Comments on: Why Scrum Software Development Rules

By: Stephen McIntyre

Stephen McIntyre — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:51:21 +0000

Can someone help with 2 questions:
How in the Agile/Scrum process is “the big picture” reinforced while focusing on immediate and small (daily) tasks within the sprint?
How in the process to distinguish between the important and the urgent?
Thanks,
Stephen (Newly adapting Agile/Scrum)

By: Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Lawrence D'Oliveiro — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:33:08 +0000

Re Mark Hatch: “This isn’t really incremental development. The Product Owner can set the stories and the priority but doesn’t get to set the time or committment. Only the team can do that.”

That doesn’t make any sense. A business arrangement is a two-way bargain. Both sides have to commit to that.

“Once velocity is established it makes hitting your deadlines a certainty, not a guess.”

That’s getting scarily close to market-speak. Deadlines are far from a certainty even in non-software-development projects, how can you seriously expect that claim to be credible in software development?

By: Mark Hatch

Mark Hatch — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:43:30 +0000

Since we manage several development teams on a global basis, we use a system called Version One. It allows us to manage multiple teams very easily and also makes the roll-up reporting less of a hassle. It also helps when everyone is pulling from one common backlog. If your scumming in a more localized way or just beginning, Pivotal Tracker is good, and we used that here to get up and running.

This isn’t really incremental development. The Product Owner can set the stories and the priority but doesn’t get to set the time or committment. Only the team can do that. It’s the crucial point, and why scrum is so successful. Once velocity is established it makes hitting your deadlines a certainty, not a guess. And customers love hit delivery dates! Development may be interative but, in essence, scrum is a framework for hitting the release with the most value.

By: Lawrence D'Oliveiro

Lawrence D'Oliveiro — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 05:43:19 +0000

Sounds like a new name for the old incremental development/rapid prototyping idea. So what else is new? I’ve been doing software development for clients in this way for over a decade: get some initial rough specs, go away for a couple of weeks, show them an initial working prototype based on those specs, get refinements and corrections, wash, rinse and repeat.

That way the client gets the reassurance that progress is being made, and they are happy to pay my monthly invoices.

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:55:07 +0000

Andrew: The VAR Guy thanks you for your answers. Short and sweet and on the mark. Thanks.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 23:08:08 +0000

No I don’t work with AgileBuddy it is just a great toolkit, and to your second point ~ if you aren’t using Scrum and your competition is, you will soon be working for your competition..

By: The VAR Guy

The VAR Guy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:07:17 +0000

Andrew: Quick questions
1. Do you work for Agile Buddy?
2. Also, do you agree with Mark Hatch’s views on Scrum vs. Waterfall?

Thanks for stopping by.
-TVG

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 21:19:56 +0000

Check out http://www.agilebuddy.com/ Pretty much all the Scrum tools you need to manage anything.