I’m currently the Scrum Master / developer on a large software project (8 developers + 1 product owner / project manager). It’s a fixed price, fixed scope, fixed resources project - in other words, not the best settings for Scrum. But yet, following the Scrum practices have been vital even for this project. I give you a short list of this experience and what it feels like.
A lot can be said about backlog items: are they use cases? Features? User stories? Requirement documents? As far as I’m concerned there is no true answer to this question. The most important thing is that the backlog item is approachable, limited, and achievable. This isn’t very different from any project framework you decide to use. But Scrum, and Scrumworks in particular, needs task. And this is the core of iterative agile planning.
I came over this blog the other day and I felt it nailed the subject. Money is of course a factor, mainly whether a developer decides to go for a job offer or not. But once inside the door, other factors might influence the developer to stay or not, despite getting a better offer with another company down the road. Check out the blog by Rob Walling:
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I’ve been unusually busy these last days, doing both studies (master of technology management. Yes, doing my second masters) and a high-paced project counting 9 developers and a project manager. This project is developed done in Microsoft.Net 2.0. Definitely a two-headed monster situation.
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I read the following story about “post-it developlment” (or maybe I should abbreviate it to PiD to make people use it). In short, it’s a story about a software project where requirements are vague or floating but they’re still supposed to deliver. The one thing that got me about this story was the balance of the project manager, a former developer who had now turned manager. The agile manager must balance a sharp edge between leadership without being imposing. Apparently, this guy manages this. A great story from conchango.com.
http://blogs.conchango.com/howardvanrooijen/archive/2005/07/08/1780.aspx
After conducting two sprints with a consecutive testperiod, where everything did not end up the way we wanted it to be, we found it to be a good time to do some retrospective. Of course, this should be done after each sprint, and to a certain extent it has. However, we had much to talk about after this delivery. Here’s an example of our retrospective
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After attending a Certified Scrum Master Training session, the discussion about the difference between the Scrum Master and a “traditional” project manager raged long with many good arguments. The part that most people from the “old school” had problems with was the fact that the Scrum Master is without authority! The only way a Scrum Master can force a project result is through good coaching and to make sure all impediments are removed so the team has nowhere to hide. The rest is up to the team (and some praying maybe?). But what kind of project managers fit into the Scrum Master role?
It’s the time for it. Christmas presents must be bought, wrapped up and given away. And I have to be happy about it too! And hopefully each christmas gift has some personal touch to it. So what to do when the deadline is absolute, the requirements aren’t set but the quality is important? Let’s go agile shopping!
One of the least mentioned roles, but an important support character, can and should in fact be the leading actor in an agile project. After all, the product owner is calling the shots. And a simple decision from a product owner can mean hundreds of working hours avoided, or added, to a project. A product owner can be a teams best friend of fiercest foe. Here’s a mock-up on successful product ownership: