Contents
Goal: Go Beyond Books
My goal with these articles is to go far beyond what most books and guides can offer – to go into the deep level of detail that can only be learned through many years of real world experience. Â And to share that experience with others, in the form of practical tools, techniques and tips.
Sprint Planning
Estimates are a fundamental element of Scrum. Because they are the basis for planning and predicting when work will be completed. Like Sprints, if you’re not using Sprints and estimating, then you’re not using the Scrum framework.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Continuous Planning workshop that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Quarterly Planning vs. Continuous Planning, that I conducted in 2018.
Requirements of a Sprint Plan & tips to make it easier and more effective to do Sprint Planning.
Lists requirements for Scrum teams before starting a Sprint, and before a new Scrum team starts their first Sprint.
Quick tips on writing good Epics, Features, Stories and any other work item types and using the INVEST technique to break down work in to smaller pieces.
How can you export Stories from JIRA Agile ? How can you print Stories on to paper cards using a Word mail merge ?
Estimating
Estimates are a fundamental element of Scrum. Because they are the basis for planning and predicting when work will be completed. Like Sprints, if you’re not using Sprints and estimating, then you’re not using the Scrum framework.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Continuous Planning workshop that I conducted in 2018.
Documents some techniques you can use to estimating in Story Points using Affinity Estimating.
Some quick tips on learning and using Estimation Poker to estimating. Also known as Planning Poker.
How can you export Stories from JIRA Agile ? How can you print Stories on to paper cards using a Word mail merge ?
Some quick tips and guidelines on estimating in Story Points with Planning Poker.
Retrospectives
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Using Inspect and Adapt, and Retrospectives to Continuously Improve, that I conducted in 2018.
How to plan, schedule and execute a Retrospective. This how to is based on good practices learned over years of experience conducting hundreds of Retrospectives with Scrum teams, functional teams, engineers, managers, directors and executives.
Contains the Retrospective template in wiki page and spreadsheet formats described in Retrospective How To. You can use this to share the results of a Retrospective in a wiki or other shared space.
Sprint Reviews
Tips on how to conduct a Sprint Review for internal use by Scrum teams.
Scaling
SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) is complex and to understand how best to implement SAFe, you need to break it down into smaller pieces. In this article I'll breakdown some of the essential pieces of SAFe, the backlog hierarchy and roles.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Continuous Planning workshop that I conducted in 2018.
How to scale Scrum to large programs and portfolio. How to avoid common mistakes in Scrum.
Books and Guides
The Scrum Guide is the official guide to Scrum and is required reading for everyone working with Scrum and Agile.
Describes the Scrum roles, responsibilities and commitment of anyone in those roles. Most of this content came from The Scrum Guide and I added some additional content based on lessons learned and good practices.
This is an excellent day to day handbook on how to put Scrum to work. Â It walks you through step by step on how to do all the Scrum activities and meetings. Â This is one of 3 Agile Scrum Books You Must Own that I have been recommending for years.Â
Training
Here is some of the training that I have developed and conducting over the years.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Continuous Planning workshop that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a series of Community of Learning (CoL) workshops. This is an introduction to the CoL, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Quarterly Planning vs. Continuous Planning, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Feature Definition of Ready and Definition of Done, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Economic Driven Prioritization, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Release Train Engineers (RTE) role in Quality, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Dependencies & Risks, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I assembled for a Community of Learning (CoL) workshop on Using Inspect and Adapt, and Retrospectives to Continuously Improve, that I conducted in 2018.
Training courseware that I developed and conducted training in 2016 and 2017 for Jive Software, a wiki and collaboration platform.
Training courseware that I developed and conducted training in 2016 for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) - renamed to Azure DevOps.
Training courseware that I developed and conducted in 2015 at Apple for Jira Software and how I optimized Jira for Scrum.
