Perfecting Scrum Basics
Find clear definitions and the original thinking behind the core Scrum Framework.
Retrospectives
One of the core principles in Scrum is the idea of continuous improvement. Each Sprint the Team engages in an inspect-and-adapt cycle during the Retrospective meeting. Beyond that though, the Scrum Guide doesn’t offer much insight into how to run a successful Retrospective and how to use the meeting to improve production, quality, and velocity. Visit the full course page.
How To Launch a Scrum Team
Join us as we share how we help clients launch teams. We share our step-by-step backlog for launching new teams or reinvigorating old. Three different perspectives from three Scrum Inc. coaches on what to do, what the common impediments are, how to avoid the worst and conquer the inevitable. Visit the full course page.
All Topics on Scrum Basics
HICSS 2008: Schedule of Agile Papers
Wild man Evan Campbell demonstrates Type C Scrum at HICSS 2007 Agile Software Development: Lean, Distributed, and Scalable Co-Chairs: Jeff Sutherland and Hubert Smits HICSS 41, January 7-10, 2008 - Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort Waikoloa, Big Island, Hawaii ST 1...
Why Time Sheets are Lame!
Programmer time vs. Quality Software Score. Totally uncorrelated! Actually time sheets are worse than lame: * they demotivate developers * 10-15% loss of productivity is the minimum * developers have to fake the time to fill them out properly * erroneous data is used...
Scrum and CMMI Level 5: A Magic Potion for Code Warriors
(this blog has moved to scrum.jeffsutherland.com) An earlier blog item commented on the dramatic advantages of using Scrum with CMMI, particularly with a CMMI Level 5 company. See Scrum supports CMMI Level 5. At the Agile 2007 Conference in Washington, D.C., an...
Agile 2007 Video Contest 2nd Place: Being Agile is our favourite thing
More light hearted than "Developer Abuse" the video "Being Agile is Our Favorite Thing" won 2nd place at Agile 2007.
Agile 2007 Video Contest 1st Place: Developer Abuse
At the Google party at Agile 2007 we all voted (screamed) for the best Agile video advertisement. Developer Abuse won easily.
Camp Scrum: A Powerful New Concept to Accelerate your Agile Program
Looking for a powerful way forward into the world of Agile development? Whether you're just getting started or looking for ideas that can improve your current Agile implementation, you don't want to miss this opportunity to learn from the world's top experts in Scrum...
Agile Video Contest – post yours before Agile 2007
There is an Agile You Tube video contest going on sponsored by VersionOne, Google, and InfoQ. The best video will be selected (and rewarded) at the Agile 2007 conference in Washington, D.C. next month. Check out current video submissions and submit your entry now!
Origins of Scrum
For a more complete discussion of the orgins of Scrum see the Scrum Papers. Scrum derives directly from the Takeuchi and Nonaka paper in the Harvard Business Review, "The New New Product Development Game." The best example in this paper is Honda and their style of...
XP Game: Know your team’s velocity!
I'm using the XP Game in ScrumMaster classes and many people want to know the orgins of the game and how to obtain materials. The full game can be downloaded from the site below. We use a short version of the XP Game to show how Scrum teams can improve estimation,...
Hawaii International Conference on Software Systems 2008: Call for Papers – due 15 June 2007
Get your papers in by 15 June 2007 - don't miss Hawaii in January 2008! Agile Software Development: Lean, Distributed, and Scalable (Jeff Sutherland and Hubert Smits) Agile software development processes have been influenced by best practices in Japanese industry,...
Scrum World Tour T-Shirt
Thanks to Örjan Hillbom CPG we now have a Scrum World Tour T-Shirt produced by Trifork in Denmark. Örjan is a rock group/motorcycle gang video expert who attended a ScrumMaster training by me and Jens Ostergaard in Copenhagen recently. He said Scrum really "rocks" and...
