Boost Blog http://www.boost.co.nz/blog All the stuff we love - Web design | Usability | Ruby on Rails | Agile and Scrum | eLearing Mon, 17 Jun 2013 23:52:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= boostbloghttp://feedburner.google.com Do you need a Scrum Master? http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/2xDf4SplkE0/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/random-thoughts/do-you-need-a-scrum-master/#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 21:54:21 +0000 Joe http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2653 huh

Recently Alistair Cockburn, one of the 17 original Agile Manifesto authors, posted a question he was asked by a person called Gaboo, about the role of the Scrum Master.

Part of any Agile process necessitates stopping and thinking about the quality of the product you are producing as well as the quality of the methodology that is being used (12th principle ~  At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.) With this in mind, questions about whatever framework we may or may not use should not only be asked, but embraced and seriously thought about when brought up.

Gaboo wanted to know:

  1. Is there anything implicit which says that the Scrum Master must have background in software process improvement and psychology?
  2. If they don’t have a professional background, how can they judge team dynamics and software development issues?
  3. How can the progress of the team or the performance of the Scrum Master be measured?

I immediately saw why Alistair posted this question. These are all extremely valid questions as the role of the Scrum Master is a bit hard to understand in the business world. Managers are responsible for planning, delivering projects and organising the team. If a Scrum Master isn’t directly responsible for delivering the product and the team decides how they want to organize themselves, what is the Scrum Master responsible for and what kind of skills do they need?

I posted a response to Gaboo’s questions and I answered as best I could without using definitions and doctrine. I tried to focus on my experience with the Scrum Master role and how it fits into our team’s dynamic.

  •  Questions 1 & 2 were similar and I tried to tie them together with this response: 
    It doesn’t hurt to have experience in software if you are coaching software teams, but not in order to solve their problems. It may be useful to have similar experiences to that of the team so you can relate to them. The Scrum Master position is concerned with enhancing productivity through collaboration, not through software or a commanding influence.
  • Question 3, about measuring the progress of the team and Scrum Master, I answered with:
    I think the only way I can attempt to share any insight on this is to indirectly answer your question with the thought that Agile (Scrum) is a framework to encourage empirical thinking/reasoning in a team. If a team isn’t iteratively looking at what it’s producing and how it’s producing it, it isn’t progressing. Because of the iterative nature of Agile (and thus Scrum) this evaluation is always being made. Though there are many tools to measure progress and influence, the very act of iteratively analysing the team is a progress indicator unto itself.

To get the full context of my answers, and a few more tid-bits concerning the Scrum Master’s role with impediments, you can read my full response on Alistair’s blog post on Why do we need a Scrum Master?

These are my thoughts on the subject. I’d be interested to hear about anyone else’s experiences/reservations on the role of the Scrum Master.

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/random-thoughts/do-you-need-a-scrum-master/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/random-thoughts/do-you-need-a-scrum-master/ The Board – Episode 12 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/4IRczSX4UUw/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-12/#comments Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:33:38 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2638 On episode 12 of The Board we talked about maintaining flow in sprints.

  • why flow is important
  • the effect on the team
  • breaking down stories
  • the advantages of reducing batch size

Links we mentioned:  Splitting User Stories Flow Diagram.

The Board – Episode 12 – Flow from Boost New Media on Vimeo.

 

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-12/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-12/ The Board – episode 11 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/V5iSJSv1GL0/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-11/#comments Thu, 06 Jun 2013 23:42:46 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2628 In episode 11 of The Board, we decided to to change the format a bit by introducing some sofas to the set and adding a third presenter. The result is a little less formal and more conversational, let us know what you think of the new format by commenting below.


During the episode we talked about Agile in Government and the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). We covered:

  • the introduction of Agile in smaller steps, perhaps starting with a visible workplace
  • co-location with the business owner
  • Agile project Management in Government by Brian Wernham
  • an interesting community site for discussion around Agile in government
  • a couple of quick graphs showing comparison of risk between Agile projects and traditionally managed projects

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on Agile in government.

