February 19, 2007 in Software Development by Mark Levison

This issue includes articles on: Scaling Lean across different cultures, role of managers within scrum, agile work, test automation, a poke at Steve Yegge (the world’s greatest Programmer) and more. 

Agile/Lean across different cultures/geographies

• Leading off the New York Times (free registration required) has an interesting article on the how the issues Toyota is having scaling out its management practices across many cultures and geographies. “The ‘Toyota Way’ Is Translated for a New Generation of Foreign Managers”.
• Kurt Christensen has an interesting news article on “Offshore Outsourcing with Scrum” about the successful use of Scrum with geographically dispersed teams. See also an interview with Jeff Sutherland and a case study of SirisDynix. 
• Elegant Code posts about adapting Scrum some of your team members are working from home “Scrum at Home” 

Role of Managers in Scrum

• Jeff Sutherland is working on defining the fuzzy line between a ScrumMaster and a Manager as part of describing Scrum as CMMI level 5 process: "The Managers role in Scrum".
• Brian Button provides some excellent reflections: "The hardest part of being an Agile Project Manager". 
• Siddhi (no last name) gives us a reminder of what happens when Managers aren’t part of the team: "Managers and developers: Are you two teams or one?" 
• In “More Fun Than Watching Paint Dry. Or Grass Grow.” Michael Vizdos reminds us just how important it is for the Scrum Master to listen (vs the traditional project manager who often tells).

Agile Work (use of Agile methods outside of Software Development)

• Mishkin Berteig has an ongoing series of posts about organizing his work – six iterations so far: Cancelled Iteration, The Freedom of Limited Capacity, Iteration Six Cleanup there are many more related posts on his blog (try the Stories tag). Its well worth the time to read them all.
• Diana talks about organizing her grad work as an agile process. Too bad I wasn’t familiar with Agile methods when I was in school – I would have wasted a lot less time on frivolous things.

Test Automation

• "Lowering the Cost of Test Automation" by PowerShell for Testers looks at various methods of reducing the costs of automating your acceptance tests.
• Brian Harry (who helped create Visual SourceSafe before it was bought out MS) has a series of posts describing just how his group (developing Visual Team System) Manage Quality, Automate Testing, Performance Testing and Stress Testing. 

Miscellaneous

I can’t pull a category out of the hat for this last batch. But they’re all interesting: 

• Johanna Rothman reminds us that there aren’t 8 hours of project time in a any day:
  "Estimating Tasks: How Much Time is in Your Day?" 
• "Test Driven Installation" – Kevin Rutherford describes how many installation processes are changing from the InstallShield do every for your use approach to a more adaptable: here’s what remains to be done. 
• Jose Marques talks about the problems with his teams Daily Scrum Meetings. It sounds like someone needs to do a reality check with Jose’s Scrum master. This is also the opposite of a good daily scrum. 
• 5 Ideas for stressful living – how to add more stress to your life 
• Finally in the funniest piece of the week: John Brother’s deflates Steve Yegge’s bubble with “Why settle for great when you can be the world’s greatest?” 

Sorry that this post was a few days late – I caught the flu at the end of last week.
Watch this space in future weeks for a series of posts examining the psychology and team dynamics behind Scrum and why it works. 

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