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Well well well… this is probably the hottest issue to any agile implementation… most certainly the issue causing the most debate, emotions and pure frustration to any agile team!
Can one convince a team or individual to adopt points over hours, or hours over points?
Well, as an Agile coach I made the massive mistake of thinking that one could!
A few years on, I can now say, one can’t, there will always be a counter-argument to any argument you make… teams and individuals have been conditioned throughout the years NOT to think relative, but in hours… that is just the nature of the beast…
I found the best way to deal with this, in training and in coaching, is to divide the teams into two camps, points and hours, give them reading materials and articles, and let them present the case for either story points or hours… they will debate this one for hours, but its worth the time spent!
However, make sure they at least try relative estimation with Story Points, or let at least ONE team do that… once teams grasp the concept of relative estimation over ‘accurate’ hours, then the benefits will show and most teams will make the mindset change, not to say that one don’t get high-performing agile teams using hours… it’s a preference!
This works really well, and it stays true to what an Agile coach is supposed to do… present the issue, ask some provoking questions and provide the environment for the teams to actively and effectively communicate…
All this said, here is a fantastic article covering both Story points and Hours… http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/09/story-points-versus-hours
Note that we will be covering this subject in detail and in a fun way in our course, Agile Bootcamp planned for 7-8 October 2009! For more information, visit http://www.kaizania.co.za/agile/agile_bootcamp_registration.php
Another 2-day course completed by Kaizania, Agile Bootcamp, last week in Centurion…
This was again a fantastic group of people, seems like the people who attend Agile training are always open-minded, eager to learn and active particants!
The companies represented, NuPay – JunkMail – Telamenta – Investec, made for good variety in opinions, experiences and organisational size and complexity!
We deviated a little bit from our previous course outline which was focused around Scrum, to a course outline focusing on laying the foundation of Agile first – Flexible Production Era (download the whitepaper here).
Then we covered Scrum, history and principles of Scrum, Scrum framework and all the roles, ceremonies and artefacts in detail.
Different to our previous courses, we introduced Kanban to the delegates as an Agile solution to service support development organisations and teams. We did this by playing a great game to illustrate Kanban and the financial effect thereof… What was nice to see was the teams actually embracing the concepts and principles discussed earlier from Lean, especially avoidance of waste!
Overall, a great success and a fantastic opportunity to spend time with eager Agilists!
Kaizania likes to think that we not only train and coach folks on our training courses, but that we also treat them a little bit… and we can truly say we did, what a fantastic venue for training at KleinKaap, and the food was fantastic!
A venue with style, warm and friendly service and absolutely great food! Well done all at KleinKaap!
Here is some feedback from JunkMail who were on the course:
“I found the course to be highly informative and enlightening with regards to a better PM approach, handling the demands of modern online business development. The course was very well presented and kept the flow going strong, making for a mentally sparking and invigorating experience.
I am confident that this will assist us significantly in our development team to minimise development time and maximise accountability among developers for their various tasks. The reduction in project specifications time is also a huge bonus to us.
Well done guys! I would recommend Kaizania training in a heartbeat.”
- Douglas Bailey, Internal Development Manager, JunkMail Publishing Group
Next course is planned, not yet confirmed, for mid-September… may you be interested, please send a mail to agile@kaizania.co.za or phone Arrie on 083 700 2181 and we can place your name and preferred dates on a list, which will help Kaizania to try and accommodate all as best as we possibly could!
Sweeping changes have been occurring in the software development world.
‘AGILE and Scrum’ has moved from obscurity to the leading framework for software development and is the most sought after process in the market.
The Kaizania SCRUM|interact course is geared to enable teams and organizations to adopt Agile and implement Scrum.
Software developers, Testers and QA, Analysts, Product managers, Program managers and Project managers – this is a training course that one and all will find immensely valuable.
Join us for two fun filled days of learning and self exploration!
| Take up this offer and register for this course, limited seats available
For more information on the course as well as the course outline, please download the SCRUM|interact brochure here… |
Venue: KleinKaap ( Centurion ) – KleinKaap Map
Date: 29 and 30 July 2009
Time: Arrival 08:00, Course to start at 08:30, the day will end after 5pm, dependant on Q&A
Included: Refreshments, lunch and all training materials
Bookings: Arrie van der Dussen – scrum@kaizania.co.za / 083 700 2181
Registration: To register, please go to http://www.kaizania.co.za/agile/interact_registration.php
Kind regards
Kaizania - Agile
+27 12 991 0269 | agile@kaizania.co.za
A Scrum project is radically different from a traditionally managed project and demands a new set of skills and abilities.
Understand and experience Scrum with Kaizania in an informative, engaging and enjoyable way
– the perfect way to start delivering value to your organization through Scrum.
The Kaizania scrum|interact course covers the fundamentals of Scrum.
This course is geared to enabling teams and organizations to adopt Agile and Implement Scrum.
Download the course brochure here… for bookings or more information, please contact us at agile@kaizania.co.za or phone us direct on +2783 700 2181
Daily Stand-up – 3 questions or not?
April 29, 2009 in Agile Commentary, Scrum Coaching, Scrum Implementation | Tags: adopting agile, ceremonies, coaching, consulting, daily stand-up, implementing agile, implementing scrum, kanban, scrum, scrum board, scrum team training, velocity | by thinkingagile | Leave a comment
Over the years using and implementing Scrum in organisations, I struggled sometimes with the value of the daily-standup…
Why did I struggle?
- The teams started off excited and it worked, however, as the adrenalin rush dissappeared, the daily stand-up became a drag, something they had to do with no excitement and not a lot of communication or team co-ordination
- By asking every member to come to the front and answer the 3 questions, there was no cohesive drive towards completing stories from the top ( prioritised ), people were all over the board and it was difficult to see what is what
- The communication as a team was not good, there was no hype, there was no excitement and no drive towards a mutually accountable goal at all…
The Solution
Well, this may go against the books and theory, however, it works for my teams…
I changed to ‘walking the board’, and a lot of Scrum practitioners are now doing the same…
I asked the team to communicate and co-ordinate collectively on each story, one at a time, from the top ( highest priority ) and talk through each story as a team…
The Result
It worked! I managed to solve 2 problems with this…
Problem 1: No effective communication and co-ordination as a team
Problem 2: Working all over the board, instead of delivering stories as a team from the highest priority first!
By walking-the-board we manage to solve both… the teams are now excited, they communication extremely well, the focus together as a team on their mutually accountable goal and the best is that suddenly they are holding each other accountable for that goal…
Since, I have used this regularly when I encounter the above mentioned problems… walking the board provides a Scrum Master or Coach with a method to mature an Agile team very fast…
Please go to http://agile-commentary.blogspot.com/2009/04/walking-board.html for another Agilist who did the same…
Kind regards
Arrie van der Dussen
Agile Business Manager
Kaizania
agile@kaizania.co.za