The harder you work, the luckier you get.

                               Don’t be confused by luck, just because you don’t see all the effort, actions and failures prior.

People the most committed to success are the ‘luckiest’.

Harland Sanders failed 1009 times before his now famous Kentucky Fried Chicken was accepted by even one restaurant... at age 65.

Sylvester Stallone has to sell his dog  for $50 to afford heat + food for his survival, before the script for Rocky was bought... and grossed $120M. 

Keep at it. Commit to success. Finish the week strong. 

#mindset #success #change #leadership

Frequently Asked Interview Questions

Presented below are some FAQs and their suggested answers. Once again, remember there is no right answer or wrong answer. The winner only gives the best answer out of all the other candidates. Below listed are some of commonly asked questions and their answers as per a wide survey of successful candidates. The reader can use these as a template and build upon each answer based on the position and their own personal experience.

Q1: Tell me about yourself. OR Tell me something not mentioned in your resume.

Ans: My background to date has been focused on preparing myself to become the very best at this job. I have done this by studying (mention latest academic qualifications) and working (mention any internship or work experience). This has helped me matching myself ideally to the position that you have open and I am confident I am a good fit. My skills will help you to save training time and result in quick efficiency.

Q2: Why should we hire you? OR Why did you apply for this job?

Ans: Because I sincerely believe that I'm the best person for the job. Compared to the other with similar academic qualifications, I have an additional quality that makes me the very best person for the job—my attitude for excellence. I can add tremendous value to a project as I have already experienced the potential problems and can help avoid time and resource wastage. I am not just saying this but have also demonstrated it by doing (mention any commendation, recommendation from an important person or award that you have received)

Q3: What is your long-range objective? Where do you want to be 10 or 15 years from now?

Ans: I have given this much thought and feel that ideally, I would like to break up my career in 5-year spans. Within the next five years I want to develop an operational expertise in my profile by gaining valuable filed experience. Based on this, in the next ten years, I would like to move onto a managerial role leading teams and thereon build on my leadership skills. I would like to be a part of winning teams throughout my career and would focus learning and training as necessary supplement to my job.

Q4: How has your education prepared you for your career?

Ans: As Mark Twain said: I have not let my studies interfere with my education (say this with a smile). I have taken courses and electives in my academic career keeping my desired profile and interests in mind. I also volunteered for being part of the fete organizing committee and was in the student's council. I have been a part of the NGO for teaching children. I was fortunate to study under some of the best academic teachers and professors and through them I have learn the value of applied knowledge. I am eager to test out this knowledge now at your organization.

Q5: Are you a team player? Do you like working in a team or solo?

Ans: I feel no single person alone can succeed in life. Behind success of every person lies the contribution of their team, network and family. I believe in teamwork. All through my academic and professional career I have volunteered to organize events. This has been possible only through working in teams. I also enjoy training people and creating teams. Teamwork and team integration are essential skills for a leader and I displayed the same recently (give a good example of how you completed a project within budget and before deadline through teamwork)

Q6: Have you ever had a conflict or problems with your boss or teachers? How was it resolved?

Ans: Yes, I have been in conflict situations in the past. In fact, I feel not all the conflict is bad. For example, in my previous organization, my boss and I had a disagreement on a particular team members role. But we eventually sat and discussed the problem without getting personal. Both of us displayed the maturity and found a win-win solution. That's the benefit of conflict. It also enables us to see another's point of view and find multiple solutions to a problem together.

Q7: What is your biggest strength

Ans: I feel my ability to understand people and technology is my biggest strength. I feel the future lies in a blend of the two and one is incomplete without the other. It's not just B to B or B to C. It's all about P to P i.e. People to People. This is my strength and it enables me to get along and work with people from different verticals and skill sets. I also like to read and in fact read the newspaper and latest blogs related to my field. My favorite blogger or writer or newspaper or book is (mention a specific name that you are totally familiar with)

Q8: What is your greatest weakness?

Ans: I would say my greatest weakness has been my tendency to overcommit to others in terms of time. I have in the past put my entire energy and time into doing a task on hand with the result that other projects were delayed. However, after receiving the necessary feedback I have invested in a time management tool (give the example of an app or productivity method or technology that you use).

