Long-Term Strategic Planning: Epic-Level Estimation

This is a reprint from the book The Green Book: Collection of Independent Essays, by Gene Gendel.  Article name: Epic-Level Estimation (p. 108). Free PDF copy.  Amazon Download. Imagine: You are about to form a new feature team that is composed of bright, cross-functional experts, self-motivated and self-managed. They all worked in Scrum settings before … Read more

Reviews, Appraisals and Incentives

Author: Gene Gendel I wanted to start this discussion with Wikipedia definition of Performance Appraisal: “A performance appraisal (PA), also referred to as a performance review, performance evaluation,[1] (career) development discussion,[2] or employee appraisal[3] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. Performance appraisals are a part of … Read more

From Tickets to Trust: How Jira’s Issue Model Enables Lean, Transparent Software Delivery

In many organizations, tools like Jira, Rally, Version1, VSTS, Azure DevOps and similar, are still treated as administrative systems—places where work is logged after the fact while “real” planning and reporting happen elsewhere, in spreadsheets, heavy .ppt slide decks, and carefully curated status updates. This separation creates friction, delays, and often a quiet erosion of … Read more