Overheard in the tech blogosphere » scrum

Overheard talking about a six thinking hats retrospective

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:55:33 +0000

“Once everyone is seated introduce the exercise by giving a brief summary of De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats process. Then explain that the group will all put on the same hat and discuss the iteration…and after that they will put on the next hat in the series and so on until the all the hats have been worn.” — Rob Bowley

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is six thinking hats retrospective. I just participated in one here at TechTarget and it may have been one of the smoothest retrospectives I’ve ever been part of. I don’t recommend it for every single iteration because that could get boring, but it was a nice change-up. Any kind of structure that moves the discussion along briskly and limits the time people can argue or rant is a good thing. Maybe I’ll try it at the dinner table next family gathering!

Overheard talking about Agile

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 22:54:11 +0000

When people talk about agile practices, they can sometimes become very religious. –Jurgen Appelo

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Agile, an approach to software development that anticipates the need for flexibility and applies a level of pragmatism into the delivery of the finished product.

Here’s our newest Word-2-Go glossary — it’s got a lot of our Agile vocabulary all in one handy printable page. Take a quiz and see how many you already know!.

Overheard – Scrum sprints

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 19:59:44 +0000

Smaller teams seem to gravitate towards short sprints, around two to three weeks. Planning’s are pretty simple and quick. The short sprint allows for the team to turn around things really quickly, and I personally like it a lot as product owner.

Brian Hartsock, Scrum Tip: Sprint length is a variable

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is Scrum sprint.

Overheard – Pigs and chickens

Margaret Rouse — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:11:25 +0000

People who are not committed to the project and are not accountable for deliverables at the meeting do not get to talk. They are excess overhead for the meeting. They might be called eavesdroppers if you don’t like chickens. Whatever we call them it should have a negative connotation because they tend to sap productivity.

Jeff Sutherland, SCRUM: Pigs and Chickens

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is pigs and chickens.

Overheard – burn down chart

Margaret Rouse — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 17:07:02 +0000

As a pilot, I like to think of a burn down chart as being like the glide path of an airplane on final approach…If you are stabilized on the glide path you will hit the runway at the designated touchdown point. If you are too high, you will not make it to the runway…If you are too low, watch out for the trees!

Peter Stevens, Towards a better burn down chart

Today’s WhatIs.com Word of the Day is burn down chart.