Why story points should not be used to ‘compare velocity between teams’ or ‘benchmark data on velocity.’ Agile/Scrum teams use relative estimation.
Agile
A Community of Thinkers – A personal commitment
In December, Liz Keogh, Eric Willeke, and Jean Tabaka got together at the Rally offices in Boulder. In only a day, they drafted a statement of beliefs and respect. If we all agree to follow them and respect each other, many of the rifts that have appeared in the Agile community in the past year […]
Why Use an Agile Coach?
Occasionally, I’m asked why should you use an Agile Coach. I’ve read a book or taken a CSM course. It seems pretty easy. So why would I want to hire a coach? With a single team you can bootstrap without too much trouble. Even then a good coach will still help you navigate the adoption […]
Agile 2009 Post Roundup
Last year I did the Agile 2008 Post Roundup, so I thought it might be fun to do this again this year. As usual, InfoQ has a number of items, including presentations and now MP3 downloads. Retrospectives A Personal Retrospective on the Agile 2009 Conference – Johanna Rothman’s notes on running and surviving the conference. […]
Agile 2009 Roundup
I’ve been home for a few days and have some time to digest what I learned. More of sessions were interactive this year, so I have fewer notes and can write fewer articles than last year (Agile 2008 Post Roundup). The Good: I found only one bad session. I saw a lot of old friends […]
Giving and Taking Design Criticism – with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock
I recently had the opportunity to attend a webinar “Giving and Taking Design Criticism” with Rebecca Wirfs-Brock. The session teaser was: “Have you ever engaged in a design review where people didn’t play fair? Do you have trouble giving design advice that sticks? An effective software developer or designer needs to be skilled at giving, […]
Reviewing the Review Process for Agile 2009
Sorry, I’ve been more than a bit busy lately. Working as an independent coach is very rewarding and time consuming. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been reviewing sessions for the Manifesting Agility Stage at Agile2009: “This Stage is all about tools and techniques for rapidly developing a deep understanding of the empirical Agile […]
Minimally Agile
Recently I had a conversation with a long time friend that made me realize that in my writing and conversation I often come across as a fanatic. Oppppsssss. Time for me to hit the big red reset button. I’m opinionated and passionate but I also believe that you can do good work even if your […]