Blog: Agile & Business

The ScrumButt Test (1): Iterations must be timeboxed

July 19, 2013

I will be doing a series of posts that discuss each element in the ScrumButt Test (see earlier post). In this first post, I will focus on the first element in the ScrumButt Test: “Iterations must be time-boxed to less than six weeks.” Remember that the first section of the test is to determine whether […]

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Achieving the Goal of a Retrospective

July 19, 2013

Some teams seem to approach Retrospectives without a real drive to succeed.  Or so it seems.  They just use it to ‘talk.’  About the ‘good, the bad, the ugly’ as I sometimes tease. Now, talking can be helpful.  Still, we can usually do better than this. What is the goal of a Retrospective?  Well, I […]

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Enabling Specifications

July 14, 2013

I recommend using the ‘Enabling Specification’ practice. This is NOT part of the bare framework of Scrum. But it is a frequently recommended practice. Typically recommended. This is: Just-enough, just-in-time documentation. Meaning that the implementers in the Scrum Team have enough information to build the user story correctly the first time. Or at least they […]

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The Team is primary

July 10, 2013

There has been a lot of discussion in the community lately about scaling.  With specific discussion of the SAFe and LeSS frameworks. I don’t have a strong opinion on many of the issues. I do think each scaling situation is different.  I do think the music (the values and principles inside the players) is at […]

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Sample Impediments (RDU)

June 27, 2013

Just did a course in Raleigh-Durham.  Here are some impediments the group identified…. Lack of people Turnover in staff Unclear scope Requirements changing too much Cutting corners Lack of communication with customer Bureaucracy – pessimistic stakeholders Poor morale Manage by fear Budget (insufficient) Lack of visibility Lack of management skill Dependencies (other projects) Traceability (lack […]

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Managing self-organizing teams

June 8, 2013

How do we suggest that managers …well… manage self-organizing teams? By self-organizing, I also mean self-managing.  Let’s assume that not all ‘self-organizing teams’ will self-organize or self-manage effectively. So, a few suggestions. 1. Get rid of almost all the old stuff. I really want you to think about getting rid of it all.  I cannot […]

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CBA: new Maserati vs. used Lexus??

June 3, 2013

Ladies, Please forgive me. I have to make an obvious point with some guys. And you know how guys can be. Sometimes you have to make it really obvious to them. *** We need to know the BVPs (business value points) and the SPs (Story points) of each story, so that we can do CBA […]

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Why I prefer ScrumBan to Kanban

June 1, 2013

I have spoken about why I like Lean and why I like ScrumBan, a combination of Scrum and Kanban. Some people prefer ‘Kanban’, as it is being called in the software development community.  Sometimes: Kanban Method. To be honest, I think I know what Kanban is in Lean Manufacturing. But I am unsure what ‘Kanban’ […]

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Story Points rather than hours

June 1, 2013

Jeff Sutherland has a great post about this, here.  A must read.    

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Joe’s Unofficial Scrum Checklist V1.3

May 27, 2013

It is Memorial Day weekend and time for another edition of Joe’s Unofficial Scrum Checklist. (smile) No, not really. Someone in class asked what he could use to check if his teams were using Scrum well.  I suggested: The ScrumButt Test – 8 points. “A list summarizing Scrum” (V.5)  – 2 sides of one page.  […]

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