Posts Tagged: Estimating

Forget about poker planning

Explaining agile estimating and planning is the hardest part when teaching a class. That’s because people freak out when they hear about story points and relative estimations. Why wouldn’t they? If you’ve ever done a project before in your life,

Forget about poker planning

Explaining agile estimating and planning is the hardest part when teaching a class. That’s because people freak out when they hear about story points and relative estimations. Why wouldn’t they? If you’ve ever done a project before in your life,

Blue mice are eating my project

Reading a new book often gets me starting to think about concrete practices we run into each and every day.  While ‘The Black Swan‘ by Nicholas Taleb doesn’t seem closely related to software development or project management, its core ideas

Blue mice are eating my project

Reading a new book often gets me starting to think about concrete practices we run into each and every day.  While ‘The Black Swan‘ by Nicholas Taleb doesn’t seem closely related to software development or project management, its core ideas

Variation in software estimation

Last week I visited Warsaw, Poland for the first edition of Agile By Example. The organization did a great job setting up this conference.  For instance, they opened a call for solutions on their website, where people could list the

Variation in software estimation

Last week I visited Warsaw, Poland for the first edition of Agile By Example. The organization did a great job setting up this conference.  For instance, they opened a call for solutions on their website, where people could list the

Your management doesn’t care about speed!

That’s right, I’ve said it.  Your management doesn’t care about development speed. Wait a minute!  Didn’t they try to push our limits all these years?  Trying to get us to do more work in less time? True, but let’s take

Your management doesn’t care about speed!

That’s right, I’ve said it.  Your management doesn’t care about development speed. Wait a minute!  Didn’t they try to push our limits all these years?  Trying to get us to do more work in less time? True, but let’s take

An iteration gone astray

Imagine this situation. You’re in the middle of an iteration and your burn down chart shows that at the current pace, your team is not going to finish all that was planned. In most organizations, this means talking to senior

An iteration gone astray

Imagine this situation. You’re in the middle of an iteration and your burn down chart shows that at the current pace, your team is not going to finish all that was planned. In most organizations, this means talking to senior

Agile? That’s just for hippies and beatniks!

 People who discover agile, sometimes get this kind of 1st impression: Agile, that’s just for hippies and beatniks! We’re running a serious business here! Sure, these agile guys are doing lots of strange things, but does that mean they

Agile? That’s just for hippies and beatniks!

 People who discover agile, sometimes get this kind of 1st impression: Agile, that’s just for hippies and beatniks! We’re running a serious business here! Sure, these agile guys are doing lots of strange things, but does that mean they

Kanban in Government (first retrospective)

Today we did our first retrospective since we changed to Kanban.  These previous weeks have been quite interesting and it was time to improve our flow. Take a look at the visual workflow we started out with: What did we

Kanban in Government (first retrospective)

Today we did our first retrospective since we changed to Kanban.  These previous weeks have been quite interesting and it was time to improve our flow. Take a look at the visual workflow we started out with: What did we

Does the sprint velocity only includes finished user stories?

When evaluating a sprint, the sum of all user stories that are DONE, give us our sprint velocity.  Now, what if one user story didn’t make it to done, but is finished for 90%? Do we add 90% of the

Does the sprint velocity only includes finished user stories?

When evaluating a sprint, the sum of all user stories that are DONE, give us our sprint velocity.  Now, what if one user story didn’t make it to done, but is finished for 90%? Do we add 90% of the

Holiday velocity

An agile team is known by its capability to plan as a team. The team commits to a certain amount of features to be realized within a certain amount of time. They often use historical data to determine how much

Holiday velocity

An agile team is known by its capability to plan as a team. The team commits to a certain amount of features to be realized within a certain amount of time. They often use historical data to determine how much

Small user stories generate flow

Creating user stories feels like common practice and is often experienced as ‘just a tool to communicate requirements’, but they can have a serious impact on the delivery of a team. I’ve watched different product owners in different projects pouring requirements

Small user stories generate flow

Creating user stories feels like common practice and is often experienced as ‘just a tool to communicate requirements’, but they can have a serious impact on the delivery of a team. I’ve watched different product owners in different projects pouring requirements