Why did the Respect for Tech Skills get Lost?

Technical skills is the core of any development project. In the end it is the skilled programmers that write the code that forms the product. Everything else is just support to ensure the coders develop the right features in the right order. But somehow management tend to look at the developers as the lowest level… Continue reading Why did the Respect for Tech Skills get Lost?

Scrum – What’s in it for me, the Developer?

What does a developer gain by embracing Scrum? I’m a strong believer of Scrum, but some time ago, I got my beliefs questioned. That is always good because it forces one to think them over again and reason about why one believe in certain things. It was not until several months later that I realised… Continue reading Scrum – What’s in it for me, the Developer?

Agile is not Unplanned

Agile focus on flexibility and the ability to change directions during the project, but it is not the same as working unplanned and rushing to do anything that comes up. For some people new to agile methodologies, this might be a bit of a surprise. An experienced project manager, that at the time was new… Continue reading Agile is not Unplanned

A Product Owner Crisis?

With scrum practices getting the development team’s work under control and out of an ad hoc process, the problem is often just moved to the product owner. From a developer’s perspective that’s good, because it makes it clear to everybody what the product owner’s responsibilities are. Introducing scrum practices to a development team is always… Continue reading A Product Owner Crisis?

Using Kanban for Scrum Backlog Grooming

Keeping track of the backlog in a Scrum project is a challenge. It quickly grows to hundreds of items that are in various state of readiness for inclusion in a sprint. In my current project, we’ve setup a Kanban board to help managing the backlog and make our backlog grooming sessions efficient. I think that… Continue reading Using Kanban for Scrum Backlog Grooming