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-11/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-11/ The Board – episode 10 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/_HQ2YYbNxrk/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-10/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 03:45:57 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2623 Episode 10 of The Board saw the debut of our cameraman Gavin Coughlan as he took a place at the desk in front of the camera. Gavin and Paul’s topic this time was project kick offs.They discussed how to introduce teams to the concepts of Scrum, doing a definition of ready, a definition of done and a team charter. They also suggested using journey lines in a project kick off to help the team get to know each other.

Links

Join us for Episode 11 of The Board, 23 May 6.30 EDT, 10.30am NZST.

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-10/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-10/ The Board – episode 9 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/ayLQCXzIeHk/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-9-2/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 03:38:42 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2620 Episode 9′s topic was quality on Agile projects, Paul and Kirstin talked about the following items:

Further reading


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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-9-2/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-9-2/ The Board – episode 8 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/ag4XCyKKZKE/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-8-2/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 03:10:58 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2616 On episode 8 of The Board Nathan and Kirstin talked about Agile in China and the Scaled Agile Framework. We also covered Agile tooling (Rally) and reviewed Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland’s Software in 30 days.

Links


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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-8-2/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-8-2/ The Board – episode 7 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/t19ubY_3azk/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-7/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 02:50:25 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2612 During episode 7 Paul and Kirstin talked about User Stories: the why, the what and the how. They discussed all things related to User Stories and their journey through Scrum. They also discussed Mike Cohn’s book, Agile Estimating and Planning.

Links


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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-7/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-7/ The Board, Episode 6 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/lj8-OYuaU3U/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-6/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 02:42:49 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2607 Paul Flewelling and Kirstin Donaldson hosted Episode 6 of The Board and they covered:

  • Scrum teams, what they are, how they work and tips for coaching scrum teams
  • games we’ve used for team building and for demonstrating Agile principles
  • encouraging team members to contribute to retrospectives
  • The Rope game
  • book review of Gamestorming by James Macanufo
  • Retrospectives ideas resource http://tastycupcakes.org/


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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-6/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-6/ The Board, Episode 5 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/2Qs7V-6U42k/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-5/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 02:25:24 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2601 On episode 5 of The Board we had a new presenter, Paul Flewelling, an Agile Coach at Boost. He joined Kirstin on our Product Owner episode. They discussed:

You can check out this episode on our Livestream page.

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-5/feed/ 2 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-5/ The Board, Episode 4 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/NrRCZHJpJOM/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-4/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 02:10:32 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2596 Episode 4 of The Board covered a range of topics:

  • the role of Scrum Master – what makes a good Scrum Master?
  • we referenced Coaching Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins
  • simple solutions to development in Agile teams
  • metrics in Scrum; use of metrics to support the team, using metrics for release planning
  • loss of a Product Owner mid sprint
  • book review of Leading Lean Software Development by Mary and Tom Poppendieck
  • lean start up principles


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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-4/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-4/ The Board, Episode 3 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/nEQBQwfQ9MQ/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-3/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 01:45:24 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2588 During our 3rd episode of The Board we talked about:

  • responding to change over following a plan
  • the removal of a key team member during a sprint and coaching a team through it
  • the role of the Product Owner
  • the inspect and adapt cycle – retrospectives
  • review of The Power of Scrum
  • review of the blog www.allaboutagile.com

If you’d like to comment on anything you’ve seen during episode 3 we’d love to hear from you via the comment section.

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-3/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-3/ The Board, Episode 2 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/ZvemHo1UuqY/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-2/#comments Fri, 17 May 2013 00:01:36 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2580 In our second episode of The Board Kirstin and Nathan talk Agile values and review ‘Lean from the Trenches’ by Henrik Kniberk. They also highlight Kane Mar’s blog www.scrumology.com.

We’re interested in your questions on future episodes of The Board, you can join us at The Board every second Thursday – you’ll see our next scheduled date on The Board’s Livestream homepage. Once the episode is live you can use the text chat on Livestream to ask us questions or let us know about interesting Agile approaches you use in your day to day work.

