It's a Delivery Thing

No walls: What to do when you’ve no Walls for your Informative Workspace

Steven Thomas — Mon, 13 May 2013 05:30:53 +0000

You move into a lovely new office. Lots of light and open spaces. Beautiful. Modern. But no walls. Agile kind of assumes you’ve got walls. Whiteboards. Sprint Plan. Product Backlog. Burn down Charts. Kanban boards. Cumulative Flow Diagrams. All prominently … Continue reading →

Manage All Assumptions as Risks

Steven Thomas — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:00:21 +0000

Assuming something means taking it for granted. In other words you’ve got a more or less conscious theory (or, less charitably, a guess) that something is going to happen. The trouble is that the assumption might not be true. That … Continue reading →

Epics: My Love Hate Relationship with Large User Stories

Steven Thomas — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 05:30:47 +0000

Epics aren’t very good for driving the development team because Epics lack sufficient detail and will take too long to complete anyway. But Epics are, like their smaller relatives the user story, great as a place holder for a conversation. … Continue reading →

User Story Format Should Not Be a Straight Jacket

Steven Thomas — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:30:51 +0000

I use the formal “As <user role> I want to <action> so that <goal>” format when it helps. The main value of the format is it puts the focus on the users rather than on technology components. So if the … Continue reading →

4 Objectives for an Automated Test Strategy

Steven Thomas — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 05:30:27 +0000

I recently explained to my team the objectives our automated test strategy had to fulfil: Provides “living” requirements documentation Results in a comprehensive regression test suite Ensures high functional coverage Runs fast for developers Provides “living” requirements documentation Stale requirements … Continue reading →

When Meeting Madness Strikes

Steven Thomas — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:30:58 +0000

Some people and some organisations like meetings. If you drop Agile with its Agile Heartbeat into the mix then you might find that meeting madness strikes. I’m a Kiwi living in the UK and I’ve noticed the British will form … Continue reading →

Agile Requirements Snail: Feature to User Story to Scenario

Steven Thomas — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 05:30:50 +0000

The Iterative Incremental approach inherent in Agile applies to delivered functionality but also to the requirements elicitation part of the process. I like to refine requirements over time. Start high level, just enough to remind us to have a conversation, … Continue reading →

“Small” is an Estimate

Steven Thomas — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 05:30:30 +0000

One of the ironies of the discussion on no-estimates is that the no-estimate proponents do in fact estimate. In a small way. Like all Agilists the no-estimation guys focus on delivering small user stories frequently. They rightly want to maximise … Continue reading →

Agile Programme Roles and Responsibilities

Steven Thomas — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 05:30:56 +0000

To go with my typical programme organisation I thought I’d describe the roles and responsibilities I expect on an Agile programme. Remember I’m interested in software delivery so I’m talking about programmes that have software development at the core. Non-software … Continue reading →

What do I do when There is More Than One Product Owner

Steven Thomas — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 05:30:56 +0000

The product owner defines what the development team is meant to build and the order in which it is built. What should you do when the Product Owner responsibilities lie with more than one person? The short answer, that works … Continue reading →