This is why your agile retrospectives don’t work
Every team doing scrum will (should really) be doing a retrospective each sprint. This means that the team gets together and discusses what went well, what went not so well, and what could be improved. The idea is that these regular retrospectives become an engine of “Kaizen” or Continuous Improvement for the team. How do […]
Continue readingTop 5 things NOT to do in your agile daily standup
How (not) to run an Agile standup I know how to run an agile daily standup, right? Most people probably think standups are straightforward, and that any idiot can run them. This is not at all the case. A lot of people are doing it wrong – don’t be one of them! This article will […]
Continue readingAgile and risk management
The Misconception that Agile doesn’t recognise risks There is a strange misconception going around that people working in Agile software development don’t consider risks, or don’t manage risk, or don’t take risk seriously. This is in fact quite false. This article will attempt to clear up the relationship between agile and risk management. The Waterfall […]
Continue readingWhy aren’t story points a unit of time?
Continuing on the theme of estimation, a common question that comes up is “so are story points a unit of time?”, usually followed a few seconds later by “Why not?”. People seem to want the abstract “story points” to become hours, days, or similar. The consensus in the Agile community, which I agree with (though […]
Continue readingWhat is story point estimation anyway?
If you’ve read the last post I wrote and are scratching your head as to what all this ‘points’ and ‘velocity’ stuff is, this article is a quick primer on what is story point estimation. I’ll explain what it is, how it is usually done, and why we are supposed to do it. I’ll also […]
Continue readingWhy not use velocity to compare teams?
So if you read my last post, you might be wondering, why not use velocity to compare teams? There are a number of problems with using velocity that way. Each team does their estimations in their own way Each team estimates the relative points for a set of stories against other stories they have already […]
Continue readingAgile metrics – the good, the bad and the ugly
Agile teams often look at and discuss metrics. Some of these metrics are interesting and important, some of them are of questionable value, and some should only be used with caution. This article will attempt to clear this up. The use and misuse of metrics Before going into the various metrics that agile teams use, […]
Continue readingProject versus product mindset
I’ve talked a bit recently about project management and project managers and some problems in this area. More specifically: Traditional project managers don’t care for the long-term interests of the team Traditional project management isn’t interested in the long-term benefits of the project after it has been delivered. So what’s the solution? Product teams instead of […]
Continue readingHow does project management fit into Agile?
If you read my last post, you’re probably thinking I’m against all forms of project management, and want to consign project managers to the dustbin of history. That is not at all the case. I actually think there is a role for (some form of) project management in Agile, especially in large organisations. It just […]
Continue readingThe old and new faces of Lean
I wrote recently about Lean and Agile, the differences between the two, and their strengths and weaknesses. Things have become more confusing due to the arrival of a book called The Lean Startup. An American entrepreneur called Eric Ries wrote it in 2011, and it quickly became an influential and controversial work. It also inspired […]
Continue reading