There's an article on theServerSide.com on this paper now, seems to be generating some interest :o)

Fabulous article! I think that this is the best (in the sense of "most useful") essay I have read on agile development. The use of common-sense simplicity-rules approaches and discussion of real-world implementation experience is the key. Thank you for taking the time to write this up formally.

Hi Barrie! Here's an attempt to answer your questions.

1) Backlog items for us are usually 1 - 8 days once they get into a sprint.  Tasks are usually 0.5 - 2 days.

2) We don't restrict estimates much. We do however use 0.5 days as our lowest level of time estimate granularity for most teams.

3) We keep backlog items on a quite high level, they are essentially user stories. Tasks are more technical and specific, but we don't make them verbose. As long as the team knows what the task means it doesn't need to be described in detail. Also, the timebox of the sprint planning meeting (usually 3 hours) stops us from getting into too much detail.

4) Most tasks are implied, especially for smaller stories. For larger stories, especially high priority large stories, we try to make a fairly detailed task breakdown. The main purpose of the breakdown is to validate the overall time estimate of the story, and to make it easier for multiple people to work together on the same story.

You mention that there is a script available on this site to generate printable index cards from the product backlog.  I have not found it.  Where is it?

Excellent document, by the way.

Hi, I'm really interested in taking a look at the script, but the link looks to be broken:

http://www.crisp.se/henrik.kniberg/scrum/index-card-generator :

displays "Sidan Saknas" 

 

Any chance reposting?

thanks.

Thanks for this article! We have been doing agile development for a while, but have some missing links in the process. I really appreciate your candid real-world sharing of experiences in the subject, it definitely gives a better hint on what's more effective.

Here it is: http://blog.crisp.se/henrikkniberg/2007/12/18/1197973740000.html

Hi David, I'm glad you enjoyed the book. There is already a chinese version available here: http://www.infoq.com/cn/minibooks/scrum-xp-from-the-trenches

Great, I'd be happy to have you translate it to traditional Chinese! I'll get in touch with you by email.