Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . It’s often been said that agile project management techniques aren’t a silver bullet that will magically solve all of your problems. In fact, their biggest strength lies is not...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . I’ve been participating in more conversations internally about promoting a team-oriented culture at Microsoft. Microsoft has a strong individual-oriented culture which works well for...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . In another conversation on an internal email thread, someone asked some newbie questions about Scrum daily standup meetings, like do they have to be every day or could they be done every...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . My current work environment is pretty typical of a lot of tools teams, IT shops, and similar groups; we have lots of relatively small projects to build and maintain. In fact, we have far...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . Here’s another question that was asked on one of our internal distribution lists: When do we consider a sprint to be a failure? I don’t know the answer and have no clue...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . Push Traditionally, software development has been built around a push model of work flow. That is, as soon as any kind of task is identified, like “add this feature” or “fix...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . My colleague Robert Hanz wrote an excellent piece for an internal email list and I liked it so much I asked him if I could post a copy of it. Apparently Herb Sutter liked it too! Thanks...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . I recently took on the role of ScrumMaster for a newly-formed team that’s new to agile project management. We’ve had several interesting discussions about various topics that...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . A frequent question on the internal email groups around here is, “My team is going to start using Scrum and we need to find a good Scrum tool to use for tracking everything. What tool...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . I wrote about my preference for short Scrum sprints last month, where “short” means no more than two weeks. Recently there was another internal email thread on roughly the same...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . There have been several blog posts written recently on the topic of TDD and whether it ultimately makes you more productive or just slows you down. I don’t have much to add to that...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . Here’s one more thought on the subject of complexity in software development: software development is NP-hard . Software development (in the sense of building large projects end...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . My previous post talked about how software development can’t be modeled by any process that’s significantly less complex than the development process itself. I’d like to...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . A recent internal email thread asked about the difference in philosophy between Agile development and Waterfall-style development (or anything that promotes BDUF). There’s the Agile...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . Sometimes the Scrum process kind of breaks down. Maybe there’s confusion over backlog items, or some people end up with nothing to do, or there’s a general sense of spinning...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . This is a little late but there was an interesting internal thread about Tom DeMarco’s recent article in IEEE Software entitled “ Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . Over the past few months there have been several interesting email threads on internal aliases at work that have helped clarify my thinking about various Agile topics. I thought I’d...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . I’ve had several discussions recently with coworkers about Agile project management processes, and one point I’ve found myself making repeatedly is that agility in your process...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . In my previous job, I once scribbled something on a window that caused a bit of head-scratching by people who read it: “Source code is a liability, not an asset!” ...

Update: this blog is no longer active. For new posts and RSS subscriptions, please go to http://saintgimp.org . I’m about 2/3rds of the way through Object Thinking by David West. I picked it up on Mo Khan’s recommendation and it’s definitely worth a read. It’s not a new book...