Archive - March 2011

MAR

Agile in the Cricket World Cup?

25 MAR 2011 | Posted in agile reporting, project velocity | Author James Yoxall

With the cricket world cup in full swing (but with games taking place during the working day) I have discovered that you can get a very accurate picture of the ebb and flow of a game simply by checking the standard graphs.

Somewhat bizarrely, this proved very useful in a conversation with a governance group I am working with when discussing the relative merits of different ways of reporting velocity.

MAR

Seminar: Who's stealing my members?

24 MAR 2011 | Posted in business strategy, charity, CRM, membership organisation, NFP, website | Author Rob Smith

A big thank you to our excellent speakers from the NCT and Visit London at last night's event Who's stealing my members? Threats to your membership base. It was an excellent evening which I really enjoyed.

MAR

Open Source's Responsiveness

18 MAR 2011 | Posted in business value, CMS, open source | Author Alex McLachlan

One of Open Source's unique selling points (if I can use that phrase) is its responsiveness. We've had a really good example of this on our website recently, which demonstrates how issues with open source software can get fixed really quickly and efficiently.

MAR

Some banks are more equal than others

16 MAR 2011 | Posted in strategic IT review | Author Christina Canter |

1 Comment

Last week we started working with a really interesting client - Charity Bank - where we are carrying out an IT strategic review. Charity Bank are based in Tonbridge, Kent and are both an authorised bank and a registered charity. Individuals and organisations can deposit monies in the bank through for example; cash ISA’s and these monies are then used to provide loan finances to charities, social enterprises and voluntary organisations.

MAR

Weapons-grade Agile

11 MAR 2011 | Posted in cost of agile, scaling agile | Author Jason Smith

There was an interesting article in Computing this week – it alleged (after an extensive survey of one CIO, probably in a bar shortly after he’d been fired) that Agile was hugely more expensive over a system’s lifetime than traditional ways of running projects. “I wish I’d never heard of Agile,” wailed the unfortunate CIO.

At IndigoBlue, in addition to our good-looks, generosity and sexual dynamism, we specialise in two things. The first is, crudely, weaponising Agile; making Agile suitable for large organisations and complex programmes. The second is applying its philosophy, techniques and processes to strategic business change; how to apply incremental change across an organisation.

MAR

Scaling Agile Long Term

11 MAR 2011 | Posted in agile methodology, cost of agile, scaling agile | Author Peter Bird

Scaling Agile isn't just about concern with managing bigger teams. It's also about longer term governance and management of the broader programme.

We talk a little about this in our article on Agile Programme and Project Management.

MAR

IE6 Refuses to Die

10 MAR 2011 | Posted in internet, website | Author Alex McLachlan |

2 Comments

Internet Explorer 6 is still used by 12% of users worldwide and refuses to die, despite Microsoft's attempts to kill it off.

IE6 causes real business problems as the lack of up to date style support means that IE6 styling has to be coped with as a separate task and there are acknowledged security and speed issues.

Microsoft want to get IE6 use down to 1% and are encouraging internet users to educate IE6 users to upgrade

MAR

Four Legs Good, Two Legs Bad

08 MAR 2011 | Posted in agile business process, Government, taxonomy | Author Peter Bird

Last month a blog post by Tessa Munt, Liberal Democrat MP for Wells, reported on problems at the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).

The RPA is owned by The Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and has been in the news fairly regularly following reviews that found it was poorly managed and criticism from MPs that it had been slow making payment to England's farmers under the EU Single Payment Subsidy scheme. The latest round of problems has apparently left one farmer unable to get the RPA computer to recognise a claim because he milks sheep, and not cows.

MAR

The Utility of Value

08 MAR 2011 | Posted in agile value | Author Stan Wade

During my studies at Tanaka business school, I was introduced to a concept called utility. It’s basically a concept used in economics to describe perceived value or satisfaction of something. The interesting thing is utility is subjective. I am not a great follower of football so the utility of a season ticket to Arsenal to me is pretty low, as it would also be to a Spurs fan. It’s pretty high for a ‘Gooner’ however.

MAR

De Minimis

07 MAR 2011 | Posted in agile business change, Government, incremental change, incremental delivery | Author Jason Smith

“De minimis non curat lex - the law does not concern itself with trifles.” This phrase is often used in cases where an item is so insignificant that a court declines to make a judgement; or, by me, to dismiss a colleague’s certain victory in an argument, usually with an airy wave of the hand.

It is interesting that the law has codified something that most of us struggle with throughout our working lives. We are overwhelmed with trifling objects, often urgent and simple to address and so we allow ourselves to complete them and ignore the important, higher priority items.