Reading Time: 4 minutes How big is your backlog? Is it a very long list of very different items? Or perhaps a collection of multiple products or even teams? In my experience the backlog can become an impediment. When the backlog isn’t transient, it can cause headaches, delays, conflicts and possible confusion. When it Read more…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Recently I read the book “Socrates on Sneakers” by Elke Wiss. A philosophical guide to asking good questions. The book is basically written around Socratic conversation principle. A Socratic conversation, also known as a Socratic dialogue, is a form of discussion in which participants engage in a back-and-forth exchange of Read more…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Recently, I conducted a fun Lego Retrospective and in this article, I will share my insights. Learn how to build a strong team by becoming a Brickmaster yourself through the use of Lego in the workplace. Sprint Retrospective The Sprint Retrospective is a crucial event in the Scrum framework, held Read more…
Reading Time: 5 minutes One of my favorite statements: Scrum Masters aren’t session facilitators. I love it. Because many people frown when I say this. “What do you mean Wim? In my team, the Scrum Master is always facilitating sessions.” Me: Why? “Well, it has always been like this. And to be honest, the Read more…
Reading Time: 2 minutes Is management requesting planning sheets in which you give them insights on what you deliver and when? There are a couple of problems with classic planning approach. And there is an alternative which connects better with an Agile approach. Output Let’s briefly go over the issues with the classic approach Read more…
Reading Time: 5 minutes What makes a team? We all know, if you put a bunch of people together, it isn’t necessarily a team. It’s still a bunch of people. But many individuals expect from this group, that they perform to their highest level and commit to a certain outcome. In other words, act Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutes In addition to my previous post about questions from the ‘more classical’ world regarding progress and the different methods of measuring progress, I’m now writing about another common and rather popular question: When is your product done? To be able to answer this question, let’s first try to define what Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Are you asked for your progress during product development? There are a number of ways you can answer this question. The most common one is where you inform your stakeholders by reporting the number of requirements you have built. I would like to propose a different approach. One where you Read more…
Reading Time: 3 minutes Recently we visited NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam. This a very nice museum full of all kinds of experiments. The visitors, mainly kids, can perform these experiments themselves, so they learn a lot about different topics, like space, electricity, water purifying, chemistry, technology, etc. Every hour there is a show Read more…
Reading Time: 7 minutes Estimates are still a painful subject in the world of software development. Some people hold on to techniques from the past, trying to predict the timeline of a software project. Others are in favour of changing these habits and are looking for better ways to become predictable. In this article, Read more…