Agile Difference
Facts From The Trenches – – Questions From Real Agile Teams
What sort of Games can we play with teams?
This list is a just a collection of games around and I may or may not have played all of them. Please contact the authors for detailed instructions.http://www.agilefairytales.com/games.html Over the years in coaching, I have been using a lot of games. Most of these games are what I have learned by being with other coaches, [...]
Story point and their relation to complexity and Uncertainity:
This article on infoq talks about story point and its relation to complexity or time. The argument seems to be it should be only related to effort and not complexity When team members say Extra large for a story, generally it can mean one of the following. a) I don’t have all the information needed [...]
Does CSM certification make a good Scrum master?
I have been reading lots of discussions around the Scrum Alliance and its certification process. Does taking a two class make you a good Scrum masters? For an answer to this question, I asked some of my friends who have been great scrum masters. The general opinion was that while the CSM class does give [...]
Do I need to buy an Eectonic Agile Management System?
It depends. If you have an distributed team, you surely will need something more than sticky notes. In many cases Excel is good for distributed teams. But if that does not work then you could look at an online version of tool like Scrum works, Rally, Version One, Visual Studio for team etc. But if [...]
What is Metascrum?
Most organizations need a way to look at where all the initiatives are as compared to roadmap. How far are from release , what are some organization impediments and so far. Metascrum is a meeting that works well when teams are working on the same product or initiatives that are related . Instead of each [...]
What are Product owner teams and how do we set them up?
Product owner teams are a way to keep your backlogs well groomed and ready to work on. In many companies the concept of “Single Wringable Neck” does not really work. Large products have many different feature lines or initiatives each of which may have one or more product owners. Clearly there is more work and [...]
What is an Ideal Source Structure for an Agile Project?
Even after years of Subversion, this is one of the most common questions asked by agile teams. This is also a topic of religious discussion. Proposed here is a time and tested simple project structure that you can use for any Java, .NET project. If you are using Grails or Rails, the tool itself provides [...]
This is a quick cheat sheet, that captures agenda for some of the core meetings. Some of these are our ideas but mostly these are all widely accepted by all in the Agile Industry.Print this and use it for your benefit. Download here
Is there a suggested list of books for agile teams?
We are often asked about books for agile teams. Here is a great starter list for teams practicing agile software development. Agile Bookshelf
What is a mission statement for scrum masters in a company?
If you have multiple scrum masters in your organization, it will be good exercise to come up with a charter for your group. Here is an example of one such statement “ As scrum masters of , we are servant masters enabling teams to deliver business value in the software we develop, protecting teams from [...]
What are different way to size stories? Why do we do story points, not hours?
Mike Cohn talks a lot about this in his book Agile Estimation and Planning. You can use any measure to size stories. Teams use different sizing techniques T Shirt Sizing X Small, Small , Medium , Large , Xtra Large or Coffee Sizing Small, Tall, Grande You can pick any sizing technique. Make up one [...]
How does Scrum work on large complex stories? We can’t do this in a month?
The word potentially shippable does not mean that you ship to production every Sprint in Scrum You can have stories that span multiple sprints, that may not make it to production. This may be part of a larger EPIC story. The goal is to work on it every sprint. We have seen many instances where [...]
How do estimate on something you know nothing about?
You can use what is called as Spike. This is not a Scrum specific word. If your product owners asks you to build a robot and you are a software developer who has never done that , then it is obvious that you will not be comfortable giving a sizing or estimate on that story. [...]
How can I manage my time between working in this team and other day to day activities?
This is done by using your capacity. Lets use an example to illustrate this. Say you are a member of a scrum team where there are 8 members , and you are following a two week Sprint. So initial estimate of every team members capacity is 80 hours i.e. two weeks. Some of the best [...]
How soon can we see improvements when we start using Scrum?
Managers , take it easy. In many organizations there is an urgency to measure, look at numbers as they move to scrum within the first two sprints. As a general guideline, do not take too much notice of the statistics for four or five sprints. Teams take a while to form and norm. They also [...]
Can we change the length of a sprint?
