Category: Agile

When I walked into the room, I noticed the haphazard arrangement... 3 short rows of 4 chairs each here... a circle of chairs over there... a couple of comfy couches and chairs surrounding a coffee table in that corner... 4 chairs around a small table... and some chairs in random locations, as if shaken up like a cupful of dice and somehow landing on their feet. I sat in the front of the 3 short...

In conversations regarding technical debt (and technical improvement), I often hear that there is an understanding gap between technical people and business people. As an experiment, I thought it would be interesting to attempt to bridge that gap by illustrating what technical debt looks like, with an analogy. The Conversation Setting: "Widgets Inc.", a manufacturing company that makes...

In The Humble Build-Up Chart – Communicating with Stakeholders, I discussed how a build-up chart can be used to show progress and projections – to achieve communication with stakeholders. Today, I’d like to address a couple of ways in which a build-up chart can be misleading. Done-ness? In Why Scrum requires completely “Done” software every Sprint, Christiaan Verwijs digs...

In Part 1 of Revisiting Estimations, I explored some challenges and underlying concepts relating to estimates and projections. In Part 2, I more deeply explored Uncertainty, Complexity, and Stakeholder Questions. In Part 3, I explore some guidance for leaders and managers… Guidance for leaders and managers... When a software project is "late", estimates/projections increase...

In Part 1 of Revisiting Estimations, I explored some challenges and underlying concepts relating to estimates and projections. In this blog post, I more deeply explore Uncertainty, Complexity, and Stakeholder Questions. Dealing with Uncertainty in Estimates An established stable team that has been doing (its own) estimates and tracking its velocity can make reasonable forward looking...

In a previous blog post, I explored the challenge of wanting to be agile, but also wanting certainty. One place this shows up is in how we deal with estimation. In this blog post I take a deeper look at estimation and projections. At ISE, we have an Agile Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP is a place where we share learning and support each other. Attendees include Scrum Masters,...

I've noticed a significant shift in my work and the work of my organization where much of our collaboration includes people who are not in the same location. I've also begun to notice the impact of differing approaches to remote collaboration. Collaboration matters. Whether we are directly involved in the development of software/product, or working with other organizational functions, the...

Agile teams are often configured to make use of a SME (Subject Matter Expert). A SME is typically someone not on the Scrum Team, who brings specialized knowledge, skills, or expertise needed by the team. The team doesn't have everything required, so we give them access to a SME. The SME's contribution may be in the domain, technology, or other skills such as problem solving. Sounds...