In the past few years a number of Agile people I respect have published top 100 or even top 200 lists. While I, like many others, appreciate the attention they’ve brought, the whole idea seems very anti-agile. Agile promotes a democratic meritocracy. These lists do the opposite, they create “heroes” – people whose ideas are […]
Agile
Agile Gurus or Thought Leaders?
“Who’re the Agile/Scrum Gurus or Thought Leaders?” The urge to ask the question is good but misplaced. I learn from people inspite of their names.
Basic Explanation of the Different Parts of Agile Planning
Agile Planning has many distinct phases and when you’re first learning it’s hard to keep track. This table is an attempt to simplify some of that. Note that release planning is split into two parts to make them distinct in practice. They’re normally just part of the same meeting, run on successive days. For the […]
Daily Stand-up Variations
When trying to instil a new habit with a team I often find it useful to add a new question (or two) to the daily standup. Make spotting issues a daily habit!
More Notes on Story Splitting
Clearing up questions and confusions related to INVEST criteria, story splitting, and scope creep in an Agile development sprint.
Story Slicing, How Small is Enough?
Smaller stories tend to get more accurate estimates. This is my guidance for new Scrum teams, and ScrumMasters, trying to decide on Story size.
Agile Metrics
I’m frequently getting requests for good Agile Metrics and I’m never quite sure how to respond. If you must collect metrics, here are examples to consider…
New People on Your Project
Your project schedule says that you will get 2 more team members this week and 3 more next month. How do you integrate them into the team? How do you bring them on board? How do you avoid slowdowns? In a word you can’t avoid the slowdown – adding new people to the project will […]