A lot of people have free time towards the end of the year. This year some of us are neither traveling nor able to do other outside activities. Below is an eclectic list of some of my favorite blogs and videos you may find interesting. Some are old so you may have missed them. They are still relevant today.
Continue reading “An eclectic list of some of my favorite blogs and videos”User Stories, Improvement Stories, or Job Stories
My current team administers AWS access and IAM permissioning among other related responsibilities. Some of our (non-operational) stories do not fit well in the standard story template:
[As a … ] [I want to … ] [So that …]
Searching I found a couple of good alternative templates depending on the context.
Continue reading “User Stories, Improvement Stories, or Job Stories”Spinning The Wheel of Names Retrospective
I recently used a simple adaption of aws-ops-wheel which was very much liked by the team.
Continue reading “Spinning The Wheel of Names Retrospective”How to Select Agile Metrics and Some Examples
One of the main tenets of agile and lean is a short feedback loop. Sprint reviews, retrospectives, and other communication give us important qualitative feedback. For trending and comparison against goals, metrics can be very valuable. But metrics can be dangerous as well. The wrong metrics can give false data or even have a negative impact. It is important to select the right metrics and to use them correctly.
Continue reading “How to Select Agile Metrics and Some Examples”Fruit Estimation Game
Early in 2019, I participated in an excellent game facilitated by Bonsy Yelsangi which provided us a lot of insight into estimation and story writing. I have facilitated the game several times with very positive feedback. The game can be played in less than an hour.
Continue reading “Fruit Estimation Game”30 Retrospective Ideas
A colleague asked me some time ago for retrospective ideas. Life got in the way and I never got back to her. Today, when I was looking for an idea for our team’s next retrospective, I finally got around to share my list of retrospective ideas. I have not tried all of them. Some ideas seem amazing and I would love to try them with the right team and in the right circumstances. Others seem a bit Pete and repeat. I have added a * to my favorites. Let me know what you like or has worked well for you.
Continue reading “30 Retrospective Ideas”Do you think what I believe you think of me?
Sometimes the best way for the team to improve is by improving the individual members, “Do you think what I believe you think of me?” is a simple retrospective for teams up to 6 members. The team members rate each other’s most important contributions to the team and what behaviors or skills impact the team negatively. Recently I facilitated the Do you think what I believe you think of me? retrospective with a high performing team that has been together over three months. Every member of the team learned ways to improve. And to my surprise, the team enjoyed it.
Continue reading “Do you think what I believe you think of me?”Not all “agile” is agile
Recently someone related to me that “their new scrum master / agile coach insists on two week sprints.” What happened to “people over process“? Too many companies do the scrum ceremonies almost like a cargo cult and are very far from an agile culture.
Confused about agile at your company? Some of the better blogs I have read on related topics may help you. Forward the ones you agree with to people who can help you drive change.
Continue reading “Not all “agile” is agile”Template for Automated Release Burn up
Velocity is an excellent planning tool for longer projects and stable teams that are not very small. It allows you to ignore details like vacation and bad estimates. The law of averages smooths out the bumps allowing you to make a reasonable directional estimate of what can be achieved by a given date.
For smaller teams on short projects of four to six sprints the vanilla velocity does not work as well. If a developer goes on a two week vacation both the sprint capacity and release projection can be significantly off. In a recent case we needed a larger team to complete the project but the fifth member was not available until the third sprint. You can manually adjust for these situations but I prefer to automate when it saves time.
Continue reading “Template for Automated Release Burn up”Comprehensive Team Health Check
Would you like to get a feel for what the team thinks of many aspects of the team processes in less than 15 minutes? What does the team really think of your work? Continue reading “Comprehensive Team Health Check”