March 18, 2017 — Agile practices such as Scrum, and Lean practices such as Kanban, have become some of the biggest buzzwords in tech, and are top keyword in job descriptions. But they’re also frequently misunderstood, and constantly argued about online, which can make them seem intimidating and confusing. They can affect everything from how you write code, to how you organize your work, and how you relate to your customers. I can’t cover everything about them in a single talk, but I can explain some core Agile and Lean concepts, and how to go about trying them out in a way that can maximize their benefits while minimizing risk and disruption to your work. I’ll share insights from hard-won experiences bringing Agile and Lean practices to several different companies and consultancies where I’ve worked. While some of these practices are tremendously beneficial for WordPress work, others can cause confusion, and even harm if you try to suddenly force them into a typical WordPress development environment. I’ll do Q&A with the audience through most of the talk, as every workplace has unique challenges, and I want to make sure the talk addresses what’s on people’s minds and the challenges they are dealing with, whether they’re issues with difficult customers, deadline pressures, too many bugs, project management difficulties, etc.

Presentation Slides »

July 27, 2015 — In this talk we explore what goes into a TandM contract, how to persuade a prospective client to sign one, and how to live up to the expectations you create in the persuasion process, to deliver a successful project.

November 14, 2011