If you coach a scrum team but you're not around to observe them during the sprint, how do you know how they felt about it?

Use Emo-lines

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I'm happy to say that my Scrum Checklist has been translated to several languages:

• Russian (thanks Alexander Plutalov)
  
• Japanese (thanks Yasunobu Kawaguchi)
• German (thanks Marc Bless)
  
• Portuguese (thanks Demetrius Nunes)

Here are the slides from my breakfast seminar "Agile - ett verktyg inte ett mål" (= "Agile - a tool, not a goal"), hosted by DSDM Consortium. The presentation was in Swedish but the slides are in English.

This is more or less the same presentation as my keynote at Integration Agile 2009 conference in Holland.

A video of my presentation at Devopsdays'09 in Belgium is now available. I didn't wear a microphone so you might need to pop up the the volume :)  If you are more interested in the slides check them out here

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I was interviewed by Mitch Pronschinske on Agile Zone, this turned into two articles:

• Kanban isn't better than Scrum, it's just smaller
• Scrum and XP are new - their principles are not

I think Mitch did a good job of turning the interview into coherent articles (not an easy job). 

Doing a road map can be a tricky thing. There are plenty of constraints and dependencies to consider: how to we balance long and short term improvements? how do we rate future revenue opportunities for our clients? how well do the separate steps tie together to a coherent product? is this fun and challenging? are we keeping our team motivated? can we stop half way?

I find that pair programming is by far the fastest way of traversing the decision tree. Basically, if you are a Product Owner, construct the road map together with another person. Lay out the plan that best meets the constraints and business goals and let the other question the options. (Of course, don't forget to switch).

Altogether, it helps you check  the different options and prepare arguments. You will be better prepared when meeting the stakeholders. For when you do, there is always something uncertain waiting for you.

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Here's a video recording of my 10 minute lightning talk "Kanban vs Scrum, a practical guide" at Agila Sverige June 8, 2009. It is basically a 10 minute summary of my book "Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both".

NOTE - the recording is in Swedish.

My and Henrik's book on is out. Get a downloadable version, or buy the full copy at InfoQ. The book includes: Foreword by Mary Poppendieck and David Anderson A comparison of Kanban and Scrum - their approaches as process tools in software In-the-trenches case study of introducing Kanban in operations Hope you enjoy the reading!

For further reading about the case study,  see my presentation at Devopsday's 2009.

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My new book "Kanban and Scrum - making the most of both" is done!

The purpose of this book is to clear up the fog, so you can figure out how Kanban and Scrum might be useful in your environment.



The book includes:

• Foreword by Mary Poppendieck
• Foreword by David Anderson
• Updated version of my original “Kanban vs Scrum” article
• In-the-trenches case study by Mattias Skarin

You can read it online for free (InfoQ registration required though) or buy the printed version.

Translators: If you are interested in translating this book to your language, please get in touch with my editor Diana Plesa (diana AT c4media.com).

Merry X-mas!

Here's a Traditional Chinese translation of my book Scrum and XP from the Trenches (not same as Chinese translation). Thanks Ko Jen-Chieh!



The other 8 translations are listed on the InfoQ page for the book.

Feel free to email me (henrik.kniberg AT crisp.se) if you want to translate the book to your language.

Configuration Management (CM) is crucial to any software project as neglecting it will easily get you in big trouble. It may look like bad luck, but it is not.

A CM-plan will deal with several matters, from simple to decide things, such as naming of releases to more advanced subjects, such as branching strategy. I will talk about the latter today.

There are of course different ideas about what a good branching strategy should be. It is my firm belief that it must be aligned with the subject at hand, namely changes.

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If you are near Atlanta and want to meet me and the rest of the Agile Alliance board feel free to come to our Agile Alliance Board Reception on wednesday evening!

We’ll host a winter holiday networking reception for Agile Alliance members, partners and friends. We’ll provide refreshments, a preview demo of the new website, and a quick review of the Agile Alliance Roadmap. You’ll bring lively ideas, questions, and a hearty appetite for Agile.

When: Wednesday December 16, 6:30 to 9:00-ish pm
Where: Atlanta Marriott Perimeter Center.

Please let us know if you plan to attend. Send an email with: Your Name, your Company/Affiliation, your Daytime Phone Number, and your “reply to” email address. To: admin@agilealliance.org.

Ever had this thrown at you?

"This production bug is unacceptable, it must never happen again!"

