Monthly Archives: February 2008
Day 18 – The Hawthorne Effect
Its the penultimate day and whilst there is still a bit more QA to do before release we are pretty much there. Next up is an interim Sprint where we get to focus on some cleaning up and automation ready for the next sprint. The Sprint Goal will be to make changes that will allow […]
Day 15 – Release First
Scrum is all about doing those things early that you normally leave till last. This avoids any nasty surprises when you should be releasing. We have had lots of focus on testing and CI but one of the really frustrating release delays for an ISV can be the building the install pack. So like testing […]
Day 12 – Freedom through trust
A day of collaboration. As we come to the release, proud of what we have achieved, the atmosphere in the office is bubbling with enthusiasm. We have a sense of freedom that comes from a real trust between development and management. Feeling freedom in the workplace is a rare thing. I’m probably going overboard we […]
Day 11 – It feels good
After a tough day yesterday a great day today. Managed to sign off the performance testing. Had the servers idling with 200 concurrent users, lovely. Had lunch with the CEO and talked about taking the scrum onwards, he’s a good listener and feels as optimistic about the way things are going. Feels good!
Day 10 – Where are we?
As far as the sprint goes the burn-down is pretty flat. We are plagued by constant testing churn and the all too regular discovery of new problems. We are discovering more because we are testing more. I just wish we could have tested earlier. Oh well the next sprint is only ever days away. As […]
Craftsmanship
Over the weekend I read an article about craftsmanship written by Richard Sennett. He makes the point that true craftsmanship is about collaboration not competition and that modern teaching methods do not recognise this. In the days of guilds of master craftsman apprentices would spend years learning by osmosis. Perhaps the learning we experience in […]
Day 9 – ScumMaster Vs Team Leader
Being a ScrumMaster is an easier and far more effective job than a team leader. In the days before scrum we were all assigned long running tasks by the development manager. The team leaders role was to assist and review whilst also completing his own tasks. This worked fine at first but as deadlines loomed […]
Day 8 – Talk it over
Spent the day tackling complexity and wondering how it all got there. We’ve gotta keep refactoring if we are going to get a grip on the product. My first solution to a nasty bug failed the code review. Talking it over the penny dropped and the bug was fixed with a change to a single […]
Diary of a ScrumMaster 