Takes longer than 15 minutes All team members aren’t answering these three questions clearly: What did I commit to and get done since the last daily scrum? What am I committing to getting done by the next daily scrum? What obstacles are impeding my progress? No one can remember what anyone else said 30 seconds …
Category Archives: Agile
Top 10 Things to Look for in A Scrum Master
Can schedule meetings in Outlook or a similar software package Able to setup a projector on a moment’s notice Knows how to start and manage a web conference Can launch and navigate an agile project management tool The “go to” note taker Has all the best menus to order lunch from handy at all times …
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Vote ‘Em Off The Island
Does anyone still watch the “reality tv” show Survivor? I can’t say that I ever really did watch Survivor but the concept of voting someone off the island has been burned into my memory for better or worse. In a way, I wish it was burned into the memory of every agile software development team …
MSSU Follow Up
On Thursday, October 25th, I spoke to the CIS club at Missouri Southern State University. The presentation won’t win any awards (no presentation of mine ever will.) I put the Powerpoint up on SlideShare. I promised the students and professors in attendance that I would follow up with a post on my blog with links …
Be Great or Quit Now
I spent the day today with my fellow Gestalt Scrum Masters meeting about what we want to accomplish as a team within the company. It was a productive meeting overall. There were quite a few good discussions that have led to some meaningful action items. I’m looking forward to the weeks ahead. When discussing our …
Story Points are Lame?
Ah yes, my second favorite topic when it comes to all things agile — story points. My favorite agile topic? Agile project management tools. But that topic is easy to sum up in one sentence: All the agile project management tools I’ve ever used or evaluated tend to suck in their own unique ways. Maybe …
Fewer Moving Parts Means Fewer Broken Pieces
Fewer moving parts means fewer broken pieces When every other start requires a brand new thesis –David Bazan, Fewer Broken Pieces Why does this David Bazan song keep running through my head as I work with software development teams on a daily basis? Smaller teams normally translate to fewer problems. And when you have a …
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The Ideal Quality Control Person for an Agile Team
I’m not sure if I’m in the minority on this one, but I believe the best fit for the Quality Control role on an agile software development team is a developer hell bent on all things testing and configuration management related. These people are not easy to find. Too many see QC positions as a …
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Web 2.0 is Agile…Sort of
Scott Rosenberg makes an interesting observation about Web 2.0 software. Scott wrote the book Dreaming in Code, which gives a look into the making of the open source software project Chandler. One of the key points Scott makes in his book is that software is hard. One of the most common arguments against this point …
Getting Less Done
“We found out we got a whole lot less done when we’re sitting next to each other the whole time.” -Jason Fried, 37 Signals That quote comes from a short interview Jason Fried did with Crain’s Chicago Business. That point of view collides with those like me who promote co-located teams as a way to …