December 2009
1 post
1 tag
Happy New Year Everyone!
I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best for 2010. I started this Blog in March 2009 as a small project and I am surprised at how well it has taken off! I thank you all for your continued support in the future.
All the best for 2010!!
Cheers
Allan
September 2009
1 post
2 tags
Scrum Software on the iPhone.
Our Scrum Team recently gained a new member and I came to the stark realization that everyone in our team has an iPhone! How awesome is that!! (Yes, the sceptics amongst you who have not converted to the Church of Apple may scorn all you want! but we don’t care :D)
First up is Planning Poker. Gone are the days of having to sort your Poker Cards into each individual set so that every...
August 2009
1 post
2 tags
Online Scrum Wall
This is my first blog post in a while. I have been taking part in some really interesting Iterations recently that have pushed the boundary of what I have learned and really pushed me to learn more. The one thing I have learned about Scrum is that you don’t stop learning about Scrum :)
I work as part of a team that are based in different locations. Our Product Owner is based in Boston...
June 2009
1 post
2 tags
Tips For First Time Scrum Masters
Tips For First Time Scrum Masters
I find this part of the article interesting.
Plan the demo and demo the plan
If you happen to be the ScrumMaster of a team that is ushering in agile to the organization, your sprint plannings, standups, reviews, and retrospectives could garner interest and attention from many quarters. You may even have distinguished members of the organization sit in such...
May 2009
9 posts
1 tag
Agile Hitlers Downfall
Pretty Funny video I found on youtube.
3 tags
Incrimental Agile QA
An Article on how QA. Incremental QA is highly desirable in Scrum. Scrum does not distinguish between development and QA as in waterfall model. It expects that the product feature you are working on is designed, developed and tested by the end of a sprint - One sprint does it all.
This article touches on the background that all Development and QA should happen within the one sprint. I can relate...
2 tags
Seven Reasons Why Agile Works For Web User...
A good article on how Agile helps web usability
7 Reasons why Agile works for web user experience
2 tags
Sony Ericsson Scrum Training
An insight into Sony Ericsson’s Scrum Training Sony Ericsson Scrum Training
2 tags
Agile Working Promotes IT skills in UK
A look at how BA is promoting Agile in its IT operations
Agile Working Promotes IT skills in UK
1 tag
Nokia Training Using Scrum To Create A Lego City!
The Scrum LEGO City Game is about building a nice city with Lego bricks - not a new idea till here - and doing it using as much as possible what learned during the Scrum Training. To create the sense of urgency, agile42 presents the “Product Vision” as to prove to the world that it is possible to build a LEGO city in only 20min. of working time…
Training at Nokia
1 tag
Agile Estimation with Mike Cohn Part 2
This starts off with Planning poker
1 tag
Agile Estimation with Mike Cohn
Google Conference: Agile Estimation with Mike Cohn
2 tags
How To Hold The Daily Scrum
An informative article on how to hold the Daily Scrum Meeting.
The Daily Scrum is simple daily routine to help the team self-organize, focus, and identify and eliminate impediments to progress. How do you conduct the Daily Scrum and how do you know if the Daily Scrum is achieving its purpose?
How to hold the Daily Scrum
April 2009
7 posts
1 tag
Agile Practices Are Not Just About Management
I came across this article by Mike Hadlow via Twitter. I found that I could relate some of what was described in the article to my own company. It is well worth a read
“Once the software gets part a certain size and age, it becomes almost un-movable and a real hindrance to the business. Often the response is to start from scratch, but this just makes things worse as the new system...
1 tag
Tight Deadlines in Scrum
I have found the issue of producing a substantial piece of functionality with a tight deadline an issue with Scrum. I shall set the scene. We conducted our Quarterly planning and prioritized our work for the Quarter.
A few days before the Quarter began a new piece of functionality was dropped on us from a great height. The deadline for this piece of functionality was 1 month away. We knew...
3 tags
Dealing With The Problem Of Too Many Meetings
If you work as part of a Scrum Team, then you would have heard these words at some point in time. I can guarantee you!
“There are too many meetings during an iteration and we cannot get enough work done”
Here is an article that tries to deal with this.
Get Serious about your meetings
How do you try and deal with this within your own team?
3 tags
What You Should Know After A CSM Course
A certified Scrum Master course for me was a great experience and really boosted my confidence when I returned back from the course to work with the Scrum Team. It was a different learning experience than what I was used to as it gave me a practical take on Scrum and also the knowledge needed to put my training into practice. I read the article that I have linked below that outlines what a Scrum...
2 tags
Daily Scrum Withdrawal
I remember reading an article by Stacia Broderick a while back on Daily Scrum Meetings. Thankfully my team are not like to one described but it did make me think about the way I conduct my Daily Scrum Meeting at the moment.
This quote in particular was interesting.
Many teams really, truly believe that the purpose of the daily standup* is to “just answer the three questions without exceeding...
1 tag
Comments Now Available
Hi everyone!