This question comes up a lot in new scrum teams. The adjustment from a couple of months to two weeks is very tough indeed. Do not keep changing the sprint length. One Sprint two weeks, the next three weeks etc. One of the main tenets of Scrum is “Sustainable pace”. Scrum teams are [...]
How can we map use cases to stories?
In agile development there is no right or wrong. Both Use cases and user stories are offshoots of agile methodologies. User stories have a XP and Scrum backgroung and use cases dont. Use cases tend to be a written level contract ( sometimes ) too detailed, sometimes not. There are typically few main sections to [...]
This slide deck from Crisp is a great list to some smells you should watch for when implementing agile practices. If the team is really not empowered to get the job done, that will bring the system down. You know that the team is not being empowered when each team member does not take responsibility [...]
Thirteen Forms of Shared Leadership:
“Secrets of Agile Teamwork” by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen. Leadership Role Responsibility of Role Instructor Answers Questions and Supplies Data Follower Provides Support and Encouragement Coordinator Links and Integrates Data Peacemaker Works for Harmony and Compromise Gatekeeper Maintains Working Agreements and Discipline Monitor Makes sure relationships are working Pioneer Asks questions and Seeks Data [...]
How do we measure productivity in an Agile Team?
This paper focuses on agile productivity. “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”, means an average developer is required to interact with others for quite a while in their day. This is very different from traditional development where face to face interaction is not that much. Added on to this high interaction in agile teams, [...]
Should we select a velocity conservatively based on history vs. setting an aggressive velocity to encourage more productivity?
This is a recent email chain that talks about this issue. Very interesting. Thanks to all responders . Posting here for benefit of the larger group. First Person: I am a firm believer that the velocity is set by the team (not management, not Scrum Master) as a measure of how much value they are [...]
Top 10 rules of an Effective Standup:
Come prepared to answer three questions and be in time – What did I do yesterday?, What Am I doing today?, Any Impediments? This is not a status report. This is your time to share thoughts with the team, so that they know where you ( or your pair) are and can act accordingly. This [...]
How to measure success on agile projects from customers perspective?
Customers Measure Success on one of more of these criterias At a high level: Is the project in production? Is the product producing revenue? How long since development I could get the product to generate revenue? Sometime agile products iterate for a very long time and when finally released end up looking like a waterfall [...]
What is Moscow Rule In Scrum?
MoSCoW rule When working with stories from a product backlog especially during release planning, Write all the epic stories ( the main use cases ) and instead of stank ranking them numerically, apply the Must Have, Should Have Could Have Wont Have rule to each story . i.e. ask the product manager to write a [...]
Is architecture in an agile project done ‘back of the napkin’ ( Paper Napkin Design )?
Agile does not mean paper napkin architecture. On a system that is large scale the team needs to be thinking about architecture at all times. This does not necessarily translate to lots of upfront architecture. But key architectural / design issues should be verified using spikes or conceptually to some extent, to to address key [...]
What is the most important role in a scrum team?
Unquestionably this is the product owner. Product owner is the the hub of the scrum team. They can make or break the team. The reason for this is that they hold the key to the story box. They are the visionaries ( sort of a product manager). At times they are also proxying for others. [...]
What is a team ground rule or team working agreement?
By definition an agile team has a high amount of daily interaction. This brings out a need to establish some common set of rules that all team members abide by. This is a simple document which can be changed every iteration or sprint or necessary. Anything goes here that all developers agree. Common things added [...]
What is a Story Point ?
Story point is a arbitrary measure used by Scrum teams. This is used to measure the effort required to implement a story. In simple terms its a number that tells the team how hard the story is. Hard could be related to complexity, Unknowns and effort. In most cases a story point range is 1,2,4,8,16 [...]
What is Velocity in a Scrum Team?
= Number of total story points / One iteration Velocity is a measurement of how much the team gets done in an iteration ( called as Sprint in Scrum ). Velocity is what actually got done in the last iteration not what is planned. In Scrum it is measure in Story points. Each feature in [...]
What is Kiss Principle?
KISS in Agile stands for Keep it simple Stupid This applies to everything from planning, to design to development. Do the simplest thing possible. Don’t make it up. Keep it simple.
