• IT REVOLUTION
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Contact
  • My Resources
  • Books
  • Free Resources
    • Guidance Papers
    • Webinars and AMAs
    • Videos
  • DevOps Enterprise Summit
  • The Idealcast
  • Blog
  • IT REVOLUTION
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Contact
  • My Resources

IT Revolution

Helping technology leaders achieve their goals through publishing, events & research.

  • IT REVOLUTION
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Contact
  • My Resources
  • Books
  • Free Resources
    • Guidance Papers
    • Webinars and AMAs
    • Videos
  • DevOps Enterprise Summit
  • The Idealcast
  • Blog

Pattern 1.2: Start with Why; Empower the How

November 19, 2020 by Jonathan Smart Leave a Comment

This post is adapted from Chapter 1 of Sooner Safer Happier by Jonathan Smart, with Zsolt Berend, Myles Ogilvie, and Simon Rohrer. In Antipattern 1.2: Using Old Ways of Thinking to Apply New Ways of Working, we saw how a capital “A,” capital “T” Agile Transformation feels to an employee like involuntary, mandatory change being inflicted upon them, whether they like it or not. The capital “A” denotes how they are going to change and the capital “T” denotes that they have to change. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: Antipatterns and Patterns Series, better value sooner safer happier, business agility, Jonathan Smart, leadership, pattern, Sooner Safer Happier

BVSSH Principles

November 17, 2020 by IT Revolution Leave a Comment

In Sooner Safer Happier: Antipatterns and Patterns for Business Agility by Jonathan Smart, Zsolt Berend, Myles Ogilvie, and Simon Rohrer, each chapter's essence is distilled into guiding principles, to guide behavior and the millions of decisions that we make every day. For example, “Invite over Inflict” and “One Size Does Not Fit All.” They apply across contexts. Specific practices emerge by applying the principles to a unique context and by using coaching and experimentation, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: better value sooner safer happier, business agility, business leadership, bvssh principles, Jonathan Smart, Sooner Safer Happier

Antipattern 1.2: Using Old Ways of Thinking to Apply New Ways of Working

November 17, 2020 by Jonathan Smart 1 Comment

This post is adapted from Chapter 1 of Sooner Safer Happier by Jonathan Smart, with Zsolt Berend, Myles Ogilvie, and Simon Rohrer. Focusing on “Agile,” “Lean,” or “DevOps” as the end rather than the means to an end is using old ways of thinking to apply new ways of working. A capital “A,” capital “T” Agile Transformation, from the perspective of employees, infers involuntary, mandatory change being done to them, whether they like it or not. The capital “A” denotes how they are … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: antipattern, Antipatterns and Patterns Series, better value sooner safer happier, business agility, Jonathan Smart, Sooner Safer Happier

Pattern 1.1: Focus on Outcomes

November 13, 2020 by Jonathan Smart Leave a Comment

In our last post, we looked at Antipattern 1.1: Doing an Agile Transformation. Now we'll look at the corresponding pattern: Focus on Outcomes. Focus on the outcomes, on Better Value Sooner Safer Happier, as the goal, not on Agile, Lean, or DevOps as the goal in order to achieve true business agility. In his 1962 book Diffusion of Innovations, sociologist Everett Rogers described how innovation tended to spread first to a small number of Innovators, then reached Early Adopters, was taken up by … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: Antipatterns and Patterns Series, better value sooner safer happier, business agility, focus on outcomes, Jonathan Smart, pattern, Sooner Safer Happier

Antipattern 1.1: Doing an Agile Transformation

November 11, 2020 by Jonathan Smart 1 Comment

This post on the Agile Transformation Antipattern is adapted from Chapter 1 of Sooner Safer Happier by Jonathan Smart, with Zsolt Berend, Myles Ogilvie, and Simon Rohrer. I’ve met with many organizations and leadership teams that want to undertake an “Agile Transformation.” The process usually begins in the same way. We sit with senior leaders and ask them why they want to change. The response is often silence. A couple of people will stare at the ceiling. Someone will stretch their … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: agile, agile transformation, antipattern, Antipatterns and Patterns Series, better value sooner safer happier, business agility, Jonathan Smart, Sooner Safer Happier

What is Better Value Sooner Safer Happier?

November 9, 2020 by Jonathan Smart 1 Comment

This post is adapted from Chapter 1 of Sooner Safer Happier by Jonathan Smart, with Zsolt Berend, Myles Ogilvie, and Simon Rohrer. Do you want to do or are you currently doing an Agile, Lean, or DevOps Transformation? If so, my best advice is: Don’t. Instead, focus on the outcomes you want to achieve. Then you will achieve agility. Focus on: Better Value Sooner Safer Happier. This is the number one lesson I’ve learned after almost thirty years as an agile and lean practitioner … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: better value sooner safer happier, business, business agility, bvssh, Jonathan Smart, leadership, Sooner Safer Happier

Surviving and Thriving in the Age of Digital: BVSSH

November 6, 2020 by Jonathan Smart Leave a Comment

This is the last in a series of posts adapted from the book Sooner Safer Happier addressing frameworks and domains of working. For those who choose to leverage the latest technological revolution and adopt ways of working that suit the nature of more of today’s work, the benefits are clear. The State of DevOps Report 2019 shows that elite performers compared to low performers deliver business value through technology 208 times more frequently, are 2,604 times faster to recover from incidents, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: age of digital, better value sooner safer happier, business agility, bvssh, Jonathan Smart, Sooner Safer Happier, WaysofWorkingSeries

Domains of Work and Cynefin: A Primer for the Business Leader

November 5, 2020 by Jonathan Smart 1 Comment

Given the importance of taking an optimal approach for the type of work, it is important to understand what agile, lean, DevOps, and waterfall are and their history. People, historically, have spent very little time thinking about or improving how they do what they do. This is the fourth in a series of posts adapted from the book Sooner Safer Happier addressing these different frameworks. Approaching Work Based on the Domain of Work As we’ve seen, product development, unique change, is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: agile, business agility, cynefin, devops, Jonathan Smart, lean, Sooner Safer Happier, ways of working, WaysofWorkingSeries

Waterfall: A Primer for the Business Leader

November 4, 2020 by Jonathan Smart Leave a Comment

Given the importance of taking an optimal approach for the type of work, it is important to understand what agile, lean, DevOps, and waterfall are and their history. People, historically, have spent very little time thinking about or improving how they do what they do. This is the third in a series of posts adapted from the book Sooner Safer Happier addressing these different frameworks. What is Waterfall Most large, old, traditional organizations either used to take, or still take, a waterfall … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Books, Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: agile, business agility, devops, Jonathan Smart, lean, Sooner Safer Happier, waterfall, WaysofWorkingSeries

Ways of Working: How We Got Here

October 28, 2020 by Jonathan Smart 2 Comments

In my previous post A Sense of Urgency, I set the stage for what is at risk today. Now, in order to understand how to change, it is critical that we first understand how we got here. How we came to have the traditional ways of working that are in place in most large organizations today.  Previous Ways of Working Were Optimized for Repetitive Labor One of the leaders of the Efficiency Movement, Frederick Winslow Taylor, did much to improve industrial processes. Working first as a machinist and … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sooner Safer Happier Tagged With: business agility, business leadership, Jonathan Smart, Sooner Safer Happier, taylorism, ways of working, WaysofWorkingSeries

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »
25 NW 23rd Place
Suite 6314
Portland, OR 97210

Privacy Policy

Featured Book

Featured Book Image

Events

  • DevOps Enterprise Summit London
    Virtual · 18-20 May 2021
Copyright © 2021 IT Revolution. All rights reserved.
Site by Objectiv.