Scrum is not a process

One of the most common discussion that always seem to pop up again an again, is whether Scrum /Agile is good or bad. I don’t know why but in most cases it’s starts with a claim that Scrum is not  good since it … and then state a reason. (or with the claim that Agile is dead),for example Scrum is not a good process cause its not complete, it doesn’t define everything you need in order to succeed. or Scrum is not a good process. Team members are equal, each has his own set of skills and ability and treating them as equals will not work. And although in many cases those argument make some sort of logic, what most of them are missing is that scrum is NOT a process. Scrum is a framework. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in silver bullets,...

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Posted in: Random Thoughts,Scrum

So what is the Product Backlog?

Trying to define what is a product backlog is always a tricky business. One definition I use from time to time is: The product backlog is just another way of describing the system requirements and serves to describe the work needed to be done Which is a good way to simplify it to death. I had reasonable success using this definition with agile beginners, but clearly it doesn’t start to capture its entire meaning. The more official definition taken from the Scrum guide at Scrum.org is: The Product Backlog is an ordered list of everything that might be needed in the product and is the single source of requirements for any changes to be made to the product. Which is more complete, but still raises quite a few questions. for example: What is...

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Posted in: Agile practices,Scrum

About Myths

To every Myth there is always an equal destructive (Stupid) and opposite counter Myth: Here are some Examples Myth You do not need to design up front Counter Myth Design is a one time effort which is best done before you start Reality You need to design some of your system up front and some of your system as you go. How much you need atg each stage depends upon your understanding of the problem, you technical skills & your system. Myth All user stories may be implemented independently from each other Counter Myth We must analyze all the dependencies between all features in order to lay out our critical path Reality There will always be some dependencies between different user stories, however a lot of those can be eliminated...

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Posted in: Agile practices. Random Thoughts,Design,Engineering Practices

Creating a Mini-Waterfall

Some people refer to sprints as mini-waterfalls. Well that’s a mistake, sprint are not that.  But a mistake or not, doing a Mini-Waterfalls still seem to be a natural step for some people when they start with their Agile transformation. So how do you create a mini-waterfall? well its not very hard like anything else when you create a mini-X you start by taking the X for example: and then you make the same thing just smaller. like this: see where this is going? I encountered several contexts in which a companies, after getting some basic knowledge about Agile, seem to think that they are already mostly Agile, and what left for them to do is just start working in short cycles. So in order to become “Agile”, they take their regular...

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Posted in: Agile Management

Can your team agree to this?

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Posted in: Agile practices,Engineering Practices