feature Hypotheses
Background
One of the improvements SAFe version 4.5 introduced was incorporating practices from “The Lean Startup” into the framework – specifically the use of benefit hypothesis statements into features and epics. This is a story of how well this worked for us. Continue reading “The Power of Feature Hypotheses”
6 Reasons: From 12 Months to 2 Weeks for Feature Delivery
This article is a supplementary appendix to the post: The Power of Feature Hypotheses.
Where We Were: 12 Months to Deliver a Small Feature
The graphic below is an example of a feature that previously took 12 months to deliver when we were working waterfall. This was the typical cycle-time for a small feature. Larger features would usually take over two years to flow through the system. With agile, we would now expect this same feature to be complete in a two week sprint. This article provides the six main reasons for the massive cycle-time reduction.
Continue reading “6 Reasons: From 12 Months to 2 Weeks for Feature Delivery”
Using Hypothesis Statements for Features in Software Development
This article is an supplementary appendix to the post: The Power of Feature Hypotheses
Experiment-Based Approach
Instead of making up-front decisions based on assumptions and imperfect knowledge we create hypotheses and run a series of experiments to determine whether each hypothesis is true or false. The results determine what we should stop doing, start doing and continue doing. Based on complexity, uncertainty and rapidly changing environments, most software development projects are “research and development” exercises ideally suited to this hypothesis-based approach. Continue reading “Using Hypothesis Statements for Features in Software Development”
Reykjavik Marathon (and everything I learned about Iceland in 2 days)
[marathon #164 / unique marathon #82]
One of my paradoxical mantras is that, “Every holiday should include a marathon.” Last year, with some exceptional planning, I managed to fit three marathons into a one-week holiday in KwaZulu Natal. Unfortunately, young kids and the steadily declining rand mean that international holidays (and therefore international marathons) are something of a rarity these days. However, August 2017 saw a mini-family reunion scheduled in the Lake District in England and I hoped that this would provide the opportunity to increase my international marathon count (which was sitting at 26).
Travel dates were fixed around the Johannesburg school holidays and I expected to be spoilt for choice with interesting English marathons to pick from. I was devastated to find nothing in the race calendar. It’s obviously far too hot to run summer marathons in the UK – damn global warming! Undeterred I decided to cast my net wider; and was relieved to find the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland where it never gets too hot to run marathons.
Continue reading “Reykjavik Marathon (and everything I learned about Iceland in 2 days)”
Top 10 Reasons To Grow A Beard
For the last few years I’ve done Movember. Not only did I help raise several hundred thousand rands for CANSA but I also quickly realised that fast facial hair growth is one of my super powers. Despite this evolutionary advantage over other humans, I’ve spent the rest of my time on this planet clean shaven. At the end of last year I finally decided it was time to embrace this talent and unleash the full potential of my unshaven awesomeness on the world – so I decided to Decem-beard.
Eight months on and the world is indeed a better place. Based on my experience, here are my top 10 reasons to grow a beard… Continue reading “Top 10 Reasons To Grow A Beard”