Q9: How do other describe you? Or What do your colleagues say about in your previous job?

Ans: Dependable and professional is how most people describe me whether it is my superiors or colleagues. I believe in technology as a huge enabler and others to reach out to me for the latest in tech and current affairs. I am a high-energy person and others too have commented on my ability to keep going even in deadline oriented environments. My recommendations on LinkedIn and other media show these traits. Could I show you..? (if asked show them this information)

Q10: What is the worst feedback you have ever got?

Ans: I was told that I need to brush upon my presentation skills. I took immediate action and enrolled in a good Public Speaking training program. This enabled me to overcome my weakness in a short time.

Q11: What are the qualities of a good Leader or Manager?

Ans: A Good leader is a perfect mix of IQ and EQ i.e Emotional Intelligence. Proactiveness and Empathy are the two must-have qualities of a good leader. By being proactive the leader can anticipate potential problems and conflicts and take action. Empathy is displayed by good communication skills whereby the leader is approachable and surrounded by good professionals and teams. The manager thus becomes a good role model. One such leader is (give an example of a leader that you admire.)

Q12: What are your biggest accomplishments of your life? Or accomplishments of the past job?

Ans: "Although I feel my biggest accomplishments are still ahead of me, I am proud of (mention a project or paper or task that you did successfully in the past for which you have received a recommendation. Ensure that this project or task relates directly to the position that you are applying for currently)

Q13: How do you explain changing so many jobs? Or a big gap in your employment history? Or Being terminated from your last position particularly when that position gave you the skills that you'll need to succeed in your career field?

Ans: I agree I have changed several organizations in the past. Or changed my vertical or job profile in the past. It was a learning phase for me and Key thing is I have learned a lot from this experience. I was searching for a profile or organization which utilized my skills to the fullest and finally feel that your organization will give me this opportunity. I have made mistakes in the past but I can assure you that I have learnt from these mistakes and have no intention of repeating them. In fact, I would be glad to share my experiences with others so that they can avoid costly mistakes.

Q14: Why did you leave your last job?

Ans: At the time of joining there I was put in a team of my interest. The work and profile were interesting and I was learning a lot. But over a period of time, I was shifted to another team where I continued to work and perform. However, that was not related to my chosen field and I felt my skills getting unused. A sense of stagnation was building up and I had several interactions with the management who were unable to help me. In this scenario we agreed that it was best that I looked at opportunities outside the company

Q15: Does that mean you don't like change? OR Are you willing to change your project/profile when required?

Ans: I absolutely like change and in fact welcome it. I am open to work in other locations or profiles if the situation demands it. As a team player I would give my best to whichever team I am assigned. If my manager is communicating with me and likewise me with them, then it's a perfect situation as I know that my knowledge and skills will be utilized to the fullest.

Q16: What is the Salary that you expect? Or Do you have any other offer at hand?

Ans: I am very confident that the salary offered is as per my experience and qualifications. Your organization has reputation for salaries, which are as per industry standard and beyond. I have no doubt it will be a win - win for both of us. I do have some other offers and have had preliminary interactions with them but i am very keen on the position offered by you.

Checklist for the Interview-Preparation

Before you appear for the interview, please go through this checklist and answer each question. Be honest with yourself as that may influence the manner in which you answer questions in the actual interview. It will also help in being prepared and do wonders for your self-confidence.

1. Have you done research on the organization?
2. Have you determined why you want to apply for that post?
3. What do you know about the post for which you are being interviewed?
4. Can you convince someone that you are the best candidate for that post?
5. What do other people say about that organization?
6. What are your short-term and long-term goals?
7. What are your salary expectations?
8. Are you willing to relocate, travel on the job, work in other profiles, etc.?
9. If changing jobs, what information is important to you in making a decision about this job change?
10. What questions do you plan to ask the interviewer either about the job, financials or any other issue?

