The other day I commented on a tweet from Paul Klipp. A man I highly respect around all things Lean and Agile. Here’s the tweet and my response:

@duarte_vasco @paulklipp true, but only chasing waste is too simple :) "Value trumps flow, flow trumps waste reduction" @DReinertsen

— Marcus Hammarberg (@marcusoftnet) May 9, 2015

All the elements to have an argument are in there: the word “waste” is used (see below) the tag #NoEstimates is mention (which in itself has caused a lot of anger) and finally the tweet is a bit provokative.

However, since I know that “waste” is a concept that many people have many different ideas about (I promise I will explain) I wrote the comment above.

After that I found myself in a discussion on twitter made up of some the names that I...

One of the things that becomes increasingly fascinating as I get older is the new knowledge acquired while “doing things for real”. Currently, we have been building a site for my current organization.

We built a little CMS to drive content, and the whole page is a Single Page Application (SPA). As we approached completion, we naturally wanted to add Google Analytics to the site. Sounds simple enough.

Or maybe not… in this post, I’ll describe how we got it to work for our Single Page Application. Google Analytics default setup is not built for that. And many descriptions you find out there are written with a client-side framework in mind, like Backbone.js.

What I write about below only requires jQuery, and that’s mostly for convenience.

As with most things I learn, it’s based on others’ knowledge that I tweak. In this case, I found a...

One thing that I often find myself want to do is to check the database after I have created a resource. For example:

• Post some data to /user
• Verify that I get 201 Created back
• Check that the data in the database looks ok

I have had such a hard time finding a stable way to do this. I know that I have a little bit of a special tool chain but still… it should not be this hard.

But last night, after weeks searching for this, I got it to work. I’m so excited to share this with you.

Recently, I had the pleasure of engaging in an agile coaching opportunity in Kuala Lumpur for Nintex.

The experience was not only enjoyable but also enlightening, as coaching often leads to mutual learning and growth. It’s fascinating how verbalizing abstract ideas can give them new clarity and depth.

In this post, I’d like to share some of the insights and concepts I discussed during the three days spent with the teams at Nintex.

Setting Clear Goals for Sessions

One valuable lesson I learned was the importance of setting specific goals for each coaching session. Inspired by advice from coaching expert Dan North, I made it a priority to define clear objectives for each team interaction. This simple yet powerful practice helped guide our discussions and focus our efforts effectively.

Embracing Experimentation over Change

Throughout the coaching sessions, I emphasized the importance of framing initiatives as experiments...

The little series I’ve written on supertest and other Koa friends is moving very slowly ahead. Lots of new findings is making for a lot of innovation that I need to find out and try out.

But here are the things I’ve written so far:

• Splitting API over several files
• Splitting the API not only the test - this post
• Verify in database after ended request

In this post I will show you a powerful way of using koa-mount to create a very modular application structure. And how to test it, of course.

As before, if you want to tag along as I build this example out, grab the code from this tag, and we’ll start at the same place.

I recently returned from three days of coaching at Nintex in Kuala Lumpur. During this time, I had the opportunity to work with six teams consisting of 40 people. What struck me most during this experience was the level of trust Nintex showed in me. Despite the inability to micromanage my coaching, they placed their trust in my expertise. This trust is foundational for effective coaching and collaboration.

One topic we discussed extensively was the concept of “Order Point,” a key element in the Kanban methodology for replenishing backlogs just-in-time. Unlike traditional approaches such as planning at the start of an iteration (common in Scrum), the Order Point enables teams to dynamically manage their workload based on demand.

Understanding Order Point

The Order Point, as described in Kanban In Action, serves as a signal to replenish the backlog when it reaches a predetermined threshold. This threshold, illustrated...

I’m reading Reinventing Organizations right now and it’s an inspiring read to say the least. Finally someone puts words and structure to what I’ve tried to do, achieve and explain to others.

And the stories about the self-organization, trust-embracing, hierarchy-demolishing, performance-through-the-roof, best-place-to-work-organizations are truly truly amazing.

I’ve several times wiped tears from my face reading these stories. Not because it’s so great but because it comes down to trusting the people in the organization. As one founder of such organization puts it when he describes his organization FAVI:

The organization that believes that mankind is good

I don’t care what they are doing - I want to work there. I know I can belong! Luckily I work for a company, Aptitud, that strives towards this.

But what is common for these organizations?

Mind you I’ve only read 1/3 of the book… this might be answered later and then...

My favorite thing with blogging is the feedback I get. In fact; that’s the reason I blog. There. I’ve said it. I love to see many read my stuff and get back to me with questions and suggestion. I’m not even ashamed to say so.

Sometimes people even ask me to blog about something. I really love that, even though I’ve have to find time to do so. I got a very nice comment from James Gardner asking me to blog a little more about supertest.

He specifically asked me to show how to “split test into separate files for big APIs”, so I’ll do that in this post.

But that sprung a few ideas about things that I’ve started to use a lot and I thought I’ll do a little mini-series here. Here are some posts I have in mind:

• Splitting API over several files -...

Yes, it’s another post on change management. As a consultant … well that’s basically your job. And most of my engagements are of consultancy type. But change management is very trick to do right, frustrating and … simply wonderfully rewarding if you get it to work.

Sadly this post is describing my frustrations rather than a “one size fit all situation” solution. Of course, since those solutions don’t really exists in reality. Where I work.

I wanted to share a thought that went through my head one day when I was particular frustrated. And then tell you why it was stupid and how I now changed my thinking about this problem / situation.

Yes - it will be great fun. Mmmmmm frustration…

Just kidding but I will try to write this so I can use it as a nice reminder post for when I fall into this reasoning again. Maybe...

I’m starting to realize that the biggest advantage I, personally, will get from my three years in Indonesia is a lot of experience in change management, under some extreme conditions. As I’ve blogged about, twice, I am now in a culture where questioning is not done. It’s not encourage, not praised, not sought for etc. You simply don’t do it.

Again please don’t read that as I think that they are stupid or ignorant - it’s just their culture. There’s a lot of strange things going on in our culture too. Just step outside your own box and you’ll see it.

In fact; that’s what this post is about; stepping out of my box. A simple question that I’ve found very valuable for me to understand “them”.

Getting to the point

First let’s get back to my intro a bit. I think that everything I’ve...