Articles
Video: Portfolio Kanban - Seeing the Bigger Picture

Video: Portfolio Kanban - Seeing the Bigger Picture

Nov 15, 2014  ·  Sandy Mamoli

Doing too many things at once can slow down an entire organisation. As every successful organisation will have more great ideas than they have capacity to build, it is tempting to start too many of them at the same time. However, too many projects in progress will slow down delivery of each and ever... continue reading

What do Scrum Masters and Product Owners do?

What do Scrum Masters and Product Owners do?

Oct 27, 2014  ·  Sandy Mamoli

It can be easy to forget what a Product Owner or Scrum Master actually do. A poster with a role description can come in handy so, based on popular demand, here are the beautifully designed ones we use at Trade Me. Download the pdf version here. Download the pdf version here. I hope they'll look a... continue reading

How we measure output and productivity

How we measure output and productivity

Jun 03, 2014  ·  Sandy Mamoli

... getting more stuff done At Trade Me we want to measure the overall health of Tech (that’s our team of 125 designers, developers, testers, BAs, and Squad Masters) to identify trends and to know if we are getting better (or worse!). We know that when we measure something it is a strong way of sayi... continue reading

Large Scale Self-Selection - the Trade Me Case Study

Large Scale Self-Selection - the Trade Me Case Study

Jan 11, 2014  ·  Sandy Mamoli

Organisations get the best results when people can choose what they work on and who they work with. In that spirit we decided to let people self-organise into small, cross-functional teams called squads. Up until last week we had six established squads within two tribes the rollout had been purposef... continue reading

Self-Selection: The Self-Organising organisation

Self-Selection: The Self-Organising organisation

Oct 15, 2013  ·  Sandy Mamoli

... let teams self-select! At Trade Me we’re in the process of getting everyone into small, cross-functional teams (squads) that will persist over time and across projects. Up until last week we had six established squads and the rollout had been purposefully slow and controlled. Now we felt there... continue reading

Every day should be Fedex day!

Every day should be Fedex day!

Sept 02, 2013  ·  Sandy Mamoli

5 things that happen when you let ‘em loose ... Last Friday we had Fedex day at Trade Me. The aim of a FedEx Day is to complete something deliverable within a 24 hour period, i.e. to go from idea to a shippable product within a day. It was fun, lots of great projects saw the light of day and I enjoy... continue reading

Organisational Change with Mikado

Organisational Change with Mikado

Aug 05, 2012  ·  Sandy Mamoli

If you’re doing it right an Agile and Lean adoption requires organisational change. Organisational change is often difficult because of the many layers and dependencies and the sheer number of people involved. At my current client organisational change involves upper and middle management, developm... continue reading

Should we choose Iterative or Agile?

Should we choose Iterative or Agile?

Mar 11, 2012  ·  Sandy Mamoli

One of my current clients, a large government agency, have recognised that their current monothilitic waterfall approach doesn’t work all that well and are trying to decide whether to change their delivery approach to Agile or “just” Iterative (mini-waterfall style). Management have recognised that... continue reading

Utilisation, Teams and "Resources"

Utilisation, Teams and "Resources"

Oct 01, 2011  ·  Sandy Mamoli

In many companies, especially those who provide services to external clients, the main focus from a project management perspective seems to be on resource allocation and utilisation. People are viewed as individual “resources” and an important goal is to maximise people’s utilisation (Before you say... continue reading

10 ways to fail with Agile

10 ways to fail with Agile

Sept 24, 2010  ·  Sandy Mamoli

Last week I presented at WebDU in Sydney. The conference was excellently organised by Geoff and the Daemon guys and I met lots of interesting people. And I love Sydney! In short I had a blast. Apart from a workshop on user stories I presented on 10 ways to fail with Agile. Judging by the Twitter str... continue reading