Power Tips for Success in the Interview

1. KISS: Keep it Short & Simple. Remember, be short, be brief and be interesting. No long lectures on your past or strengths. No one likes a bore! It should not take more than 90-120 seconds to answer a question.
2. Match your Strengths: With those of the organization's requirements. Find the fit between yourself and the position and tell the interviewer same. Don't assume that they will know this. Tell them!
3. Teamwork: Speak like you are part of their team. Talk about the organization, what you know about them, how excited you are at the prospect of being part of their winning teams. Show enthusiasm.
4. Look Feel and Behave confident: Your dress and voice should match with the organizations culture. Image is often as important as content. Don't wear a heavy deodorant or cologne. Dress as per the company's culture but one level higher than required. For example, if the company employee wears jeans and t-shirts to work, dress in a formal pant and shirt for the interview. Here a tie or jacket is not required.
5. Ask questions. This tells the interviewer that you are confident and curious. The types of questions you ask and the way you ask them can make a huge impression on the recruiter. Remember that Good questions require advance preparation.
6. Thank you note: Keep an interview journal. As soon as possible, after the interview send a thank you message to the recruiter or the company for giving you the opportunity. Then write a brief summary of what happened. Note any follow-up action you should take and put it in your calendar.
7. Sell yourself: As if you are the product and the company is the buyer. Just like any other sale, the product has to be packaged and sold in the most pleasing and efficient manner. It is the same with job interviews.
8. Know your Resume: You have to be the master of your own resume. Role-play each and every point in your resume with your friends and family and ask them to grill you any gaps, terminations, short periods of employments etc. You have to memorize the dates mentioned in your resume by heart.

Leave office on time

If you are a employer you may need to  pretend you run a car rental agency. It’s the end of the day and you’re waiting for a customer to turn their car in. They show up at the last minute and say “I just realized I forgot to get groceries. I know I only paid through right now, but can you let me have the car for free for a couple more hours?”

You wouldn’t give them that car for free. You would charge them. If they want to keep using the car, they need to pay for that time.

As an employer, you have the same relationship with your employees. You are renting their time. If you want them to commit more hours, then you need to rent more of their hours.

Your employees will never have as much passion for your business as you do. They are there because you’re paying them to be there, and their obligation to the business ends when the meter stops running.

If you want these employees to stay later, compensate them. Ask them to start coming in later, or offer to pay them more to stay longer. You have no right to expect a commitment of more hours than you’re paying them for.

Cloud Types and Service Models

Some of the characteristics that define cloud computing include metered usage, where we pay only for those IT resources that we use in the cloud.

Another characteristic is resource pooling, where the cloud provider is responsible for pooling together all of the physical resources like server hardware, storage, network equipment, and that's made available to cloud subscribers, otherwise called tenants.

Another characteristic is that we should be able to access our cloud IT resources over a network, and in the case of a public cloud that means access from anywhere over the Internet.

Rapid elasticity is another characteristic so that we can quickly provision resources and deprovision them as required, and this is often done through a self-provisioning web portal.

A public cloud is one whose services are potentially accessible to all Internet users. We say potentially because there might be a requirement to sign up for an account or pay a subscription fee, but potentially it is available. A public cloud has worldwide geographic locations, and that's definitely the case with Amazon Web Services. The cloud provider is responsible for acquiring all of the hardware and making sure it's available for the IT services that they sell as cloud services to their customers.

A private cloud, on the other hand, is accessible only to a single organization and not to everybody over the Internet, and that's because it's organization owned and maintained hardware. However, a private cloud still does adhere to the exact same cloud characteristics that a public cloud does. For example, having a self-provisioned rapid elasticity of pooled IT resources available, that's still a cloud. In this case it's private because it's on hardware owned by the organization. The purpose of a private cloud is really apparent in larger government agencies and enterprises where we can track usage of IT resources and then use that for departmental chargeback.

