Stan Wade Senior Consultant
User experience of agile project: I have never known a project to develop at such a rate."
- Job Title
- Senior Consultant
- Bio
I am a highly experienced Agile mentor, with more than a decade's experience of Agile over a number of market sectors, primarily in the financial sector.
I have been an IT professional since my first degree in 1987 and have worked in virtually every role within IT from developer through to national IT manager. My 2005 MBA from Imperial College supports my business led approach to IT, with my strong development and operations background ensuring I am comfortable in a technical environment
Since joining IndigoBlue I have focused on Agile transitions for a number of clients
- Short bio
I'm an Agile mentor with more than a decade's experience of Agile. I mainly work on corporate Agile transformations, but with my varied background, am fairly confident I can handle most roles on software delivery.
- LinkedIn profile
- http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/stan-wade/2/692/a97
- Google+ profile
- https://plus.google.com/103399203661669620300
My Most Recent Posts
A General view of planning
24 MAY 2013 | Posted in agile planning | Author Stan Wade |
1 Comment
I get asked the question ‘who is your favourite 19th century Prussian Field Marshal’ quite a lot, as I suspect you do as well. There are of course several great contenders for this title, but my vote has to go Helmuth Von Moltke the Elder. Why? Because of his contribution to the concept of dynamic planning! Trying to convince people that planning is a continuous and never ending process and not something that’s completed at the start of a project is a constant challenge for me and I will grab any support I can get.
Building Eden - Or how to live or die based on your project planning approach
29 APR 2013 | Posted in incremental delivery, iterative development, planning | Author Stan WadeOne of the biggest challenges I have is to get people to think incrementally and iteratively when developing software. When you have spent an entire career focusing on end-goal fixed product definitions, its hard to understand it’s all about a vision, the journey and the decisions you make on the way.
Fixed or adaptive planning - A tale of targeting, turbulence and torpedoes
07 MAR 2013 | Posted in agile planning, change management, initiation | Author Stan WadeWhy is it so hard for people to accept that projects are subject to constant change and that they should adapt to the evolving environment rather than trying to predict everything and then fighting to defend their position despite reality?
Community-developed Refinement (CDR)
14 FEB 2013 | Posted in community, crowd, development | Author Stan WadeSo I was thinking about my last blog on Windows 8 and how my problem had been resolved by some ‘add on’ software supplied by a third party.
Sometimes simpler isn’t better!
18 JAN 2013 | Posted in change, Microsoft, usability | Author Stan Wade | 5 Comments
No, I haven't crossed over to the Dark Side just yet, but I have found myself in the disturbing situation where progress isn’t needed or wanted. I am now in probably the second or third round of Stan Vs Windows 8. It’s not a top billing event, but one that has left me rather disappointed.
I got a fabulous new laptop which has technology improvements everywhere. Battery life is superb with a system to protect if for 5 years. Great processor, good storage capacity, nice display and a very nice keyboard. All around I am very pleased with the hardware.
Lessons Learned - An annual retrospective
31 DEC 2012 | Posted in best practice, lessons learned, retrospectives | Author Stan WadeAnother year has ended and I have been looking back at what I have worked on over the last 12 months. An annual retrospective. What have I learned? What needs special attention and what will I be thinking about on day one with a new client?
Well I won’t go into the details because it’s a bit boring, but the highlights may be of interest to you. I have listed the top three I identified based on what happened to me in the last year. It may not be the same retrospective format you are used to, but this is what I needed.
Why can't we get to the 'Point(s)'?
28 NOV 2012 | Posted in estimation, points | Author Stan WadeWhenever I work with a new technical team, one of the biggest challenges I usually encounter is establishing the use of relative estimation. People are simply uncomfortable with using points for relative estimation and want to constantly convert them back to days and then throw their hands up in the air and say ‘what’s the point?’ in more than one way.
So here I am again faced with the observation, from a retrospective, that two weeks is too short for a sprint. The stories that are being developed are taking too long and the team don’t think enough is being completed in a sprint.
Agile Estimation Plus?
15 OCT 2012 | Posted in agile estimating, t-shirt sizing | Author Stan Wade | 1 Comment
I was helping out at the IndigoBlue stand at the Agile Business Conference last week and we were giving away some our new story estimation cards. Nothing special there I hear you say, we get cards from any number of places already. The difference was we have created some cards that are a little different. Different enough to spark some great discussions with delegates.
We are all happy with the concept of standards, well I hope we are anyway. A standard gives us a baseline to work with and allows us to have a common understanding of what to expect. Coding standards are pretty universal in development. Well I say that, but I am amazed how often they don’t seem to be in place, used, or validated against with static analysis or manual code reviews. But that’s another issue. Few people would contest their value or importance in generating quality code. So let’s assume we are happy with the value of coding standards.
MY RECENT BLOG POSTS
I get asked the question ‘who is your favourite 19th century Prussian Field Marshal’ quite a lot, as I suspect you do as well. There are of course several great contenders for this title, but my vote has to go Helmuth Von Moltke the Elder. Why? Because of his contribution to the concept of dynamic planning! Trying to convince people that planning is a continuous and never ending process and not something that’s completed at the start of a project is a constant challenge for me and I will grab any support I can get.
