20Jan 2020 by jerrye316@aol.com
Fixed Deadlines Make Us Work Efficiently

Fixed Deadlines Make Us Work Efficiently

agile, best practices, Scrum, sprint, Uncategorized
The best way to get the most important tasks done within the shortest time is to have fixed deadlines, thus, framing our work within a time box. In our daily lives, we experience fixed deadlines. Some examples are: Catching an airplaneCelebrating a holiday (Christmas, birthday, etc)Participating in a wedding ceremonyCompleting weekend chores from our "to-do" list (weekend ends Sunday night)Winning a sports game against an opponent in the regulation time (game over when time clock reaches zero) In all of these, we have to be ready within the appointed time. Otherwise, we suffer potential and costly consequences such as missing your plane, or even worse, your wedding! Fix deadlines force us to be more efficient. Some reasons are: We prioritize. We identify the tasks that must be done and work…
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09Jul 2018 by jerrye316@aol.com
Healthy Agility Requires Finding Your Sustainable Pace

Healthy Agility Requires Finding Your Sustainable Pace

agile, Agile Manifesto, Scrum, sprint
Agility involves delivering and adapting in short iterations. In Scrum the iterations are called "sprints."  Sprints are generally scheduled right after each other without much or any recovery time. In races, sprints imply exhausting every bit of energy to be first at the finish line. This raises an often asked question "Why don't Scrum team members get burned out?" The answer to healthy agility is to value "Sustainable Pace Over Faster Sprinting."  Think about the long distance competitive swimmer. The swimmer must swim as fast as possible each lap (the sprint). But the goal is to complete all laps. The swimmer must train to get better at swimming each lap quickly while still have enough energy to finish the race. The same is true of working in iterations to make it…
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15May 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com
How Fixing Defects Is Like Finding Your Lost Car Keys

How Fixing Defects Is Like Finding Your Lost Car Keys

agile, Agile testing, Kanban, Scrum, sprint
The next time your manager asks for an estimate for fixing software defects, say "I'll get right on it, as soon as I can find my lost car keys." Estimating the time to find and fix a defect can be difficult. It can be a short time, a very long time, or maybe even never. So how do we respond when asked to forecast in a Scrum sprint planning meeting which defects we can fix in the upcoming sprint? One recommendation is to consider switching from Scrum to Kanban for later phases of software maintenance when defect fixing and creating estimates are difficult. Kanban provides transparency into the backlog and the work flow as defects are fixed without having to forecast the work for an upcoming time boxed sprint. It is always best not to create…
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03Apr 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com
Do A Few Things Insanely Great

Do A Few Things Insanely Great

agile, Agile testing, Scrum, sprint, Technical debt
Want to do more. Consider doing less. Limit your work in progress (WIP). Value completeness over an abundance of work in progress. Let's examine how this strategy can actually make your teams more productive. "Do a few things insanely great" reflects a quote from an executive at a previous company where I worked.  What is interesting, the company developed software using traditional project management with long development cycles and large number of features planned upfront.  Schedules were commonly delayed in order to ensure quality levels and handle complex code integrations from the large number of changes.  The executive was suggesting a different approach for working. I use the quote in my Scrum and Kanban training to emphasize the importance of limiting WIP.   In Kanban, the WIP constraints are part of…
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19Mar 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com
March Madness: Would Your Scrum Teams Make The Tournament?

March Madness: Would Your Scrum Teams Make The Tournament?

agile, Scrum, sprint
Scrum is a team sport.  The team is accountable for delivering the product and value to the business within short iterations called sprints.  Basketball teams are accountable for scoring more points than their opponents during games and over the season. Basketball and scrum teams are cross functional, empowered and must work together as a team to be successful. I want to further describe some concepts about successful teams using basketball as an analogy. The college basketball tournament is held during March of each year.  A committee selects the top 64 (plus a few extras) teams and creates a playoff bracket.  The tournament is single elimination so if a team wins, then it advances to the next game.  If the team loses, the team is out and goes home to get…
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31Jan 2017 by jerrye316@aol.com
More Pigs Less Chickens – Commitment vs Involvement

More Pigs Less Chickens – Commitment vs Involvement

agile, Scrum, sprint
In an earlier version of the Scrum Guide, there was a reference to a cartoon where a chicken asks a pig to start a restaurant named "Ham and Eggs".  The pig declines by stating that he would be "committed" and the chicken would only be "involved".  The guide version implied that only the three Scrum roles of Product Owner,  Scrum Master, and Team were pigs and everyone else was a chicken.  This reference was removed in the 2011 version of the Scrum Guide.  To see the cartoon and learn more details about the meaning, view the discussion at AgileForAll. The results of the Sprint Planning meeting were also changed from the Team "committing" to "forecasting" which work items would be completed for the Sprint. The reasons for the change have been discussed…
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