 

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-2/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-2/ The Board, Episode 1 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/ypnUM6Oq4K8/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-1/#comments Thu, 16 May 2013 23:38:14 +0000 Kirstin http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2570 The Board is streamed live every two weeks, it’s all about Agile. We filmed our first episode, live, 6 months ago, Nathan Donaldson and Kirstin Donaldson volunteered to get in front of the camera and chat for half an hour about everything Agile.

During episode 1 they covered the following topics:

  • common problems with new Agile Teams
  • how to coach a Product Owner
  • how a Team communicates, the value of face to face communications
  • advice to a new Scrum Master
  • what the role of a Scrum Master is
  • agile outside of software development
  • using Kanban to run business development and management
  • Kanban in China
  • using Scrum in your personal life
  • the value of visible workspaces
  • recommendation of the week: ‘Agile Retrospectives – Making good teams great’ by Esther Derby and Diana Larsen
  • what do you like to do at the end of a project
We’d love to hear what you think of our first time presenting The Board.


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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-1/feed/ 2 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/the-board-episode-1/ 5 steps to better value for money in web application development http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/uFIKt6BIrWg/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/development/5-steps-to-better-value-for-money-in-web-application-development/#comments Mon, 13 May 2013 03:22:36 +0000 Nathan http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2553 No one wants to be the next Novopay! How do you ensure good value for money in web application development? It’s a question we are often asked and doesn’t have a straightforward answer. In this post we will look at some of the techniques we use to deliver better value for money on our projects.

Customer and team collaborate at every stage

To ensure that the vision held by the customer is shared, the customer and team must collaborate effectively and efficiently. Using good facilitation tools and techniques, and agile ways of working, the customer’s vision is clearly shared by the team and enables them to make sound decisions at every stop of the way.

Get fast feedback from the market

Key to getting good value for money is getting feedback from your market early and often. Working to get the application to market as early as possible reduces risk by ensuring the feedback loop from clients is as short as possible and by reducing investment before feedback. Integrating customer feedback into your development process will ensure that the features being developed are of value to your customers.

Build quality in to reduce the cost of change

Following technical best practices such as BDD & TDD is an excellent way to ensure quality is at the forefront in development. Technical best practices reduce the number and severity of defects in the work which frees valuable resource for creating features. The cost of finding and correcting defects grows quickly, so early discovery and re-mediation is key.

Prioritise the highest value features first

By focusing on producing the highest value features first you will ensure that the product is viable at the earliest possible stage. This ensures that the return on investment is as high as possible.

Inspect and adapt your product, processes and tools

It is absolutely essential to continually and rigorously inspect both the software being created and the way the team is working to create the software. We use agile processes to ensure that the team and client work together to improve on a continuous basis. The result is a high-performing team that is continuously improving, adapting to change and providing more and more value.

All of these ideas are supported by Agile and Lean and we are in a great position today where we are able to stand on the shoulders of giants who’ve discovered pragmatic solutions to the problems of software development.

We would love to hear your your point of view, what has worked for you in the past?

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/development/5-steps-to-better-value-for-money-in-web-application-development/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/development/5-steps-to-better-value-for-money-in-web-application-development/ Expanding the format of The Board http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/boostblog/~3/qX4BrH2_ig0/ http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/expanding-the-format-of-the-board/#comments Wed, 20 Mar 2013 03:37:50 +0000 Joe http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/?p=2531 The Board, Boost’s live, Agile show, is expanding it’s format to include more of what we like best… you.

We’re still beginning the show at 10:30am NZDT (4:30pm EDT), but now we’ll start streaming chat 10 minutes beforehand to allow you to interact and ask questions that will be presented to the hosts of The Board. We’ll keep our chat area open for the duration of the show, but this will allow you to contribute to the discussions in the show in advance.

The topic for tomorrow is: User stories

If you have any questions, thoughts, concerns or stories, please look for our streaming signal at:

10:20am NZDT – 20th of March 2013 | 4:20pm EDT – 19th March 2013

and share your thoughts with us.

Just go here and look for The Board – Episode 7

Thanks and talk to you tomorrow.

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]]> http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/expanding-the-format-of-the-board/feed/ 0 http://www.boost.co.nz/blog/agile/expanding-the-format-of-the-board/