Scrum-tastic Tuesday – Break it down
This blog post is about how to improve software project estimations by breaking tasks into sizes no larger than one productive day.
Knowledge
Articles, Blog Posts, Books and Quotes on Agile Project Management
Distributed Scrum: Agile Project Management with Outsourced Development Teams
Written by Jeff Sutherland, Anton Victorov, and Jack Blount, “Distributed Scrum: Agile Project Management with Outsourced Development Teams” analyzes and recommends new best practices for globally distributed agile teams. Toyota routinely achieves four times the productivity and twelve times the quality of competitors. Can Scrum do the same for globally distributed teams? Two agile companies, SirsiDynix using Scrum, and StarSoft Development Labs using Scrum with some XP engineering practices, achieved comparable performance developing a Java application with over 1,000,000 lines of code. SirsiDynix best practices are similar to those observed on distributed Scrum teams at IDX Systems, radically different than those promoted by PMBOK, and counterintuitive to some practices advocated by the Scrum Alliance.
Managing Risk on Agile Projects with the Risk Burndown Chart
Risk management is a central part of traditional project management and is included as one of the knowledge areas in the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) body of knowledge. In many of my classes, participants ask how Scrum and agile address risk management. Some are concerned that agile or Scrum ignore risk management completely. This post explains how to manage risk on agile projects with the risk burndown chart.
Taylor Your Process
“Perhaps you’ve read a book, on Extreme Programming and have decided that is the right approach for your company. Or maybe you attended a Certified ScrumMaster training course and think Scrum sounds good. Or maybe you read a book on a different agile process, and it sounds perfect for your organization. In all likelihood, you’re wrong. None of these processes as described by their originators is perfect for your organization. Any may be a good starting point, but you will need to tailor the process to more precisely fit the unique circumstances of your organization, individuals, and industry.” Reference: “Succeeding With Agile”, Mike Cohn, Addison-Wesley, 463 pages, IBSN 978-0-321-57936-3
Bridging Agile and Traditional Development Methods: A Project Management Perspective
The article “Bridging Agile and Traditional Development Methods: A Project Management Perspective” by Paul E. McMahon discuss agile project management adoption. This article identifies specific project management conflicts that companies face based on actual project experience, along with strategies employed to resolve these conflicts and reduce related risks. This article will help you understand the risks, issues, and strategies that can help your project and organization succeed.
Large Multisite Scrum
“After working for some years in the domains of large, multisite, and offshore development, we have distilled our experience and advice down to the following: Don’t’ do it.” “Scaling Lean & Agile Development – Thinking and Organizational Tools for Large-Scale Scrum”, Craig Larman & Bas Vodde, Addison -Wesley
Agile, Multidisciplinary Teamwork
The article “Agile, Multidisciplinary Teamwork” by Gautam Ghosh presents techniques and tools used to create requirements with a team composed of the different participants of agile projects.