How do you identify a high priority task? I like this answer, found on Merlin Mann’s website:
In Scrum we tend to see tasks (the work breakdown that a team deemed necessary in order to deliver a Story or feature) as equal priority because they all need to be completed in order to say we’re Done.
However Scrum also has the concept of a Product Backlog, which is a prioritised list of Stories (or features) which the Product Owner manages; planning for each Sprint (iteration) begins with the Product Owner describing the top priority Stories.
So maybe this card should say “How do you identify a high priority Story? It’s Done.”
I’m glad Agile 2009 is over … because reading all the tweets and posts about it just made me jealous 
I wish I could have attended the conference because (for me) reading other people’s take on the presentations can be interesting but I’d rather be there in person and be able to discuss it face to face.
Fortunately there’s a one day Agile conference coming to Toronto in October – it’s part of the Agile Tour. [Toronto site.] I signed up for it last week and I’m really looking forward to it. If you’re in/near TO and interested in Agile, register before September 20th and it’s only $30 for the day.
It seems that this blog is largely becoming a place where I just re-post Dilbert cartoons, but that’s not my aim … however, Scott Adams is just so spot on sometimes!
I’ve been in the situation (as I’m sure most PMs have) where the team says there’s just not enough time to get everything done, so I try to explain to the Product Owner that we need to cut (i.e. postpone) some functionality or we can’t deliver, only to be told “I need it all or there’s no point in delivering it”. Read the rest of this entry »
As you probably know, I’m looking for a new gig as a Scrum Master (excuse me while I plug my resume) and one of the challenges I’m finding is assessing the “Scruminess” of a company/project.
Fortunately I’ve found two handy tools: “The Scrum But… Test” and “10 Questions for Your Scrum Master Interview“. The first one (which is based on people who say “we do Scrum but…” and a long list of exceptions!) could be used as a self-test, for someone on a project to assess their level of adoption, but I’ve been using it (along with the 10 Questions) as a basis for things I need to learn during interviews.
The good news is that I’ve been interviewing with a company that I think is doing Scrum in a very pragmatic way: not blindly trying to adopt everything but rather picking the parts which make sense and having a roadmap for their next steps. I think the interviews have gone well and hopefully I’ll hear more in the next few days.
Spotted in adesblog.com.
I’m hoping to be able to say “Hooray!” soon – I had an interview with an interesting company, for a position that totally suits me and will challenge me, so hopefully next week will bring good news (or at least the next step towards that good news).