It drives me crazy when I receive email at work asking me to “mark my calendar.”
Outlook is clunky but it has a functioning calendar.
If you’re sending me email with a date and time in it you probably need to start over with a calendar invitation.
April 28, 2010
December 31, 2009
November 23, 2009
Additional Stories mid-Sprint
I was too lax recently when a Scrum Team ran low and picked up some additional Stories. The quick email discussion going over the Stories was probably insufficient to get unanimous buy-in and a Failed Sprint might have been avoided.
Moving forward, I will always have a mini-Sprint Planning Meeting when any new Stories are considered.
November 22, 2009
Clean End
One of the things we’ve been tracking is Pass or Fail for a Sprint All the work you set out to do was done? Pass. You missed a Story? Fail. There’s no associated reward or punishment but the teams get pretty serious about it.
A Sprint ended Friday and the Team was patting themselves on the back for their Pass even though at 7:30 PM the Team was still scrammbling to wrap up 3 Tasks. One of the engineers had to cancel dinner plans and was working alone at the office feeling solely responsible for the team’s success.
So now I get be the mean ScrumMaster and give them a big ol’ Fail and explain that the planning and estimates should not require last minute heroics and all-nighters.
I’m adding to my ScrumMaster checklist: Put a clear deadline in Exchange noting the date and hour of the Pass/Fail deadline. I’m a chump for not doing that automatically.
November 21, 2009
November 16, 2009
Shuttle SRB Recovery
Shuttle SRB Recovery
November 15, 2009
Scrum Evangelist
I’ve been tasked with converting ValueClick Media’s software development process to Scrum. I’m filling the role of ScrumMaster for two teams. We’ve settled on two-week Sprints and have completed two Sprints so far. It’s still early but the transition had gone surprisingly smooth.
September 4, 2009
Uncle Ben
With great power comes great responsibility. Uncle Ben (Spiderman movie 2002)
August 4, 2009
Rondeau After a Transatlantic Phone Call
Love, it was good to talk to you tonight.
You lather me like summer though. I light
up, sip smoke. Insistent through walls comes
the downstairs neighbor’s double-bass. It thrums
like toothache. I will shower away the sweat,
smoke, summer, sound. Slick, soapy, dripping wet,
I scrub the sharp edge off my appetite.
I want: crisp toast, cold wine prickling my gums,
love. It was good
imagining around your voice, you, late-
awake there. (It isn’t midnight yet
here.) This last glass washes down the crumbs.
I wish that I could lie down in your arms
and, turned toward sleep there (later), say, “Goodnight,
love. It was good.”
Marilyn Hacker
Mobile test 2
Test with photo.