Scrum Podcast: Andy Latham’s conversations with thought leaders
Listen to conversations with thought-leaders at the interface between Web 2.0, Libraries, and the Semantic Web... by Andy Latham Jeff Sutherland talks with Talis about SCRUM In our latest Talking with Talis podcast, I talk with Jeff Sutherland about SCRUM. Jeff is one...
Oursourcing Strategy: Only Work with Scrum Teams
I had an exciting week in the Amsterdam area at the beginning of April working with Xebia, a consulting company that has set up a subsidiary in India that uses a SirsiDynix style Scrum where geographic transparency rules and teams are made up of people from...
Deep Agile: A Dialogue Between Scrum and XP
Photo from cover of Crosstalk, Apr 2007Spend two days with two signatories of the Agile Manifesto - Jeff Sutherland, Co-Creator of Scrum, and Ron Jeffries, XP author and consultant.You wouldn't want to miss a two day deep dive into Agile: Scrum, Extreme...
Scrum Burndown using Trac
In a recent draft of "The Scrum Papers" I document the use of the GNATS bug tracking system at my company PatientKeeper for managing a complex Scrum implementation. In my Scrum Tuning course I use a complexity number which equals (number of teams) x (number of...
Scrum Montage
Montage-a-google Montage-a-google is a simple web-based app that uses Google's image search to generate a large gridded montage of images based on keywords (search terms) entered by the user. Not only an interesting way of browsing the net, it can also be used to...
Get an Experienced Developer on the Test Team
In 1993, at Easel Corporation, we went to the local university and hired their best Master of Computer Science graduate to join the test team and focus 100% on automation. This was one of the decisions that put the first Scrum into a hyperproductive state where we...
A Good ScrumMaster is Hard to Find
A Zen master famous for his collection of wooden Buddhas once said, "Enlightened people are everywhere but a good wooden Buddha is hard to find!" Really good ScrumMasters are hard to find because they get promoted to VP of Engineering or head of a business unit or run...
Kaizen Mind: Essential to High Performance Scrum Teams
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times. An instructor ends a class on auto maintenance. The program is part of Toyota's efforts to maintain quality in the face of rapid overseas expansion. In the typical company where I do Scrum consulting there may be urgency around...
The Managers Role in Scrum
Open Space hosted by Jens Ostergaard Minneapolis, Nov 2006 Notes by Stacia Broderick The purpose of this open space was to discuss the role of the manager in the scrum process. Jens told us that Scrum could be CMMI Level 5 compliant if a manager role were to be...
HICSS 2007 Agile Track – 5 Jan 2007
Incorporating Lean Development Practices into Agile Software Development Co-Chairs: Jeff Sutherland and Jean Tabaka For details see CALL FOR PAPERS Fortieth Annual Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort and Spa on the Big...
Scrum in 5 Minutes
When I am in Scandinavia, I often work with Softhouse, a consultancy with clients like Sony/Ericson and IKEA. They have an excellent short paper called: Scrum in 5 Minutes On my laptop, I can run this PDF in full screen mode as a slide show and use it for press...
Is CMMI worth doing?
The ScrumMaster Trainers list is discussing the Scrum CMMI Level 5 paper and raise good questions: Does CMMI provide any benefits? Some have worked on CMMI projects that just generated more overhead with no benefits. What do the authors think about this? Systematic...
Scrum supports CMMI Level 5
Level 1 - Uncertainty. Success depends on individual effort. Level 2 - Awakening. Basic project management practices are established. Level 3 - Enlightenment. Standard process throughout organization. Level 4 - Wisdom. Detailed metrics are collected and evaluated....
Scrum Certification in Buenos Aires 8-9 Nov 2006
The ScrumMaster Certification course will be led by Jeff Sutherland and take place at "El Querandi", Peru 322, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It's a very nice place. CSM Course includes 1 hour lunch an coffee breaks during morning and afternoon. CSM rate is USD 900,-....