If you asked a typical cross-section of 100 High School students what job they hoped to be doing in ten or fifteen years from now, you’d get a lot of teachers and engineers, some lawyers and doctors, a variety of other job titles, but almost certainly not a single scrum master. It’s not that surprising…
What is Planning Poker in Agile?
In Agile Methodology, one term that you will regularly come across is “Planning Poker”, but what is it exactly? Well, sadly, it’s not organizing a game of stud poker with your workmates in your lunch break because the business you work for has just adopted Agile. As attractive as that may sound to some, Planning…
What is the Product Backlog and How to Optimize it?
A Project To-Do List Every summer, when a close friend of mine has got a couple of weeks off work, he loves to take on a brand new DIY project at home. This year it’s something quite different again; re-plastering the crumbling front wall of his house. Each time, with whatever job he embarks on,…
Project Management Tools that Every Scrum Master Should Use
The project has been decided upon, the teams are in position, and the scrum master selected. The latter knows his or her job responsibilities but what are the project management tools to use in order to achieve the optimum result? Although there is a well-used English proverb that says; “It’s a bad workman who blames…
The Main Responsibilities of a Scrum Master
The Agile Practice Guide says “The scrum master is responsible for ensuring the Scrum process is upheld and works to ensure the Scrum team adheres to the practices and rules as well as coaches the team on improving impediments.” As a single sentence definition of the scrum master’s role this is adequate, but it cannot…
What is the Kaizen Methodology and Its Goals?
In Agile Archives we talk a lot about methodologies, techniques and their practical application in the world of project management. With Kaizen we’ll need to start by getting a bit more spiritual and philosophical. The Philosophy behind Kaizen You may have already heard about Japanese philosophies such as Ikigai (“things that we live for”) or…
Kanban vs Scrum
Many Scotch whiskey connoisseurs insist that a blended whiskey is superior to a single malt. “Why?”, because combining the best of two or more products often has a better result than merely selecting one. After an examination of the differences between Kanban and Scrum in agile methodology you may well end up with a similar…
Acceptance Criteria
This is NOT acceptable!!! screamed Mr. Johnson as he stared down at my first High School English essay. “You’ve hardly used any adverbs or adjectives, the passive voice is non-existent and it has been written in pencil, not pen!” Having hoped for an A grade, I stood there shivering with fear, going crimson red in…
What is the Traditional Waterfall Model and Why does it Fail?
Oscar Wilde, the celebrated Irish poet and playwright, wrote: “Success is a science; if you have the conditions, you get the results”. But how can we really gauge success and in this case its opposite; failure? As abstracts, they are both interpreted subjectively by each and every one of us but, in terms of the…
What can you tell from your Daily Scrum Reports?
Your Daily Scrum is over; that crucial 15 minute face-to-face every 24 hours which should prepare all the team for a better planned and more logically structured workday. To reduce the risk of drifting aimlessly through your project towards its final destination, surely even this short meeting needs some sort of reporting. Or, does it?…