- Story Point Estimating and T-Shirts - What do t-shirts have to do with story point estimating you ask? Plenty! Working with organizations transitioning to agile I often find that estimating is one of the first areas of discomfort, and story point estimating is just too hard to grok for most. After all, most developers have been giving estimates based on time for most of their careers, and we come along and ask them to think of relative points for estimating. It often goes over like a lead balloon.
- Agile Baby Steps - In some situations small incremental steps are best to adopting Agile. I've found these three small steps can send you on your way into Agile. You'll notice a trend.
- Can collaborative techniques be used in formal board meetings? - Recently I facilitated a meeting of local officials here in Ann Arbor. They were members of the Local Development Finance Authority (LDFA) board, charged with oversight of the state funding to the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti Smart Zone that spurs on high-tech business growth. This volunteer group operates openly as a local governing body, and […]
- Protected: PM Thoughts - There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
- 3 Steps to Better User Stories - Lets talk about user stories. Writing and appropriately sizing user stories is one of the first and continuing challenges for organizations adopting an Agile methodology. While similar to requirements in characteristics, user stories require some special attention to get optimal results. Below is an example of a user story layout. Keep these three steps in […]
- Device Syncing – the Holy Grail of mobile computing - You might ask, what does mobile computing have to do with project management? The answer is LOTS. Projects create and maintain a calendar of events. Keeping these synchronized with your other projects, business meetings, your personal tasks, and having them handy where ever you go is a very good thing for your sanity and your […]
- Agile Techniques for Project Management - Recently my oldest son graduated from High School with all the accompanying graduation parties and preparations that goes along with it. Now, for anyone who has gone through this, you may recall how involved all the activities were. Add to this running a business and trying to keep your own sanity, and you may find […]
- The Impact of Measurement - I’ve been wearing my pedometer for longer than I’ve been actively tracking the steps. However, for the past month I have been logging my steps as part of the Commuter Challenge Walk Around Ann Arbor through WalkerTracker. Prior to logging my steps I would walk about 2,200 steps a day. Which is what caused me […]
- Agile Requirements and Story Cards - I recently completed work with a client that was struggling with their move to Agile practices. They were transitioning from a traditional waterfall process to an Agile process for all their IT projects and were experiencing some difficulties in writing, estimating and planning with Story Cards. Their most obvious issue was that their Story Cards […]
- Team Building with Rock Band - During the annual work holiday party at our house this weekend (yes we know it’s well past the holidays) I experienced some awesome and unconventional team building. My teenage sons ran out and purchased Rock Band for our Xbox 360 system and set it up during the party. Suddenly we had 4 people of varying […]
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