I have now added a new piece of functionality to my Blog. You can now post comments to my posts! I have integrated the comment functionality supplied by Disqus to allow you to give me feedback on my posts.
Enjoy!
Allan
1 tag
Prioritizing the Product backlog.
An interesting article on Prioritizing the product backlog with a few exercises on how to prioritize.
Prioritizing the Scrum Backlog
I found this technique most useful :) The advanced technique to tackle less reasonable Product Owner who tends to say “everything is important”. Give them one “1”, a limited number of “2”, and as many “3” as they...
March 2009
33 posts
2 tags
Retrospective Technique: Playtime
Title: ‘Play’ with iteration products to remember what happened during the whole project
Use:
1) What kind of retro is it best suited for?
Milestone, End of Project
2) What phase of the retro would you use it in?
readying, present, future
3) Purpose
If the software product has been developed iteratively, then each
iteration (or release) is supposed to have at least...
1 tag
Scrum at CNN
I found an article that documents the development change at News Network CNN from the waterfall method to Scrum.
The article documents the reasons on changing from Waterfall to Scrum, the challenges, the benefits and the outcomes.
Its surprising to me that CNN would use Scrum as I never really thought that they would have much development needs, but I suppose in the world of news where nothing...
1 tag
The Accidental Scrum.
I was flicking through the Scrum Alliance site when I found an article entitled “The Accidental Scrum”. It was written by Royal Navy Logistics officer who was posted to a Ship that had to leave port sooner than expected. He had to have the ship ready to leave port in 5 days time when origionally he had been given a few weeks to prepare.
He describes the common sense approach that he...
3 tags
Terminating a Sprint
I have been researching the theory of terminating a Sprint. I have never encountered an occasion where I have had to terminate a Sprint, but I thought it was always good to research why Sprints would be terminated, and how the Team would deal with a Sprint Termination.
The Product Owner is the only member of the Team who can terminate a Sprint. Sprints can be cancelled before the allotted Sprint...
2 tags
Retorspective Technique. Weather report
I have conducted a few retrospectives using the weather report as a sort of break in method to try and help the group engage with one another more and find out their mood.
I printed off some cards with some symbols printed on them to represent some weather patterns. Sun, Sun / Cloud, Thunder and Rain.
I then explained that these represented their mood for the past iteration.
Sun = Brilliant
...
3 tags
Scrum From Hell
One of the areas a Scrum Master needs to practice is facilitating meetings. I have found an exercise that can help train a Scrum Master in Facilitation. One of the problems that I had when facilitating a Scrum meeting was being able to move the meeting on when appropriate. I would let people ramble on and attempt to make their point, when it had no relevance to what we were talking about. When...
2 tags
The Agile Manifesto
The Agile Manifesto is a statement of the principles that underpin agile software development. The Manifesto was derived by representatives of various new methodologies such as Scrum and extreme programming where they saw the need for lightweight methodologies to replace the traditionally used heavy weight ones.
The 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto are:
Our highest priority is to satisfy the...
1 tag
The Scrum Sucks Blog
The Scrum sucks blog. A blog written by someone who thinks that Scrum doesnt work. For instance
Top Ten Words of Advice to a Manager, Director, or Vice President Deploying Scrum
June 14th, 2008
10. Your team will not care if Scrum fails for you 9. Your team will hate you but never tell you that 8. Scrum may appear to succeed but your team will leave before they tell you how bad it is 7. You...
2 tags
The Product Backlog
The Product Backlog is like a a wish list of requirements. The Backlog is like a living list that is always changing as stories are added, prioritized and deprioritized daily. It is the Product Owners job to keep the Product Backlog Items prioritized and constantly groomed to to allow maximum efficiency.
Not only is prioritization essential but story quality is essential too. Stories that are...
3 tags
Daily Scrum Mistakes.
After researching techniques that would improve my Daily Scrum. I thought I would highlight some mistakes that can occur within a Daily Scrum Meeting that you can further improve to make your Daily Scrum more appealing.
I read an article on “Scrum from the Trenches” Daily Scrum Mistakes that echo’s some of the sentiments felt by myself.
The first mistake that people often...
3 tags
Scrum Alliance
The Scrum Alliance site is a very good resource for Scrum Articles, Scrum Training and finding out where Scrum gatherings are happening around the world.
If you have not checked it out yet, have a look. It may be of use to you.
Scrum Alliance Website
3 tags
Google Tech Talk. Agile Testing
Google Tech Talks December 9, 2005 Elisabeth Hendrickson ABSTRACT As more teams are adopting Agile practices such as XP and Scrum, software testing teams are being asked to become “Agile” as well. But what does that mean? Is the Agile label yet another buzzword? Or could it be Agile practices are actually changing the way software is built? In this talk Elisabeth Hendrickson shares her...
Prioritizing :)
I have been on holiday from the world of Scrum for the past 3 days! It has been a welcome break from the hustle and Bustle from the Scrum Team! :)
Without knowing it, I basically used Scrum to plan out my holiday. As it was the first time I have been off this year, I had a list of things that I wanted to do with my time off. All of which wouldnt fit into 3 days. So therefore I put all of my...
