Scrum
Is Scrum Master Certification Hurting Our Industry?
Having created a methodology that tightly integrates Scrum concepts, I tend to be a strong proponent of Scrum. But being a strong proponent doesn’t extend so far as to promote all the hype — I’m also a very strong believer in the value of formal education and the need for experience. After seeing the negative [...]
Why Agile isn’t enough (and why it doesn’t work)
Agile methods are powerful tools when used properly — but as with all tools, they can be misused. The critics of agile methods are many and vocal, calling Agile a poorly thought-out “shortcut” that fails to get the job done. And with 90% of projects failing to meet objectives, the criticism is valid. So is Agile just hype or is there something to it? And if there is, why are project success ratios so abysmal? Here’s the scoop on why Agile doesn’t work and what to do about it.
Quality versus quantity
Qualitative decisions often lose out to quantitative decisions. Every one of us lives this every day, quite often without realizing that we are doing it. It’s not enough to define our process or methodology and let it settle in. Yes, we absolutely need to have a clearly defined and adopted set of processes and procedures. But at the same time, it’s important to never let it become too rote.
Scrum is not an agile methodology
People have lost sight of the fact that Scrum is not a methodology. I see comments such as “Scrum is killing agile” and it drives home, with emphasis, that there’s a huge disconnect between understanding what an agile methodology is and what Scrum is (and I know I’m beating a dead horse, but it’s important [...]
Making Scrum work: Common failings in adopting Scrum
Scrum can be remarkably beneficial in many kinds of software projects. But, as with any process, methodology or management technique, when used inappropriately it can cause more problems that it solves. In this article I’ll discuss some of the common misconceptions and “lessons learned” as related to Scrum.
So you think you’re following Scrum?
I have a prediction. If you take the Nokia “Scrum Test” you are going to score somewhere less than 7. That means you aren’t doing Scrum, you’re doing “ScrumButt:” A ScrumButt is a sort of like Scrum implementation… but some changes that were too painful have been left out… Companies in this category tend to [...]
Rational Scrum
Recently I tried out a variant on methodology that I’ll dub Rational Scrum. I’ve been trying to put together a few thoughts about the overall process for months, and finally found some time for it. Just as people have specializations, so do processes. Applying one process to all situations is just as wrong as calling [...]
Whole teams
An operational, successful team is more than a set of interchangeable, anonymized skill sets. Would you buy a car that had never been tested in a safety lab? Of course not, and yet the software industry, particularly the commercial industry (as compared to Military, for example) has been ploughing along without whole teams for decades–a trend that seems to be getting more and more negative attention.
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