Sizing user stories is a key part of understanding the overall effort required to create a product release. Getting started is simple: pick a baseline story and assign a number of Story Points or Ideal Days that it will take to complete the story. Next, look at other stories in the backlog and decide whether … Continue reading Story Points or Ideal Days?
Year: 2012
Introducing Scrum to a Team
For a Scrum Master introducing agile to a team, there is a balance between implementing concepts and practices at a pace that does not overwhelm the team and demonstrating the benefits as early as possible to build momentum and support within the organization. Each situation is different, but let’s assume that an organization wants to use Scrum and there … Continue reading Introducing Scrum to a Team
Outstanding Standups
The daily standup meeting is one of the key agile practices. For teams that are beginning their agile transformation, this is an easy ritual to adopt. For mature agile teams, it is an indispensable part of the day. The daily standup usually goes something like this: The team gathers in the team room. Each team … Continue reading Outstanding Standups
Mixing New Development and Support on the Same Team
There are lots of reasons why it is good or bad to have a Scrum team handle both new development work as well as support work. When an organization determines that the best way is for support and new development to be done by the same team, careful planning and a little bit of discipline … Continue reading Mixing New Development and Support on the Same Team
Agile Reflections 