Archive for September 2011
The Three Faces of Innovation
To succeed with innovation, you need to simultaneously address all three aspects:
- Affordable experimentation through the Agile process.
- Empowerment of (self sufficient) local teams.
- Let go of the hierarchical control concentrated in corporate headquarters.
A New Arithmetic for the Backlog
The heart of the matter in this engagement was ensuring that technical debt stories would not become ‘second citizens.’ We proposed treating technical debt as a strategic investment theme. To our way of thinking, technical debt is no different from customary budget allocations to growing market segments, tactical sales opportunities, cost reduction and the like.
Click here for details in the Cutter blog including guidance how to work through the Data Structure of the Enterprise figure below.
Allocation Flows in the Data Structure of the Enterprise
Our Walls are Thicker
Indeed, not only were their walls thicker, they actually seemed to have razor wire on top and armed guards with vicious dogs patrolling each side of the metaphorical wall. All in an era characterized by tremendous advances in social networking and collaboration.
Click here for details of my Cutter blog post on the subject. Until you have the opportunity to do so, the picture below will quickly gives you the gist of it…
Juggling on the Berlin Wall (source: Wikipedia)
The Agile Executive 