Top 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 […]
Continue readingThe old and new faces of Lean
I wrote recently about Lean and Agile, the differences between the two, and their strengths and weaknesses. Things have become more confusing due to the arrival of a book called The Lean Startup. An American entrepreneur called Eric Ries wrote it in 2011, and it quickly became an influential and controversial work. It also inspired […]
Continue readingAre story points really about value?
I used to think story points were about work When I started doing Agile, I was introduced to the idea of user stories and story points. They seemed pretty clear to me; user stories were defined pieces of work, and the story points was an estimation of how much work there was to do in […]
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