The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad

Learn how to avoid carrying work over sprints in Agile development by establishing team agreements, investing in solid User Stories, and maximizing team communication. Achieve predictability and success through testing, backlog management, and team commitment in Agile practices.

I recently received an email from Mike Cohn discussing techniques to NEVER deliver an Agile project late. At first I must admit, I was a perfect combination of excited to learn and extremely doubtful in the ability to do this. After some reading and discussion, I have determined that this is indeed possible.. 

Thank you to all Veterans Everywhere.. 

What Should Be Included in a Team Working Agreement? Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss what items could be incorporated into a team working agreement: Honor & Pride Over-Communication Early is On Time No Heroes Win or Lose as a Team Embrace Constraints The Penalty Box  Own Our Quality Thrive On Deadlines Welcome & Own Our Challenges

STABLE - Defining Personal Leadership In Chapter 13 of The STABLE Framework book, the master chief section, Mike Berry discusses Personal Leadership. Here are the 4 key principles:  Communication & Networking Skills A Strong Work Ethic Good Decision Making Skills The Ability To Deliver Results WITH Your Team

You Call That a User Story? Sometimes this topic drives me completely bonkers! There are far too many people who claim to have the silver bullet answer to defining and consuming the perfect story. Spandex approach, one size fits all, is almost always a BAD idea!  Research, Research, Research..: The most important thing most of the story writer do wrong. For writing stories you can not follow the formal requirement elicitation method always. Most of the time users will not be able to tell you what they but you need to find out. But how? First create the persona. Here you will understand the paint point that you are trying to solve. From the persona you will get for whom you are building and their goals. Then with the data collected from many user persona sit with your stakeholders (Product owners, Dev team). At that point the ideas and analysis will come into stories. Make the stories short and concise: A story will be meaningless if you can not finish it in one sprint. So you need to make it short and precise. Follow the three C’s of user story: The three C’s of user story is Card, Conversation and Confirmation. From the card where you are creating story, then having a conversation with the stakeholders and then confirm it with the acceptance criteria. Agility is prime goal: Don’t follow your story blindly. If it needs change, change it, the best stories comes with iterations, not with rigidity. Don’t be technical: User story document should not have technical details of “how a server will work” or “How a button will work”. It is a explanation of behavior not SRS or any technical document. Create a priority and order: Generally each story should be independent to each other. But if it has a tail and keep them in order and of course set priority which story you want to finish first and which one you want last. Why can’t we just write features or task instead : Users stories and tasks are different. User story is “What” and Task is “How”. User story describes a piece of functionality in the perspective of users and tasks are how you will deliver the story.

How DEEP is Your Product Backlog? Join V. Lee Henson as we review and article by Teodora Todrova where she discusses the acronym DEEP and why it is so critical for teams to understand and monitor their Product Backlog...  D = Detailed Appropriately E = Estimated E = Emergent P = Prioritzed

Can increasing our gratitude improve our physical, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing? How does this connect to our personal productivity and health? Join V. Lee Henson as we explore how all of this ties together and accept his November challenge to show gratitude. 

A Daily Standup Subscriber recently asked for me to review this article from Tom Whiteley. He did a great job in explaining and I almost feel like he got inside my head. :)  Take a listen and do share your thoughts. 

There are MANY types of leadership styles. Some come naturally and others must be learned. At the end of the day, it is quite the science. Join V. Lee Henson as we discuss the following leadership styles:  Transformational Leadership Transactional Leadership Autocratic Leadership Democratic Leadership Bureaucratic Leadership Laissez-Faire Leadership Servant Leadership