The Daily Scrum 

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...

Apr 8th

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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...

Apr 7th

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?

Apr 6th

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...

Apr 5th

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...

Apr 3rd

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

Apr 3rd

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...

Apr 2nd

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...

Mar 31st