One of the secrets of a practitioner's success is that I he has varied from the traditional burndown chart and sprint estimation suggestions that are taught when a person learns about Scrum. If you have had issues with making accurate burndown charts that reliably tell you when your sprint will finish, then perhaps his suggestions can help.
How do we adapt in the face of consistency, or of anarchy or of brutal regimentation? As project managers, the only thing we really have control over is ourselves. Given this, how do we change our approach in a way that enables us to be effective in producing project results, rather than bashing our head repeatedly against an unfeeling and unchanging wall of bureaucracy? Here we take a look at adaptation in the face of organizational consistency.
Switching to new agile development software and processes in the midst of a major release was a gamble for a developer of corporate performance management solutions. But the risk paid off with reductions in testing and packaging time as well as a nearly 30 percent increase in developer capacity.
You can do better than subscribing to the slam that you only know an Agile project is complete when the budget is gone. After some initial assumptions, you can determine estimated duration and cost of your project within a couple iterations — an estimate that becomes more accurate as velocity is established.
On an agile project, the workload is determined at the beginning of each iteration. The Product Owner evaluates and prioritizes the work that needs to be done, while the team determines the amount of work they can complete. The iteration planning meeting sets the stage and should be run as a collaborative dialogue.
On many projects, work is planned months in advance and you might delay a milestone or implementation if it is not completed. In an Agile project, you plan for the current iteration and adjust workload, if necessary, for the next. Here is a primer on the fundamental Agile concepts of story points, velocity and team rhythm.
The role of Product Owner, at once strategic and tactical, is misunderstood by many companies transitioning to Scrum or Agile approaches. The product owner serves as both organizational change agent and bridge between the business side and the project team. Here’s a basic primer on this indispensable role.
Agile projects incorporate a number of techniques that are not easily transferable to traditional waterfall projects. One technique is the estimation of the size of user stories with abstract story points, and the use of story points to determine how much work can be completed in an iteration.
Students in three countries test the value of an IBM all-in-one development tool as they learn about agile and Scrum.
Some love 'em. Some loathe 'em. But these frameworks and schools of PM thought are here to stay. What benefits and challenges do they present? Read on for both sides of the alternative equation...
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