And that event, outside your systems control, formed a policy that affected all your every day life. Failure to distinguish between uncertainty under our control and uncertainty imposed by outside events is a bad management habit.

Instead;
"Manage the normal - treat exception as exceptional"

And have a happier life :)

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Nu när det finns en första "Hello, World"-version av Eats-o-matic i drift, är det dags att fundera på allvar på den vidare utvecklingen.

För att det skall bli något så behövs det bland annat möjlighet att lagra data, samt ett ramverk för att skapa själva webbapplikationen med.

Jag har kollat igenom ett antal av de alternativ som finns för GAE och kommit fram till ett val som jag tror passar mig som utvecklare och Eats-o-matic som applikation.

 

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Google har en Eclipse-plugin som automatiserar bygge, integrationstest & driftsättning av applikationer för Google App Engine.

Men hur gör man om man liksom jag tycker att det skall gå att bygga och driftsätta från kommandoraden?

Mitt svar är Maven. Tyvärr finns det inte (ännu) någon Mavenplugin, så det blir lite meckigt att få det att fungera.

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Feeling busy? Not ready when the deadline approaches? Many things in action?

Maybe you should consider a personal kanban. Now,  I will admit the first to admit I heard about the concept I thought "but isn't slight over administration? What about just saying no?" But not all events are under our own control and as this story will tell; I'm now convinced it actually works.


The personal kanban can help address three problems:

• "Constant reprioritization"
• "I need to be able to focus"
• "I want to feel the reward of completing work"

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Jag tycker inte om att bli överraskad. Även om det är så att någon trevlig person bokat en hemlig resa till mig eller anordnat en surprise fest. Det låter kanske tråkigt - men jag är bara ärlig - jag tycker inte om överraskningar. Självklart kan jag alltid spela glad. Man är ju trots allt artig. :-) Jag tycker inte heller om att överraska andra. Jag tycker om kontroll. Jag tycker om transparens. Man kan visserligen inte alltid ha full kontroll. Men man kan ha stor kontroll. Oftast genom att ha öppna ögon och öron, vara kommunikativ och hänga med.

Det här med överraskningar gäller även i arbetslivet. Och särskilt vid systemutveckling.
Genom att hänga med, vara kommunikativ och ha diverse tentakler ute, kan man få bra koll på vad som är i görningen. Man ska inte behöva bli överraskad av att ett delsystem inte fungerar. Det bör istället upplevas som att ett nytt problem uppstått. Men inte behöva vara en överraskning. Har man inte beräknat att sådant kan hända, då blir man överraskad. Inte annars.

Om kraven förändras, eller om det tillkommer nya krav som problematiserar den design/implemenation som redan gjorts, då är det ingen överraskning. Det är helt enkelt nya förutsättningar. Och har man haft tentakler ute, god kommunikation - så har man antagligen kunnat ana att något sådant eventuellt skulle komma.

Man ska inte bli överraskad av att det är lågkonjunktur. Att den skulle komma visste man faktiskt INNAN Lehmans Brothers föll!
Man ska inte bli överraskad av att det snart kommer vara stor brist på it-utvecklare.
Under lång tid är det färre som utbildar sig inom det området men samhället blir mer och mer beroende av IT.
Man ska inte bli överraskad av effekterna som kan komma av att energi och datorer just nu hör ihop - och att energi är en bristvara.
Det är mycket man inte borde bli överraskad av. Ändå blir många alltid så överraskade.
Kanske beror det på att så många tycker om överaskningar...som 5-åringar också gör...

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Det är mycket prat om Cloud Computing nuförtiden. Amazon EC2, Google App Engine, SpringSource CloudFoundry, och nu snart Windows Azure.

Detta är första delen i en serie som beskriver utvecklingen av Eats-o-matic, som kommer att köras på Google App Engine (GAE).

Häng med!

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This coming spring we will host a course with Robert C Martin on advanced TDD. I would really appreciate the input from my experienced TDD readers on what they consider to be the largest obstacles when it comes to TDD. This is your chance to shape the event so that it is customized to meet your needs.

A few months ago we hosted a very popular course with Michael Feathers. He talked about refactoring legacy systems and of course, unit tests which are an essential part of that. But the crowd cried out for more.

I have been practicing TDD for two years. I program in Java and frequently use Mockito and Wicket. The latter has support for unit testing web interfaces and it is great although it has its quirks.

But what is everyone else doing?

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Why do we level out? In many agile teams I have met the introduction of Agile methods have made the teams to take a big leap. But then, after a while, they level out. Why so?

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