The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

As a kid, I enjoyed visiting my grandparents. My dad’s parents were an eight-hour car trip away but we’d make the trek a few times a year. On many of those trips, my grandmother would host extended family dinners, usually with quite a crowd in attendance. She served a great many dishes for those dinners, including some things from “the old country.” And some of those dishes looked quite unappealing to my young palate. But Grandma insisted we children try everything. As a matter of fact, she insisted we try two bites of everything. If we didn’t like it, we didn’t need to eat more. But we always had to eat two bites. Grandma’s theory was that things often taste much better on the second bite. I’ve found that Grandma’s logic applies equally well to changes teams make as a result of their retrospectives. I encourage teams to try new things for two sprints before deciding whether the change is good and worth continuing or not. Suppose, for example, a team decides to switch from two- to one-week sprints. That will undoubtedly feel a little strange at first. I tell that team not to discuss how the change went in the first retrospective following the change. I want them to save that discussion for after the second sprint. At that point they’ll have a much better feel for whether the change was good. They’ll be able to assess the effects of the change rather than just the discomfort of making a change. When I was young, I did as my grandmother required: I sampled each strange, new dish twice. Not surprisingly, my opinion never changed between bites. If I didn’t like the taste of the first bite, it never got better with the second bite. I was a kid, after all. But I have seen agile teams embrace after a second sprint the changes they might have rejected after a first sprint. That willingness to really try new things is critical for teams to succeed with agile, Mike

I frequently get asked about Agile Contracts and how we should fund/budget for Agile products and projects. Let this no longer be a mystery! This 'no crystal ball' required approach will lead you to the how and why behind Agile Budgeting practices. 

How important is the definition of done and what kind of things should in include? How about:  Acceptance criteria are verified during testing Code creation tasks completed Testing completed and signed Regression testing has been reviewed and passed Code reviews conducted Defects are in an “acceptable” state to the Product Owner User story accepted by the product owner Regression tests run and passed Automated unit tests are checked in

What is a release plan and why is it such an important part of our Agile implementation? Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we did deep in the archives and discuss how release planning can make or break your implementation. 

What can we learn from a bundle of sticks? Join V. Lee Henson from AgileDad as we share an inspiring story about a man, his 4 sons, and a bundle of sticks that was unbreakable! 

Why are the Scrum Values so important? Is it critical that we memorize these and share them with our teams? Join V. Lee Henson, President and Founder of AgileDad as we discuss why the Scrum Values ADD Value! 

This is the age old question... Which practice works best? Which is the silver bullet solution ?Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss the 4 phases to complete a product or project and the importance of investing in each. 

Are data driven retrospectives really a thing? I suppose they are, but I see this as an opportunity to really demonize and weaponize metrics to force a renewed push for equalization and optimum efficiency instead of focusing on outcome and impact which are the real 2 metrics we should be tracking. 

Here are the Top 10 Tricks:  Have a clear purpose objective and intent for the meeting Invite the right people to your meeting Prepare a detailed agenda Nail the logistics Always start on time Stay on Track Define how decisions will be reached Make certain outcomes and conclusions are clearly stated Assign action items and Stick to timelines Follow-up after the meeting

Sam and Tom were identical twins. They were so identical that even their mother found it difficult to distinguish one from the other. But apart from their looks, the two boys couldn’t be any more different. The first young boy, Sam, had no problems making friends. Meanwhile, the other little boy, Tom, was bad at keeping them. Sam loved sweets but Tom loved spicy food. Sam was mommy’s pet and Tom was daddy’s pet. Sam was generous and selfless. Tom had a very bad temper and was very greedy. This is where this motivational story gets interesting. As Sam and Tom grew up, their father wanted to share his fortune equally amongst them. However, Tom did not agree and he argued that whoever proved to be more intelligent and strong would have to get a bigger share of the wealth. Sam agreed. Their father decided to organize a competition between the two. He asked the two sons to walk as long as they could and return home before sunset. The wealth would be divided in proportion to the distance covered. As a rule of the competition, they were not permitted to carry a watch to keep track of the time. The following day, Sam and Tom set out to walk. It was a rather sunny day. Sam walked slowly and steadily, while Tom broke into a sprint as he was bent on winning the race and winning a greater portion of his father’s wealth. Sam knew that it would be ideal to walk as far as possible until noon then head home by noon as it would take the same amount of time to walk back home. And so he did. However, Tom—with his greed to earn more wealth—did not attempt to return home even after mid-noon. He walked twice as long as Sam and thought he would still be able to return home before sunset. He hurried back when he saw the sun turn orange. Unfortunately, he could not even make it halfway. Darkness slowly engulfed his path and he had to drag his tired feet back home. He had lost the race because of his greed.