Dominica Degrandis
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Dominica Degrandis

Dominica teaches Kanban to DevOps enthusiasts. As an Executive Consultant at LeanKit, Dominica combines experience, practice and theory to help organizations level up their capability. She is keen on providing visibility and transparency across teams to reveal mutually critical information. Follow her on Twitter at @dominicad.

The Myth of Multitasking: Why IT Operations Needs WIP Limits

It may sound hard to believe, but multitasking is an effective way to get less done. Juggling multiple tasks at once interrupts your focus, which can cause you to spend more time on each task than if you had completed them one at a time. While research proves the harmful effects of multitasking on productivity, many of...

From Divided to United — Aligning Technical and Business Teams

Are your technical and business teams at odds with each other? They don’t have to be. Alignment is defined as “a position of agreement or alliance”.  Aligning technical and business teams is a matter of gaining clarity and consensus around why teams are doing what they’re doing. Your teams may (and in fact, should) argue about the who, what, and when,...

The Misaligned Middle: Getting IT Managers On Board with Change

People are talking about the misaligned middle. How can it be that executives understand the value of emerging practices in IT Operations, such as Lean and DevOps, and individual contributors in the trenches get it, but the middle managers just don’t seem to? Are they unaware? Stubborn? Is it learned helplessness? Sandwiched between leadership and individual contributors,...

Using Guardrails to Guide Decision Making

Guardrails are designed to keep people from unintentionally straying into dangerous territory. They are usually placed in the trickiest areas, where it is easy to take a wrong turn. Just as guardrails along the roadway keep drivers safer, decision–making guardrails can protect businesses from taking unnecessary risks. Our concept of guardrails for knowledge work was born...

Lead Time Metrics: Why Weekends Matter

At the Agile2015 conference last August, I overheard a tool vendor demonstrating metrics reports to an interested visitor. Wanting to learn more, I lingered by the booth. The visitor expressed interest in lead time metrics and asked if there was any way to exclude weekends from the lead time reports. I intruded (in my politest, most respectable way)...