Scrum in Schools

Tonight at the AgileCville user group meeting, we discussed Scrum in Schools.  This was a roundtable discussion of group members, and it was very interesting.  Paul Erb kicked off the discussion for us.  Paul is an Agile Cville regular, as well as the business manager...

Burning hours and points together

About a month ago I was working with a team planning another iteration for the project, when we had an interesting discussion about how to manage our burndown. On all of our previous sprints, our burndowns were based on hours.  That is, for each day of the sprint,...

The Iron Triangle revised to reflect people

I had coffee with a fellow software consultant friend recently where we traded war stories about recent IT projects. Jay told a tale familiar to many of us (Jay is not his real name, but the story is all too real).  He and his team had just recently finished a project...

Announcing an online course for Fixed Price Agile planning

I’m pleased to announce an online course that I have put together for how to lead and plan fixed price Agile projects and still be profitable.  I first announced this in a webinar I held recently, and I’m excited to open it up to a wider audience now.  You...

Improve your business relationships in 2011

I’ve heard other Agile Coaches say that leading a team through any change is as much about coaching them on their personal interactions as it is training them on the mechanics of Agile methodologies.  I was reminded of that insight when I recently read a Wall...

How Agile prevents the Chopping Block Paradox

That Sinking Feeling When a project starts to go wrong, you know it well before you admit it to yourself or your customer.  You know that feeling when you start to realize you don’t have enough budget, time, or the scope is unachievable? Long after we first get...