Archives

Agile – Penny Game Rules

As attendees of my courses know, I like to use the Penny Game.  So, I wanted to share more. Rules: 1. Say: “We are about to see who is the best penny processor in all of [city] today.  And the winner, with the best single round, will win $20.” 2. Select 4 players (these will […]

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Agile Release Planning is not about the Plan

Here is one key observation about release planning from the past week and a half. I have been working in France.  I have worked with 3 different companies, and a bunch of great people. In the third class, we did a 2-day workshop.  The Workshop was mainly about agile release planning, using the real work […]

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The PO – The Team – The Daily Scrum

I have some different views on this topic, and wanted to share them. Your comments are of course welcome. I am NOT asking what is or should be in the Scrum Guide. Or whichever ‘scrum bible’ you use. (In general, I prefer the Scrum Guide.) I am sharing my thoughts and experiences, together, taught me.  […]

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Refactoring the Release Plan

At the end of the last post, I had completed the initial release plan. What were the key outcomes? [This is one in a series of posts about release planning. Search (see right) on Release Planning to find many others.] We had a product backlog.  The plan had some sort of scope, date and budget.  […]

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Release Planning: Completing the Plan

[This post is one of a series on Release Planning. The series starts here.] As discussed in the previous post on Release Planning, the user stories are now ordered. Now we must complete the Release Plan. So, we must make the trade-off between scope and date. There are three ways to do this: 1. Fixed […]

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Self-organization of the Team

We have this idea in Agile, that the Team should self-organize.  This is an important idea. And, more, an important action of the Team. In Agile, self-organization is contrasted with command-and-control. We think self-organization is an important thing to study, both in general and in your Team. It seems simple, but like almost anything, to […]

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Release Planning: Risks, Dependencies, Learning, MMFS and Other

[This is a continuation of a series on Release Planning that starts here.] Now we come to the point of (re)ordering the Product Backlog (PB). Note: After calculating the R Factor, I like to order the PB by R.  Not that I would expect the Team to do the work in that order, but to […]

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Enabling Specification

This is a “just enough, just in time” concept.  As some of you know, just-in-time (JIT) was one of the first names for what we now call Lean. Just enough documentation to enable the implementers to implement it, delivered ‘just in time.’ This is closely related to the “Definition of Ready” or DOR concept.  Which […]

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“Ozymandias” – Creativity can take some courage

It is hard sometimes to be creative, to create.  We wonder, will our creation ever survive.  I have spoken already of a book called The Courage to Create by Rollo May. Here is a short poem by Shelley, Ozymandias: I met a traveller from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of […]

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Release Planning: Effort (2)

[This is a continuation of a series on Release Planning that starts here.] Now we come to the point of describing Planning Poker. This has been done before; we will be brief.  It is described at greater length many other places. *** Some basic characteristics: * We find the 5 best experts (or 4-7 people) […]

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