A hybrid cloud is the best of both worlds. The two worlds we're talking about are the on-premises IT computing environment and the cloud computing environment. We have to consider that the migration of on-premises systems and data could potentially take a long time. So, for example, we might have data stored on-premises and in the cloud at the same time. And this is possible, for example, using the Amazon Web Services Storage Gateway, where we've got a cached copy of data available locally on the Gateway appliance on our on-premises network, but it's also replicating that data into the cloud. We might also, as another example, have a hardware VPN that links our on-premises environment to an Amazon Web Services Virtual Private Cloud, essentially a virtual network running in the cloud.

A community cloud serves the same needs that are required across multiple tenants. For example, Amazon Web Services has a government cloud in the United States, where it deals with things like sensitive data requirements, regulatory compliance. It's managed by US personnel and it's also FedRAMP compliant. FedRAMP, of course, is the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program. So having these specific types of clouds available, in this case the government cloud, is referred to as a community cloud.

Cloud computing service models.

 So what is a service model anyway? Well, as it applies to cloud computing, it really correlates to the type of cloud service that we would subscribe to. So let's think about IT components like virtual machines and databases and websites and storage. Each of these examples correlates to a specific type of cloud computing service model.

 Let's start with Infrastructure as a Service, otherwise called IaaS. This includes things in Amazon Web Services like EC2 virtual machines. Or S3 cloud storage, or virtual networks which are called VPCs, Virtual Private Clouds. That's core IT infrastructure. And so it's considered Infrastructure as a Service.

Another type of cloud computing model is Platform as a Service, otherwise called PaaS. This deals with things like databases or even things like searching, such as the Amazon CloudSearch capability.

Software as a Service is called SaaS, and this is the way we would deal with things like websites or using Amazon Web Services WorkDocs. Well we can work with office productivity documents like Excel and Word documents in the cloud.

Security as a Service is called SECaaS. This deals with security that's being provided by a provider. So we're essentially transferring that risk out to some kind of a hosted solution. And it comes in many forms. It could be spam or malware scanning done for email in the cloud. Or as we see here, we've got an option in Amazon Web Services called AWS Shield. The purpose of this offering is for distributed denial of service attack protection.

A DDoS occurs when an attacker has control of slave machines, otherwise called #zombies. And the collection of these on a network is called a #botnet. Well, the attacker can issue commands to those slaves so that they could attack a victim host, as pictured here, or an entire network. Such as to flood it with traffic thereby preventing legitimate traffic from getting to, for example, a legitimate website. And in many cases a lot of these botnets are actually for rent by malicious users to the highest bidder. So for a fee, potentially we could pay for the use of a botnet to bring down a network or a host. Now luckily with Amazon Web Services, this can be mitigated using AWS Shield. DDoS protection mechanisms will often do things like looking at irregular traffic flows and blocking certain IP addresses. 

Basic Agile Scrum Interview QA

AGILE

Agile software development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. Agile methods or Agile processes generally promote a disciplined project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices intended to allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. Agile development refers to any development process that is aligned with the concepts of the Agile Manifesto. The Manifesto was developed by a group fourteen leading figures in the software industry, and reflects their experience of what approaches do and do not work for software development. Read more about the Agile Manifesto.

SCRUM

Scrum is a subset of Agile. It is a lightweight process framework for agile development, and the most widely-used one.

• A “process framework” is a particular set of practices that must be followed in order for a process to be consistent with the framework. (For example, the Scrum process framework requires the use of development cycles called Sprints, the XP framework requires pair programming, and so forth.)
• “Lightweight” means that the overhead of the process is kept as small as possible, to maximize the amount of productive time available for getting useful work done.

A Scrum process is distinguished from other agile processes by specific concepts and practices, divided into the three categories of Roles, Artifacts, and Time Boxes. These and other terms used in Scrum are defined below. Scrum is most often used to manage complex software and product development, using iterative and incremental practices. Scrum significantly increases productivity and reduces time to benefits relative to classic “waterfall” processes. Scrum processes enable organizations to adjust smoothly to rapidly-changing requirements, and produce a product that meets evolving business goals. An agile Scrum process benefits the organization by helping it to

• Increase the quality of the deliverables
• Cope better with change (and expect the changes)
• Provide better estimates while spending less time creating them
• Be more in control of the project schedule and state

1. What is the duration of a scrum sprint?

Answer: Generally, the duration of a scrum sprint (scrum cycle) depends upon the size of project and team working on it. The team size may vary from 3-9 members. In general, a scrum script complete in 3-4 weeks. Thus, on an average, the duration of a scrum sprint (scrum cycle) is 4 weeks. This type of sprint-based Agile scrum interview questions is very common in an agile or scrum master interview.

