InfoQ Homepage Scrum Content on InfoQ
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InfoQ Book: Scrum Checklists
SPRINT-iT and InfoQ have teamed to provide a new resource for Scrum teams: a downloadable quick-reference filled with basic definitions and checklists, intended to give trained teams confidence in accomplishing their first Sprints. This is an important resource, because early successes can increase acceptance of Scrum in their organizations and pave the way for greater management support.
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Danube Releases ScrumWorks v1.8
ScrumWorks, the free Agile project tracking software from Danube Technologies, this week announced the release of version 1.8, which adds a Product Import feature to bring existing projects into the tool, a number of customer-requested changes and significant performance enhancements.
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Experience Report: Unique Work-Study Agile Development Apprenticeship at NMHU
In 2004 a new work-study degree program launched at NMHU, using Agile practices to execute commercial projects. The premise: create a balance of people, software, systems, craft and agility to produce development teams 10 times as productive as their traditional counterparts. InfoQ brings you the story of a unique educational experiment: a challenge to think differently about training developers.
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Opinion: Take Agile Off Your Resume
Yesterday Steve Yegge blogged about development practices under the title "Good Agile, Bad Agile". He wrote about "Good Agile" at Google, "Bad Agile" almost everywhere else, and offered consultants and job hunters some professional advice: drop the name.
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Practical Advice for Implementing Scrum
As Scrum continues to gain momentum, it's not surprising to hear the call for practical help for these many novice teams. Mike Vizdos, a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile coach with experience in both small and large enterprises, has responded with a site called "Implementing Scrum", using cartoons and straight talk to lay out the basics.
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Presentation: Jeff Sutherland on The Roots of Scrum
Jeff Sutherland, an Agile Manifesto signatory, ran the first Scrum at Easel Corp. in 1993. At JAOO 2005 he covered the history of Scrum from its inception to its impact at Easel, Fuji-Xerox, Honda, WildCard, Lexus, Google. Along the way Sutherland shared interesting stories & looked at Scrum types A, B, and "all at once" type C, reminding listeners that cultural change is the hard part of Scrum.
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Opinion: Time for an Agile Certification Program
Pete Behrens, trainer and organizational Agility consultant, recently blogged about the contentious topic of certification. He noted that both Scrum and FDD have 2-day basic certification programs, while "XP has remained silent on the topic," and called on the Agile community to begin looking at a true Agile Certification Process.
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InfoQ Interview: Jim Johnson, Creator of the CHAOS Chronicles
InfoQ editor Deborah Hartmann interviewed the creator of the CHAOS Chronicles, Standish Group founder and chairman Jim Johnson. The Standish Group's statistics on project failure are widely quoted, as they have been since the first survey results came out in 1994. Jim spoke with Deborah about his research, and the role of Agile in changing the IT industry.
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Agile, Orthodoxy and a Message From God
A long and complex thread on the ScrumDevelopment list, set off by the phrase "Agile 2.0," has been exploring the past and future of Agile methodologies (for good or ill) including so-called "next generations" approaches like AUP, MSF Agile, and AMDD. Ron Jeffries, Ken Schwaber and Scott Ambler are just a few of the serious agilists who participated in this lively conversation.
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Hanselminutes Podcast on Scrum Project Management
Scott Hanselman, a Certified Scrum Master at Corillian, has posted a podcast on the Scrum project management methodology. He uses Scrum in his own projects and feels that Scrum makes Agile approachable and easy to grasp. He goes over just-in-time task-level estimation, velocity, how burndown charts help forecast delivery dates, and the concept of when a feature can be considered really "done".
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Microsoft Counting On Scrum and XP
When Microsoft launched SQL Server 2005 last fall, ending a five-year wait for major revisions, Steve Ballmer acknowledged "It's been a bit long in the making, we're committed to a much closer cycle time."eWeek reports that they will do this using agile development methodologies, such as XP and Scrum. Yet they won't mandate methodology, stressing product quality instead to encourage improvement
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Ken Schwaber: Sacrificing Quality should be an Executive Management Decision
At Agile2006, Co-founder of the Scrum methodology Ken Schwaber argued that as professionals we should not accept business requests to sacrifice quality in order to meet timelines, and if quality does need to be sacrificed such a decision should be made by executive management and reflected in the financial statements of the company.
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Online Discussion on Scrum Requirements Basics
The ScrumDevelopment list has seen lively discussion lately on Requirements issues frequently faced by new teams: "Can the ScrumMaster be the Product Owner too?", "How do we prioritize our Product Backlog?" and "QA's role in a SCRUM process". New teams quickly discover that a poor-quality Product Backlog can frustrate and undermine a team that is otherwise raring to start delivering value.
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Patterns for Daily Stand-up Meetings Published
Jason Yip has published "It's not just standing up", Patterns for Daily Standups on Martin Fowler's Bliki. In the article he discusses the benefits and consequences of common practices for daily stand-ups. The patterns are intended to help direct the experimentation and adjustment of new practitioners as well as provide points of reflection to experienced practitioners.
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Agile Work Cheatsheets Posted
It's been said before: Agile may be simple, but it's not so easy. Mishkin Berteig contributes some one-page quick-references to jog our memories and keep us focused on delivering value.