Distributed ScrumMasters Update
Posted by David Bland in agile, scrum on March 30, 2011
It has been over a year since I first gave my Distributed ScrumMasters talk to friends & coworkers around Washington, DC. Since then I’ve learned quite a bit about myself, how I speak publicly and what people are most concerned about with Distributed Scrum. After careful consideration, inspecting and adapting I have updated my original [...]
Retrospecting the Soul Crushing Iteration
Posted by David Bland in agile games, retrospectives on March 21, 2011
Is your team demotivated?
Would you recognize it if they were?
Luckily for you, the retrospective is an ideal team setting to:
- Take a temperature reading and gauge morale.
- Have a conversation about motivational & demotivational events.
- Identify actions to take so that you can clone the bright spots.
We begin the exercise by drawing two columns on the board… [Read More]
Are We Pairing Enough?
Posted by David Bland in agile on March 3, 2011
How do you know if your team is pairing enough? You can attempt to visualize this with a pair programming slider, but I feel as though it might be too abstract for some of you.
Here is a simple thought exercise that I learned from Jeff Nielsen that you can use to help answer whether or not your team is pairing enough. It will only take 1 or 2 minutes of your time, and can easily be incorporated into the natural flow of your iteration retrospective… [Read More]
Scrum Pocket Guide Giveaway
Posted by David Bland in contest, scrum on February 2, 2011
The folks over at AgileScout have been gracious enough to provide me with an advanced copy of their Scrum Pocket Guide.
It is a succinct, well thought out and easy to read guide for anyone using Scrum within their organization.
After reading it, I liken it to Roman Pichlers Agile Product Management with Scrum book.
Yes, it is that good.
For a limited time, you can have the Scrum Pocket Guide for $17.00 FREE!
All you need to enter is… [Read More]
Dipping Your Toes Into Kanban
Posted by David Bland in agile, extreme programming, kanban, scrum, scrumban on January 26, 2011
The following post was originally a guest article for Planbox and is the basis for my proposed Agile2011 Lightning Talk
Like me, you may have read about the growing popularity of kanban in the agile software development community. Perhaps its mysterious allure and intriguing pronunciation (kahn-bahn not kayun-bayun) have piqued your curiosity, yet you struggle with finding a pragmatic way to apply it to your current software development process?
Interestingly enough, the beauty of kanban is that you can apply it to your two week iterations… right now if you like without that much disruption. In fact, you may even find it so useful that you’ll find other ways to work the kanban mojo.
Let me explain… [Read More]