2. What is Velocity?

Answer: Velocity question is generally posed to understand if you have done some real work and familiar with the term. Its definition “Velocity is the rate at which team progresses print by sprint” should be enough. You can also add saying the important feature of velocity that it can’t be compared to two different scrum teams.

3. What do you know about impediments in Scrum? Give some examples of impediments.

Answer: Impediments are the obstacles or issues faced by scrum team which slow down their speed of work. If something is trying to block the scrum team from their getting work “Done” then it is an impediment. Impediments can come in any form. Some of the impediments are given as –

• Resource missing or sick team member
• Technical, operational, organizational problems
• Lack of management supportive system
• Business problems
• External issues such as weather, war etc
• Lack of skill or knowledge

While answering impediments related agile scrum interview questions remember that you may be asked the way to remove any of the mentioned impediment.

4. What is the difference and similarity between Agile and Scrum?

Answer: Difference between Agile and Scrum – Agile is a broad spectrum, it is a methodology used for project management while Scrum is just a form of the Agile that describes the process and its steps more concisely. Agile is a practice whereas scrum is a procedure to pursue this practice.

The similarity between Agile and Scrum – The Agile involves completing projects in steps or incrementally. The Agile methodology is considered to be iterative in nature. Being a form of Agile, Scrum is same as that of the Agile. It is also incremental and iterative.

5. What is increment? Explain.

Answer: This is one of the commonly asked agile scrum interview questions and a quick answer can be given this way. An increment is the total of all the product backlogs items completed during a sprint. Each increment includes all the previous sprint increment values as it is cumulative. It must be in the available mode in the subsequent release as it is a step to reach your goal.

6. What is the “build-breaker”?

Answer: The build-breaker is a situation that arises when there is a bug in the software. Due to this sudden unexpected bug, compilation process stops or execution fails or a warning is generated. The responsibility of the tester is then to get the software back to the normal working stage removing the bug.

7. What do you understand by Daily Stand-Up?

Answer: You may surely get an interview question about daily stand-up. So, what should be the answer to this question? The daily stand-up is an everyday meeting (most preferably held in the morning) in which the whole team meets for almost 15 minutes to find answer to the following three questions –

• What was done yesterday?
• What is your plan for today?
• Is there any impediment or block that restricts you from completing your task?

The daily stand-up is an effective way to motivate the team and make them set a goal for the day.

8. What do you know about Scrum ban?

Answer: Scrum-ban is a Scrum and Kanban-based model for the software development. This model is specifically used for the projects that need continuous maintenance, have various programming errors or have some sudden changes. This model promotes the completion of a project in minimum time for a programming error or user story.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is the on-demand delivery of compute power, database storage, applications, and other IT resources through a cloud services platform via the internet with pay-as-you-go pricing.

The best way to start with that is to compare it to traditional IT computing. Where on-premises on our own networks, we would at some point have a capital investment in hardware. So think of things like having a server room constructed, getting racks and then populating those racks with equipment. With things like telecom equipment, routers, switches, servers, storage arrays, and so on. Then, we have to account for powering that equipment. We then have to think about HVAC, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, to make sure that we've got optimal environmental conditions to maximize the lifetime of our equipment. Then there's licensing. We have to license our software. We have to install it, configure it and maintain it over time, including updates. So with traditional IT computing, certainly there is quite a large need for an IT staff to take care of all of our on-premises IT systems.

But with cloud computing, at least with public cloud computing, we are talking about hosted IT services. Things like servers and related storage, and databases, and web apps can all be run on provider equipment that we don't have to purchase or maintain. So in other words, we only pay for the services that are used. And another part of the cloud is self-provisioning, where on-demand, we can provision, for example additional virtual machines or storage. We can even scale back on it and that way we're saving money because we're only paying for what we are using. With cloud computing, all of these self-provisioned services need to be available over a network.

