In a comedy special, Jerry Seinfeld once humorously said, “I saw a study that said speaking in front of a crowd is considered the number one fear of the average person. I found that amazing. Number two was death. Death was number two? This means to the average person if you have to be at […]
Agile Development
Observations From Making the Move From Jira to Azure DevOps: Key Differences, Pros and Cons
It’s a tale as old as time, or at least as old as Star Wars. I have “gone to the dark side” of project management platforms by dipping my toes in the Azure DevOps pool (spoiler alert, come on in! The water is fine). And while these two platforms can even be integrated with one […]
Product-Driven vs. Project-Driven: Your Keys to Success
IT leaders are under constant pressure to improve operations and stay on top of trends in the rapidly evolving world of modern business. In our guide, the ‘VP of IT’s Guide to Transforming Your Business’ we discussed the benefits of adopting a product-driven organization over a project-driven one. In our first blog in this series, […]
How Salesforce Can Be the Fuel for Your Digital Oilfield Launch
Growth Mindset For the history of oil and gas companies, growth has been the key indicator of success. Recently, the global pressure to reduce carbon footprint has switched industry focus from growth to adaptability. To survive the volatility of supply and demand in the market – regularly disrupted by political, social, and economic trends – […]
The Importance of Tracking Requirements Updates
The beauty of Agile is its ability to adapt to change. One of the principles behind the Agile Manifesto is “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.” Clients change their minds. Maybe they don’t like how something looks or functions once it’s using real-world, actual content. […]
Top 3 Reasons for a QA Environment
Imagine as a Quality Analyst, you begin your day of testing. You log into Sitecore Content Editor, create a page, name it, and open it in Experience Editor but receive a white screen “Our Services are unavailable.” You investigate and see a deployment happening to your environment, which is DEV. All this has taken 10 […]
5 Tips for Refreshing Your Retrospectives
Retrospectives, when run effectively, are an invaluable tool for an agile team. However, these meetings can get stale and tiring if you have one every ten days or if you’re on the same project for multiple years. Keeping your team engaged is key for gathering feedback that you can use to improve moving forward. Here […]
Managing External Project Dependencies
I like to look at projects as if they are puzzles. All the pieces are established, but as a project manager, you must figure out the most appropriate and logical sequence to complete the bigger picture. An Iteration Plan is a helpful tool that can help to organize and visualize the sequence of work. In […]
Ensuring a Smooth Go-Live with a Cutover Plan
Project go-lives can be intense and take hours or even days. Following a detailed plan can streamline your go-live to help avoid a rollback and allow everyone to shut their computers as quickly as possible. Let’s discuss how to create a solid Cutover Plan to set yourself up for success. Why a Cutover Plan? First, the […]
Hip-Hip-Hooray for the HIP Sprint
Software delivery projects are most often organized into “Sprints” of work where the team is executing in what can feel like a never-ending loop of plan, execute, demo, repeat. This non-stop, fast-paced cycle leaves little breathing room for reflecting on or implementing unplanned improvements or technical debt which the team is bound to accumulate through […]
Agile Sitecore Training – Part 2 of 3
Agile Sitecore Training – Part 2 of 3 Introduction This post is the second in a series discussing applying agile practices to training for Sitecore products. In the first post, I covered applying “Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools” to training. In this post, I will look at “Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation”. Over […]
Agile Sitecore Training – Part 1 of 3
Agile Sitecore Training – Part 1 of 3 Introduction This post is the first in a series discussing applying agile practices to training for Sitecore products. Over the past few years, I have been uncovering different ways to deliver training. To help people retain what is taught, I want to deliver in a way that […]