4 tags
Handling Bugs in an Agile Context
Handling Bugs in an Agile Context
This is an interesting article that was passed to me by a friend, thanks Mel! The article is based around the handling of Bugs in Agile Development. This has made me think about the way that my own team handle our Bugs. As QA and Scrum Master for my Scrum Team i am always on the look out to improve my skills in QA. Ill be taking some of the points contained...
3 tags
How to fit QA into Scrum
I read an interesting article that addresses some of the problems that my own team has encountered with trying to fit QA into Scrum. We have found that on some occasions coding new functionality for our site can take up a large part of the sprint, which can have a knock on effect on the time that QA has in the sprint.
We know that this isnt exacly the scrum way of doing things as we should be...
4 tags
How Scrum has improved our QA
I have worked at a web based startup company for the past 3 years. Before we implemented Scrum just under two years ago now, the QA team, of which I was a part of was a separate unit from all other teams. We worked with the watrerfall method of development which meant we were involved in testing our functionality late on in the project.
One problem with this was that if the project was over...
2 tags
The Mythical Product Owner Role
I was forwarded this article by a colleague. It basically describes the product owner role and categorises the different types of product owner. As a Product Owner could interpret their role differently depending on their ‘Day Job’ role it means that there can be different types of Product Owner depending on their role.
Take for instance, a product owner who works as a release...
1 tag
Twelve emerging best practices for adding User... →
An interesting article on using agile to improve the users experience.
1 tag
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a framework or rules that allows you to tailor your own lightweight process to develop new products. Scrum is simple, it can be understood and implemented in a few days, but it takes a lifetime to master.
“Scrum is not a methodology - its a pathway” Ken Schwaber
Scrum will also help you fail in less than 30 days. Unlike the waterfall method where the product is fully...
2 tags
Effective Story Writing in Scrum.
A major part of the Scrum Process is Story writing. I decided to research the art of story writing so that I could improve my own story writing and hopefully improve the story writing capability of my team.
I discovered that all User Stories follow the same format.
As a <USER> I want <FUNCTION> so that <BUSINESS VALUE>
So as a Web based company, an example of a user story at...
Laura's Agile Dev Blog →
A blog created by my colleague and fellow Scrum Master
3 tags
The Ball Game
I attended my Certified Scrum Master training held by Tobias Mayer and Mike Sutton in September 2008. This was a brilliant course that had a practical element built in to help us learn. One of the practical elements was a game called ”The ball game”.
I have taken this from Mike Sutton’s Blog at Agile-Blogs. It is a great game and well worth trying with your team.
Timing: 20...
1 tag
The Sprint Planning Meeting.
Sprint Planning Meetings are held at the beginning of an iteration to plan the work that will be undertaken by the Team. The Scrum Master, Product Owner and the Team, along with any stakeholders who hold an interest in any of the products being considered will be in attendance.
The Product Owner by this point will have groomed the Product Backlog, by this I mean he / she will have reordered the...
1 tag
Scrum Development Wiki
A Link to the Scrum Wiki page that describes the basics of Scrum. Also has some links to video’s which may be of interest.
Scrum Wiki Page”
2 tags
5 Signs of trouble in an Iteration
An informative article on how to spot trouble using your Burndown Chart.
5 Signs of Trouble during an iteration
1 tag
Better Burndown Charts.
I read a good article on how to improve your burndown charts. It also has one of the best analogies used to describe the Burndown chart that I have read.
“As a pilot, I like to think of a burn down chart as being like the glide path of an airplane on final approach. An instrument in the cockpit tells you if are above or below the ideal glide path. If you are stabilized on the glide path...
1 tag
Basic Burndown Charts
The Burndown chart is a tool used to map the hours of work left to complete over time. It is a useful visual aid in tracking the team’s progress and is also useful for predicting when all of the work will be completed.
Each Iteration contains a list of prioritized stories from the Product Backlog. Each backlog item (story) contains a set of tasks. These tasks are all given a...
1 tag
Retrospectives
A retrospective is held at the end of an iteration. The Scrum Master will invite all members of the team (Product Owner, developers, QA etc) to a meeting to dicuss the successes and failures of the sprint.
Each member will discuss what went well and what did not go well in the Sprint that they have just undertaken. These are then discussed by the team and any measures to make improvements on...
2 tags
Scrum definitions explained
Scrum has a lot of terms used to describe specific parts or roles that are used from day to day. This sometimes confused people and daunts them when they hear a term that they don’t understand. Some are easy to relate to, but some are pretty obscure. So if you don’t know your Pigs from your Chickens… Read on :)
Average Velocity
The number of points completed in each of...
1 tag
The importance of the Sprint Review Meeting
The Sprint Review meeting is an important part of the Scrum process. Its not only a platform to showcase your work, but a place to place to invoke discussion with the stakeholders on the product that you are creating. It also helps keep the project on the right direction as it ensures that the customer can view the progress earlier in the process rather than at the end of the project where it is...