In the case of public clouds, that network is the Internet.

But something to watch out for is vendor lock-in. When we start looking at cloud computing providers, we want to make sure that we've got a provider that won't lock us into a proprietary file format for instance. If we're creating documents using some kind of cloud-based software, we want to make sure that data is portable and that we can move it back on-premises or even to another provider should that need arise.

Then there is responsibility. This really gets broken between the cloud provider and the cloud consumer or subscriber, otherwise called a tenant. So the degree of responsibility really depends on the specific cloud service that we're talking about. But bear in mind that there is more responsibility with cloud computing services when we have more control. So if we need to be able to control underlying virtual machines, that's fine, but then it's up to us to manage those virtual machines and to make sure that they're updated.

The hardware is the provider's responsibility. Things like power, physical data center facilities in which equipment is housed, servers, all that stuff. The software, depending on what we're talking about, could be split between the provider's responsibility and the subscriber's responsibility. For example, the provider might make a cloud-based email app available, but the subscriber configures it and adds user accounts, and determines things like how data is stored related to that mail service. Users and groups would be the subscriber's responsibility when it comes to identity and access management.

Working with data and, for example, determining if that data is encrypted when stored in the cloud, that would be the subscriber's responsibility. Things like data center security would be the provider's responsibility. Whereas, as we've mentioned, data security would be the subscriber's responsibility when it comes to things like data encryption. The network connection however is the subscriber's responsibility, and it's always a good idea with cloud computing, at least with public cloud computing, to make sure you've got not one, but at least two network paths to that cloud provider.

AmazonWeb Services (https://aws.amazon.com/free/) manages their own data center facilities and they are responsible for the security of them, as well as physical hardware security like locked server racks. They're responsible for the configuration of the network infrastructure, as well as the virtualization infrastructure that will host virtual machines.

The subscriber would be responsible for things like AMIs. An AMI, or A-M-I, is an Amazon Machine Image, essentially a blueprint from which we create virtual machine instances. We get to choose that AMI when we build a new virtual machine. We, as a subscriber, would also be responsible for applications that we run in virtual machines, the configuration of those virtual machines, setting up credentials to authenticate to the virtual machines, and also dealing with data at rest and in transit and our data stores.

We can see what is managed by AWS customers. So data, applications, depending on what we're configuring, the operating system running in a virtual machine, firewall configurations, encryption. However, what's managed by Amazon Web Services are the underlying foundation services, the compute servers, the hypervisor servers that we run virtual machines on. The cloud also has a number of characteristics. Just because you're running virtual machines, for instance, doesn't mean that you have a cloud computing environment.

A cloud is defined by resource pooling. So, we've got all this IT infrastructure pooled together that can be allocated as needed. Rapid elasticity means that we can quickly provision or de-provision resources as we need. And that's done through an on-demand self-provisioned portal, usually web-based. Broad network access means that we've got connectivity available to our cloud services. It's always available. And measured service means that it's metered, much like a utility, in that we only pay for those resources that we've actually used. So, now we've talked about some of the basic characteristics of the cloud and defined what cloud computing is.

Measurements in Agile

A burndown chart shows the amount of work that has been completed in an epic or sprint, and the total work remaining. 

Burndown charts are used to predict your team's likelihood of completing their work in the time available. They're also great for keeping the team aware of any scope creep that occurs.

Burndown charts are useful because they provide insight into how the team works. For example:

If you notice that the team consistently finishes work early, this might be a sign that they aren't committing to enough work during sprint planning.
 
If they consistently miss their forecast, this might be a sign that they've committed to too much work.

If the burndown chart shows a sharp drop during the sprint, this might be a sign that work has not been estimated accurately, or broken down properly.

The estimation statistic is the unit of measurement your team will use to estimate work. You can measure work using story points, hours, or you can come up with your own statistic.

Sprint burndown chart

This report shows the amount of work to be done in a sprint. It can be used to track the total work remaining in the sprint, and to project the likelihood of achieving the sprint goal. 

