agile

Checklist for how to become a business owner by selling your skills and passion

I’ve been asked many times what are the steps to build your own business. This is not a post about “how to…”, the Internet and LinkedIn is full of them,  but more like a checklist with things you should consider when opening a business to sell your skills and experience. If you are reading this, then you realized by now that the value of combining your skills and passions is worth something and you are thinking to create your own business. It is true that the entrepreneurial path allows individuals to leverage their unique talents, pursue their passions, and ultimately become in charge of their own destiny but it comes with risks and challenges at all steps.   In this short article, I will define a checklist of how you can transform your skills and passion into a business. This list is not comprehensive, it lacks many steps related to building the company, obtaining finances, acquiring customers, etc. Identify Your Skills and Passions The first step towards becoming a successful business owner is to identify your skills and passion areas. Reflect on your strengths, experiences, and expertise. What are you exceptionally good at? What activities bring you joy and fulfillment?…

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Managing Startups: Best Posts of 2012 (guest post)

Original article: http://platformsandnetworks.blogspot.ca/2012/12/managing-startups-best-posts-of-2012.html Author:Tom Eisenmann     Lean Startup David Aycan of IDEO on the value of prototyping multiple MVPs in parallel. Vin Vacanti on excuses that kept Yipit from launching early. Entrepreneur Graeham Douglas on lean techniques for rapid prototyping of physical products. Emre Sokullu of GROU.PS on software that is well suited for building MVPs. Ben Yoskovitz of GoInstant on the value of focusing on “one metric that matters.” Ash Maurya published his book, Running Lean; he describes the Lean Stack — tools for managing hypothesis testing — in a two-part post. Joel Spolsky on the costs of different types of software inventory. Glenn Kelman of Redfin on how running lean without deep product convictioncan lead entrepreneurs to pivot too quickly and build mediocre products. Dan Milstein of Wingu in a video from the 2012 Lean Startup Conference on conducting a “5 Whys” session. Trevor Owens of Lean Startup Machine on different approaches for validating assumptions. A video from the Lean Startup Conference of Lean Startup Machine SF 2012 winner, Chef’s Table, discussing their pivots and hypothesis tests. Other videos from Eric Ries’s Lean Startup Conference. Business Models Bill Gurley of Benchmark, David Beisel of NextView Ventures, and Seth Rothman of Greylock on key factors for success in building online marketplaces. Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures on revenue models for online…


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Guest post: Agile Product Ownership in a nutshell

Credits: Imported from : http://blog.crisp.se/2012/10/25/henrikkniberg/agile-product-ownership-in-a-nutshell#comment-3697 Author: Henrik Kniberg  Company: Crisp   There’s obviously more to product ownership than this, so see this is a high level summary. Download the complete drawing here. I recommend watching the video instead of reading the transcript from the source URL. The video is 100% visual, the transcript is 0% visual…  


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Lazy Developers Hate Agile and Scrum (updated with my opinion)

From Agilescout.com “Lazy developers cannot hide specific problems for weeks. Every day you have to explain your progress.” “Lazy developers hate Scrum because they have to report progress everyday.” “It’s really a team effort, the team has the responsibility to deliver together.” “Lazy developer are often the ones that now have to show what they’ve been hiding before from a customer.” “In sum we do believe lazy developers hate Scrum and Agile because they have to change, they have to be much more visible to what they are doing and cannot hide.”     My opinion: I think that there is no such thing as “lazy” developers. There are developers who are demotivated, who don’t have a solid technical background or simply doesn’t understand what they have to do. And all these have as effect that the project doesn’t move forward. For those who see the problem from outside, this gives the impression that a developer is “lazy” because he doesn’t produce the expected results.



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Scrum in a presentation

Yes, you got it until now… I am learning more and more Scrum and I find more and more resources on the net. The more I read, the more I like the concepts. Here is a presentation about Scrum which is freely available and redistributable. I am definitely going to use it. English version Formats: Powerpoint KeyNote OpenOffice German version Formats: Powerpoint KeyNote I tool the liberty to upload it to slideshare.com : Introduction into Scrum View more presentations from msorin. Another great presentation can be found here: Intro Agile Software Development with Scrum for Campus Party 2009 View more presentations from Antonio Carlos Silveira


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The Twelve Principles of Agile Software

The Twelve Principles of Agile Software of the Agile Alliance: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility. Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.  


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