Lessons Learned and Tips
Azure DevOps (ADO) is excellent at many things, because it has so much built-in. One of ADO's many strengths is its customizability. Here are some samples of dashboards and reports that I built in 2022 & 2023.
One of Jira's superpowers is its automation. Especially dashboards and reports. Here are some samples of dashboards and reports that I built in 2023.
In this article I'll begin discussing some lessons learned through pain and triumph in the real world, and try to boil them down to some Do’s and Don’ts with some real world situations.
How to scale Scrum to large programs and portfolio. How to avoid common mistakes in Scrum.
Why Scrum is required these days ? Studies that demonstrate project success rates over a decade. Why is Scrum a huge competitive advantage ?
Here's how to configure and use JIRA Agile for optimal Scrum.
How to manage mobile app development using Scrum.
Some quick guidelines and agendas that you can use to re-enforce the Scrum meetings so they are fast, efficient and focused.
Some quick tips and guidelines on estimating in Story Points with Planning Poker.
Agile Tools
Atlassian's Jira
I’ve been using Atlassian’s Jira since 2011.
One of Jira's superpowers is its automation. Especially dashboards and reports. Here are some samples of dashboards and reports that I built in 2023.
Apple's new Xcode Cloud is a big deal and adds CI/CD features right into Xcode. In typical Apple style, they innovated in some big ways. And here's a quick tool comparison with Microsoft and Atlassian.
Jira & Confluence Server License Sales ENDS Forever on Feb 2nd
Atlassian ENDS the sale of Jira & Confluence server licenses forever on Feb 2nd, 2021. They want everyone to move to the cloud. So get yours before they're gone.
Estimates are a fundamental element of Scrum. Because they are the basis for planning and predicting when work will be completed. Like Sprints, if you’re not using Sprints and estimating, then you’re not using the Scrum framework.
How can you export Stories from JIRA Agile ? How can you print Stories on to paper cards using a Word mail merge ?
Training courseware that I developed and conducted in 2015 at Apple for Jira Software and how I optimized Jira for Scrum.
Here's how to configure and use JIRA Agile for optimal Scrum.
Microsoft's Azure DevOps (VSTS)
This Microsoft set of tools is now called Azure DevOps.  Previously it was known as Visual Studio Team Services or VSTS.
Azure DevOps (ADO) is excellent at many things, because it has so much built-in. One of ADO's many strengths is its customizability. Here are some samples of dashboards and reports that I built in 2022 & 2023.
Estimates are a fundamental element of Scrum. Because they are the basis for planning and predicting when work will be completed. Like Sprints, if you’re not using Sprints and estimating, then you’re not using the Scrum framework.
Details on an example VSTS Dashboard the is used to capture, report and take action to correct data quality problems that will occur in a VSTS backlog.
Documentation for people using Aha VSTS integration and good practices. This integration is done utilizing Aha's own integration software.
Documents the configuration of the Aha VSTS Integration done by system administrators.
How to setup and view dependencies between work items in VSTS. Focuses on Feature work items, but is also applicable to any work item type in VSTS.
Tips on how to keep VSTS work item states up to date.
Everything below the top level work item needs a parent for the backlog structure to work correctly. So as you create new work items, everyone should keep an eye on that. ScrumMasters should facilitate their teams backlog work and monitor their Backlogs for data quality problems like these.
Documents how to track blockers in VSTS with the configuration of Blocker color coding configured on Board team views.
Some info on the VSTS Work Item Visualization extension, providing some quick tips and links to learn more. This VSTS extension allows you to visualize relationships between work items from within the work item form.
Requirements of a Sprint Plan & tips to make it easier and more effective to do Sprint Planning.
Documents the VSTS Product Backlog Hierarchy used for sophisticated products and portfolios of products, and how you can use the levels of the hierarchy and the work item types.
Lists requirements for Scrum teams before starting a Sprint, and before a new Scrum team starts their first Sprint.
Training courseware that I developed and conducted training in 2016 for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) - renamed to Azure DevOps.
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