1. Estimation statistic: The vertical axis represents the estimation statistic that you've selected.
2. Remaining values: The red line represents the total amount of work left in the sprint, according to your team's estimates.
3. Guideline: The grey line shows an approximation of where your team should be, assuming linear progress. If the red line is below this line, congratulations - your team's on track to completing all their work by the end of the sprint. This isn't foolproof though; it's just another piece of information to use while monitoring team progress

Epic burndown chart

This report shows you how your team is progressing against the work for an epic.

1. Epic menu: Select which epic to view data for.
2. Work added: The dark blue segment shows the amount of work added to the epic in each sprint. In this example, work is measured in story points.
3. Work remaining: The light blue segment shows the amount of work remaining in the epic.
4. Work completed: The green segment represents how much work is completed for the epic in each sprint.
5. Projected completion: The report projects how many sprints it will take to complete the epic, based on the team's velocity.

Velocity Chart

The Velocity Chart shows the amount of value delivered in each sprint, enabling you to predict the amount of work the team can get done in future sprints. It is useful during your sprint planning meetings, to help you decide how much work you can feasibly commit to.

1. Estimation statistic: The y-axis displays the statistic used for estimating stories. In the example above, the team is using story points. Estimates can also be based on business value, hours, issue count, or any numeric field of your choice. 
2. Commitment: The gray bar for each sprint shows the total estimate of all issues in the sprint when it begins. After the sprint has started, any stories added to the sprint, or any changes made to estimates, will not be included in this total. 
3. Completed: The green bar in each sprint shows the total completed estimates when the sprint ends. Any scope changes made after the sprint started are included in this total.
4. Sprints: The x-axis displays the last 7 sprints completed by the team. This data is used to calculate velocity. 

Velocity is calculated by taking the average of the total completed estimates over the last several sprints. So in the chart above, the team's velocity is (17.5 + 13.5 + 38.5 + 18 + 33 + 28) / 6 = 24.75 (we've ignored the zero story point sprint). This means that the team can be expected to complete around 24.75 story points worth of work in the next sprint.

Cumulative Flow Chart

A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is an area chart that shows the various statuses of work items for a product, version, or sprint. The horizontal x-axis in a CFD indicates time, and the vertical y-axis indicates cards (issues). Each coloured area of the chart equates to a workflow status (i.e. a column on your board).

Work in Process or Work in Progress (WIP)

Tracking work items that are started, but not yet finished, can help you improve the overall flow of value through the system. 

Practically speaking, work cannot add value to the customer, team, or organization unless it’s finished work

Lead Time and Cycle Time

Lead time and cycle time are two useful metrics for understanding how long work takes to flow through your Kanban system. 

Lead time tracks the total amount of time it takes from when work is requested until it's delivered. 

While cycle time tracks the amount of time we spend working on it while it's on our board.

Throughput

Throughput is the average number of units processed per time unit. 

In a Kanban system, examples can include “cards per day,” “cards per week,” or “story points per iteration.”

Kaizen is a Japanese word that literally translates to change for the better. 

It's a fundamental part of lean methodology.

Improvement Cada 

If you're a leader in your organization, you should allow individuals on your team to suggest issues or identify waste as and when they see it. - That's right. 

An organization cannot self-improve unless the people who are part of it are comfortable talking about inefficiencies and waste.

 Gemba, the real place where our work is done. It could be chat, our ticket tracker, or search control system.
Not being in touch with the gemba make you unable to make good decisions as a leader.

A Lean adoption requires changing mindsets. Pulling instead of pushing and delivering the minimum, and then iterating based on feedback are very different for how many organizations work on both explicit and implicit levels. In terms of specific DevOps practices, it's continuous delivery. To adopt Agile, and Lean, and DevOps it requires people to learn new skills.That takes some work, but it's not the hard part. It's changing the culture and way of working that's hardest.

The empowerment and respect for employees that a real Lean and Agile implementation brings, is a major game changer, not just to business outcomes but to the quality of life of the teams involved.