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
Sprint Planning
Lean Requirements with User Acceptance Test Cases
The Agile Manifesto extols the virtues of working software over documentation as a true measure of progress and business value. Teams in the early stages of agile adoption sometimes misinterpret this to mean that they should not write anything down. Other teams that are accustomed to waterfall and documentation-heavy methodologies continue creating extensive and redundant … Continue reading Lean Requirements with User Acceptance Test Cases
Are You Being Agile or Doing Agile?
The starting point for adopting agile is for a team to learn the mechanics of an approach such as Scrum. They write user stories instead of use cases, do daily standups dutifully, and replace their lessons learned meetings with sprint retrospectives. Eventually the rest of the business comes on board, and the Product Owner takes … Continue reading Are You Being Agile or Doing Agile?
Set the Stage for Swarming
Swarming is the essence of agile teamwork. Everyone on the team pitches in to push stories over the finish line. Egos are left at the door and team members sometimes operate outside of their comfort zones so that the team can deliver on its commitments. Sprint planning sets the table for effective swarming. Tasks for all … Continue reading Set the Stage for Swarming
Agile Reflections 