Operational Practices: Streamlining Workflows for Continuous Improvement

Explores why real leadership means designing systems that enable team autonomy, flow, and accountability—rather than relying on command-and-control …

Explains how audience-based deployment and testing in production enable faster feedback, safer rollouts, and higher software quality by targeting real …

High work in progress (WIP) causes delays and unpredictability; improving estimates won’t help. Limiting WIP and focusing on flow is key to reliable …

Explains why dependencies are a sign of poor system design and outlines steps to eliminate them by aligning teams, clarifying ownership, and …

Explores Agile as a disciplined system of delivery, emphasizing engineering excellence, CI/CD, observability, and system design over mindset or …

Tracking estimation accuracy in software delivery leads to mistrust, fear, and distorted behaviours. Focus on customer value, flow, and outcomes—not …

Continuous delivery is achievable for any software, regardless of complexity. Success depends on investment in automation, quality, and process …

Explores when to use a single Azure DevOps project versus multiple projects, detailing impacts on flow, visibility, governance, and team collaboration …

Learn key strategies for building business resilience and continuity, including observability, system decoupling, routine deployments, team …

Excessive handoffs in software development create delays, reduce quality, and harm team morale. Learn how eliminating handoffs boosts agility, flow, …

Measuring individual cycle time in Kanban misleads teams, hides real bottlenecks, and harms flow. Focus on system-wide metrics like PCE, WIP, and …

Continuous Improvement is the ongoing practice of relentless reflection and adaptation, driven by empirical evidence, aimed at consistently enhancing …

Comprehensive guide to using OKRs for shared focus, measurable outcomes, and strategic learning, including roles, events, best practices, and common …

Explores how effective capacity planning shifts focus from individual hours to system-level flow, using Lean and Agile principles to improve …

A weekly one-hour mentorship for engineering teams to improve code quality, delivery predictability, and team culture through practical, …

Discover why “done” means live in production—not just code complete. Learn to deliver real value, close feedback loops, and drive outcomes that …

Scrum teams must deliver working software to real users every Sprint; true progress is measured by delivery to production, not just by completing …

Explore proven strategies from Azure DevOps for building resilient, reliable software systems—covering transparency, automation, telemetry, incident …

Applying software engineering principles to ensure scalable and reliable systems.

Visualising workflows to identify inefficiencies and optimise value delivery.

Explains how to gather key metrics for evidence-based management in software organisations, focusing on value delivery, time to market, and ability to …

Explains how fragmented automation and tool silos harm software delivery, and advocates for unified engineering systems and platform engineering to …

NKD Agility helped SLB unify 800+ engineering teams by consolidating DevOps systems, standardizing processes, and improving visibility, collaboration, …

Mentoring program for developers and teams to master Agile, DevOps, Kanban, and evidence-based practices, fostering engineering excellence and …

Explains how the Definition of Done evolves in Scrum, aligning team practices with organisational standards to ensure consistent quality, compliance, …

Velocity measures how quickly teams turn ideas into value, using build, test, deploy, and feedback times—not just story points—to track real delivery …

Using data, metrics, and feedback to drive continuous improvement in teams and processes.

Transform legacy engineering with a proven, step-by-step approach—learn how to automate, adapt, and build a resilient, modern DevOps culture.

Explains how Scrum teams can strategically allow unfinished work to flow across Sprint boundaries, enhancing throughput, responsiveness, and …

Measuring the time from work initiation to customer delivery, helping teams monitor workflow efficiency and improve value delivery.

Explains why promoting code through multiple branches slows delivery, increases risk, and suggests GitHub Flow or Release Flow as simpler, safer …

Balancing risk and speed when getting software into production.

Optimising the throughput of work across the value stream to improve speed and reduce bottlenecks.

Optimise Agile execution with Agile Planning Tools. Enhance backlog management, forecasting, and collaboration across teams.

Explains how technical leaders can break down organisational silos and enforce better branching, team structures, and architecture to improve software …

Explains the difference between subjective goals and the objective Definition of Done in Scrum, highlighting how clear, measurable criteria ensure …

AI exposes that coding was never the main bottleneck in software delivery; real constraints are in system flow, team practices, and organisational …

Stop testing quality in—start building it in. Learn how shifting left, automation, and fast feedback loops drive engineering excellence in modern …

Adding more staging environments does not reduce deployment risk; true safety comes from automated testing, continuous integration, and quality …

The Scrum Master is an accountability in Scrum, responsible for enabling the effectiveness of the Scrum Team and fostering continuous improvement …

Value in software is only realised through delivery. Frequent releases validate assumptions, reduce risk, and enable rapid feedback, adaptation, and …

Still deploying manually? Discover why automation isn’t optional—protect your business, avoid disaster, and deliver value with modern engineering …

Stop relying on memory for quality. Discover why automated pipelines beat manual checks, and how embedding quality gates ensures trust, speed, and …

One Engineering System (1ES) is a strategic standardised, integrated framework designed to streamline software development by unifying tools, …

Automating builds, tests, and deployments with Azure Pipelines.

Explains why a “Blocked” column in Azure DevOps hinders workflow, and suggests using tags and tracking to manage blocked work more effectively and …

Transform your organisation with the Agile Product Operating Model, blending agile practices and product management to deliver consistent, …

A practical guide to Evidence-Based Management, showing how organisations use experiments, feedback, and key value areas to improve value delivery …

Manage Agile projects effectively with Azure Boards. Track work, optimise planning, and improve team collaboration.

Minimising waste while maximising learning in product creation.

Applying Lean principles to reduce waste and improve efficiency in workflows.

NKD Agility helped SLB unify build and release processes across 90 teams in 13 countries, boosting team ownership, efficiency, and engineering …

Explains how short-lived topic branches in source control improve software quality, enable modularity, speed up integration, and support agile, …

Defines the Definition of Done in Scrum as a clear, shared standard for quality, ensuring increments are releasable, transparent, and continuously …

Getting Started with the Definition of Done (DoD). Every team should define what is required, what criteria must be met, for a product increment to be …

Is your team’s “done” really done? Discover how a clear, objective definition of done boosts quality, agility, and trust in product delivery.

Unlock a smarter Definition of Done—start small, evolve standards, and build team momentum without overwhelm. Discover how progress drives excellence.

Stop firefighting late-stage bugs—discover how shifting left saves time, money, and reputation by building quality in from the start. Learn the …

Stop flying blind after release—learn why telemetry is vital to your Definition of Done and how real feedback drives better software, value, and team …

Unlock legacy system agility—discover how DevOps transforms slow, brittle tech into fast, scalable, and change-ready platforms without starting from …