Introducing xodiac XPRS on xprs.xodiac.ca, a solution designed to address project delays, cost overruns, and quality concerns

Introducing xodiac XPRS on xprs.xodiac.ca, a solution designed to address project delays, cost overruns, and quality concerns

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Contingency Planning: How to Navigate and Mitigate Risks

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Peter Maddison
December 12, 2023
Reading time: 5 min

Effective product delivery is a constant challenge in today's dynamic business world. Whether embracing agile methodologies, implementing DevOps practices, or following traditional project management approaches, one common thread runs through them all: the need to manage risk. Contingency planning is a pivotal element in risk management, and understanding the distinction between real and perceived risks is crucial for success. In this article, we'll delve into the world of product delivery, risk assessment, and the importance of addressing risks early to ensure the smooth execution of your initiatives. 

Real Risks vs. Perceived Risks

Distinguishing between the two is fundamental for effective risk management. 

Real Risks are those that pose a tangible and quantifiable threat to your success. These risks can potentially disrupt timelines, budgets, or overall project objectives. For instance, if a critical feature is not delivered on time, it may lead to the loss of a customer to a competit...

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Assessing maturity of a technology department

April 4, 2019
Reading time: 3 min

Our ultimate objective is to help our customers be successful. We have strong opinions on what successful companies look like and what is important for an organizational culture to support sustainable success, but that is a topic for another time. For the technology organizations or departments we work with, our objective loosely translates to

help our customers get the biggest return of their IT investment

Many organizations put their faith in Agile and DevOps practices to achieve this, but fail to get the results they are hoping for.

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When working with some of our larger customers we frequently run into common barriers to change. Change is difficult and, no matter how often we say it, there is no silver bullet for how to get there. However, we can say there are commonalities in approaches, things we’d look for and actions we’d take in response to those findings. When we look at the delivery of IT capabilities within organizations, we often come across the barriers caused by how the teams are organized and, even more frequently, how the organization is working with technology. Developing powerful roadmaps is valuable and greatly helps with generating alignment and a common vision.

In this post I am going to talk through the first of three common organizational problems we encounter and ways to overcome them to better achieve your desired business outcomes. The first of these is called blame culture…

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Importance of Criticism

February 14, 2019
Reading time: 3 min

The past couple of weeks my children had to prepare and present short speeches at school. I encouraged them to practice and provided them some, what I considered to be, constructive feedback. However well meaning and positively framed, it didn’t go over too well. Watching my children learn to cope with constructive criticism reminded me about how we struggle so much with this in other settings.

It also got me thinking about one of the tools I’ve used quite effectively in both individual and team coaching. Sometimes known as the Disney Method but called by the course I learned it at, Tri-Position planning, the tool presents a useful way to help develop a vision and a plan to get there.

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Understanding DevOps

January 18, 2019
Reading time: 2 min

When it comes down to defining DevOps, the industry itself is guilty of muddying the waters, grabbing every opportunity to turn the newest hot term into a lucrative service offering, regardless of how that term is understood. This has lead to as many definitions as there are opinions with DevOps being described among other things as automation practices, a CI/CD pipeline, a philosophy related to maintaining IT infrastructure and even a job title. However, when Patrick Debois back in 2009 embarked on a mission to bring the Agile mindset to the world of IT operations by choosing Ghent, Belgium as the location to organize the first DevOpsDays conference, my understanding of his intent was:

to decrease time to value supported by solid partnerships and automation practices.

            

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