Tag Archives: Scrum
Avoiding technical debt from bugs – From Scrum to Kanban
One of the challenges of Scrum is being really done when you think you are done. At the end of the sprint our testers often haven’t had the chance to fully test all the stories. Once we are on the next sprint it is disruptive to go back to older stories and fix the bugs, […]
Why working remotely can benefit agile software development
When I finish work I often head out on the hills, ride or fly model planes and watch the sunset. I spend time with my children and my wife . I love my job, my life at home and the fact that I don’t have to commute between them. Time is precious. But doesn’t all […]
What is sprint planning really for?
Planning is something you think you’ll move away from when you start Scrum, but there is no escape, you still have to do it, its just less painful and more accurate. But what do we really get out of it? Estimates: By estimating in points and applying a velocity we can get a reasonably accurate […]
Shrinking your wiki
We’ve just finished our Interim Sprint. Breaking all laws of scrum absolutely no functionality was produced but we all feel a whole lot better. Here’s what we achieved: Removed over 1000 stored Procedures, 300 asp pages, 21 VB Com components, 36 Database Tables and whole database from our product. Created a automated QA deploy Created […]
You talk he smells
I’ve been watching Sketches of Frank Gehry. If you’ve not heard of him, Gehry is an architect who creates really radical buildings such as the titanium covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao above. His creative process appears to start with sketches followed by models created in cardboard that get refined and refined until he is happy. […]
A Pattern Language
Scrum has its origins in Organizational Patterns of Agile Software Development which has in turn has its origins in A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander. A Pattern Language is full of patterns about towns, buildings and construction. In the towns section one pattern really stands out to a Scrummaster and must surely have been an […]
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!
Diary of a ScrumMaster 