Clearing up questions and confusions related to INVEST criteria, story splitting, and scope creep in an Agile development sprint.
Notes from a Tool User
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 […]
Misuse of Velocity in Agile Projects
Why story points should not be used to ‘compare velocity between teams’ or ‘benchmark data on velocity.’ Agile/Scrum teams use relative estimation.
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 […]
Random Notes on Staying a Little Bit Organized
Almost exactly three years ago, I was trying to use David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”< (GTD) system, and I wasn’t seeing the benefits he promised. In the end, I found that it just helped me thrash. I suspect the problem was more my focus than his system—but at end of the day, his approach just […]
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 […]