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Two methods of sprint planning in agile / scrum
Sprint planning in agile is one of the essential Scrum ceremonies and is absolutely vital to any team doing Agile software development with Scrum. Successful sprint planning gives a team a clear and realistic goal and a sensible pipeline of work. It also helps teams understand stories and their flow. However, many teams get tripped […]
Continue readingWhy agile projects need to fund BML properly
One of the key concepts from Eric Ries’ seminal book, the Lean Startup, is “Build Measure Learn”, or BML. This means that rather than deliver projects in a sequence, organisations should build something small, measure behaviour and learn from those measurements, then loop back and build again (i.e. extend or change the product). While many […]
Continue readingIs agile really all about being able to change?
The myths about agile and change We all know the stories: “if you do agile, you can change!”. Isn’t that great? Those poor fools doing Waterfall can’t change. They bolt themselves to this big plan, and stick to it even when it goes to hell. But on an agile project, we can do whatever you […]
Continue readingHow to manage scope creep in Agile / Scrum
OK we’ve all heard of the scope creep bogeyman. He haunts the dreams of young impressionable software developers around the world. He prowls the streets at night, looking for weary project managers to pounce on. We’ve all heard the horror stories of big brave projects, brimming with exciting scope items and starry-eyed business analysts, that got […]
Continue readingThis is why your agile retrospectives don’t work
Every team doing scrum will (should really) be doing a retrospective each sprint. This means that the team gets together and discusses what went well, what went not so well, and what could be improved. The idea is that these regular retrospectives become an engine of “Kaizen” or Continuous Improvement for the team. How do […]
Continue readingTop 5 things NOT to do in your agile daily standup
How (not) to run an Agile standup I know how to run an agile daily standup, right? Most people probably think standups are straightforward, and that any idiot can run them. This is not at all the case. A lot of people are doing it wrong – don’t be one of them! This article will […]
Continue readingWhy aren’t story points a unit of time?
Continuing on the theme of estimation, a common question that comes up is “so are story points a unit of time?”, usually followed a few seconds later by “Why not?”. People seem to want the abstract “story points” to become hours, days, or similar. The consensus in the Agile community, which I agree with (though […]
Continue readingWhat is story point estimation anyway?
If you’ve read the last post I wrote and are scratching your head as to what all this ‘points’ and ‘velocity’ stuff is, this article is a quick primer on what is story point estimation. I’ll explain what it is, how it is usually done, and why we are supposed to do it. I’ll also […]
Continue readingAgile metrics – the good, the bad and the ugly
Agile teams often look at and discuss metrics. Some of these metrics are interesting and important, some of them are of questionable value, and some should only be used with caution. This article will attempt to clear this up. The use and misuse of metrics Before going into the various metrics that agile teams use, […]
Continue readingProject versus product mindset
I’ve talked a bit recently about project management and project managers and some problems in this area. More specifically: Traditional project managers don’t care for the long-term interests of the team Traditional project management isn’t interested in the long-term benefits of the project after it has been delivered Project management is designed for project work, and […]
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