Inspired by frequent questions on the subject of “What percentage of time should I allocate for Analysis, Development and Test in a Sprint”. John gets a call from his friend Cascade. Cascade’s team is struggling, three sprints running they’ve been unable to build a potentially shippable product. The developer’s complain there isn’t enough time...

Inspired by frequent questions on the subject of “What percentage of time should I allocate for Analysis, Development and Test in a Sprint”. John gets a call from his friend Cascade. Cascade’s team is struggling, three sprints running they’ve been unable to build a potentially shippable product. The developer’s complain there isn’t enough time...

In the past few weeks I’ve noticed a worrying up tick in the number of people asking questions around how to pass their upcoming Agile/Scrum XXX test (i.e. PMI-ACP, PSM, CSM, CSP). They want to know what to read and what magic incantations to invoke. Scrum (Agile, Lean, Kanban, …) aren’t something you really learn [...]

In the past few weeks I’ve noticed a worrying up tick in the number of people asking questions around how to pass their upcoming Agile/Scrum XXX test (i.e. PMI-ACP, PSM, CSM, CSP). They want to know what to read and what magic incantations to invoke. Scrum (Agile, Lean, Kanban, …) aren’t something you really learn [...]

In the past few years a number of Agile people I respect have published top 100 or even top 200 lists. While I like many others appreciate the attention they’ve brought the whole idea seems very anti-agile. Agile promotes a democratic meritocracy. These lists do the opposite, they create “hero’s” people whose ideas are more [...]

In the past few years a number of Agile people I respect have published top 100 or even top 200 lists. While I like many others appreciate the attention they’ve brought the whole idea seems very anti-agile. Agile promotes a democratic meritocracy. These lists do the opposite, they create “hero’s” people whose ideas are more [...]

After six months ScrumMaster John has finally found someone to fill the role of Senior Software Developer on the team. The goal is to find someone who can round out the team and play many roles (see: Bottlenecks). After many interviews they’ve settled on Kirby[1] who has over 20 years experience developing software, both server [...]

After six months ScrumMaster John has finally found someone to fill the role of Senior Software Developer on the team. The goal is to find someone who can round out the team and play many roles (see: Bottlenecks). After many interviews they’ve settled on Kirby[1] who has over 20 years experience developing software, both server [...]

The Team are struggling to payoff the Technical Debt (or mess) that they’ve spent the last six months accumulating. They’ve started to institutionalize writing Unit Tests (by adding it to “Done”) and they’re using Sonar to help track Code Coverage, PMD warnings et al. (Ed: Don’t take Sonar or any other measure as more than [...]

The Team are struggling to payoff the Technical Debt (or mess) that they’ve spent the last six months accumulating. They’ve started to institutionalize writing Unit Tests (by adding it to “Done”) and they’re using Sonar to help track Code Coverage, PMD warnings et al. (Ed: Don’t take Sonar or any other measure as more than [...]

I was asked earlier in the week the ultimate goal of my Scrum training. Someone wanted to know, did I expect my students to use Scrum? That has given me pause for thought, Scrum is an excellent tool in many situations but not the only one. I’ve never worried if people use Scrum, what matters [...]

I was asked earlier in the week the ultimate goal of my Scrum training. Someone wanted to know, did I expect my students to use Scrum? That has given me pause for thought, Scrum is an excellent tool in many situations but not the only one. I’ve never worried if people use Scrum, what matters [...]

The first law of holes is “When you’re in one stop digging”. In the last sprint the team discovered that they’re in a hole – in this case they had dug themselves into technical debt. We join the team this week in their Sprint Planning session, they start by rechecking their Retrospective action items: Respect [...]

The first law of holes is “When you’re in one stop digging”. In the last sprint the team discovered that they’re in a hole – in this case they had dug themselves into technical debt. We join the team this week in their Sprint Planning session, they start by rechecking their Retrospective action items: Respect [...]

Cross Skilling is starting to happen and already there are fewer bottlenecks. John is starting to have more time to step back from the day to day and look at the big picture. He’s heard that most Scrum teams become more productive over time and he wonders how is team is doing. He pulls up [...]