What sort of Games can we play with teams? July 20, 2010
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This list is a just a collection of games around and I may or may not have played all of them. Please contact the authors for detailed instructions.http://www.agilefairytales.com/games.html
Over the years in coaching, I have been using a lot of games. Most of these games are what I have learned by being with other coaches, going to conferences etc. There is a lot that can be done with teams by playing games. We learn a lot by doing it:) rather than reading about it:)
Story point and their relation to complexity and uncertainity July 9, 2010
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Do story point relate to complexity or time: This article on infoq talks about story point and its relation to complexity or time. The argument seems to be it should be only related to effort and not complexity When team members say Extra large for a story, generally it can mean one of the following. a) I don’t have all the information needed and hence I think it is large ( This is not complexity or effort. This is the ambiguity or uncertainity. In this case we cannot really base the size on Effort as effort can only come to play when the team member knows that he or she needs to do b) I know all about the story but this is complex. This is a good case to say this is complexity or more so effort. Its going to take me 10 days to do it as an example. Story sizing is all about relative measure. The real effort only comes to play when you work on story. At times what is a small story becomes extra large , the effort grows. So there should be not be a correlation to time alone. If we did time alone then why do we have to do task breakdowns. Estimate size and derive duration. This picture captures the intent. |
Do i need to buy an electonic agile management system February 26, 2010
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It depends. If you have an distributed team, you surely will need something more than sticky notes. In many cases Excel is good for distributed teams. But if that does not work then you could look at an online version of tool like Scrum works, Rally, Version One, Visual Studio for team etc.
But if you have teams that are face to face or teams that are distributed but are essentially seperate teams then you do not need anything more than a physical board.
Here is a version of a manual board
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| From PublicAgile |
You can get this by downloading this template and then go to Fed Ex Kinkos to print and get it mounted on a large board. Costs you around 80 dollars.
What is Metascrum February 25, 2010
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Most organizations need a way to look at where all the initiatives are as compared to roadmap. How far are from release , what are some organization impediments and so far. Metascrum is a meeting that works well when teams are working on the same product or initiatives that are related . Instead of each product owner having a meeting with stake holders, business owners, sponsors, a meta scrum is one meeting that can address these questions.
Read this article for more information on Metascrum, who should attend and how to run it.
What are Product owner teams and how do we set them up February 23, 2010
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Product owner teams are a way to keep your backlogs well groomed and ready to work on. In many companies the concept of “Single Wringable Neck” does not really work.
Large products have many different feature lines or initiatives each of which may have one or more product owners. Clearly there is more work and a lot of time that needs to be invested in keeping the product backlog for your product.
A product owner teams is a scrum team with many product owners often with some developers and testers that meet many times a week to talk about a product backlog , meet customers. Think of this team as a group of fitness instructors in a gym who also need to work out in order to keep you in goods shape.
This document outlines more details about how to set up product owner teams
