Use this tag for any questions that involve agile processes from the perspective of a project manager or similar role.
4
votes
4answers
177 views
Who should be trained when introducing Agile?
Should all team members be formally trained when introducing Agile methods into a company, or is it sufficient to train only a handful of key people? If the latter, who should they be?
1
vote
3answers
274 views
Structuring an Internal API Team in an Agile Environment
My company has adopted scrum two years ago, and I think we have been fairly successful using it. I am currently facing the task of trying to restructure part of our development organization, and I ...
9
votes
7answers
314 views
What are some ways you are getting your business engaged with your Agile team?
I continue to see Agile adoptions that focus on the R&D or Engineering team. There seems to be this acceptance that the core of Agile rests there. I'm absolutely not convinced. I think that if the ...
2
votes
2answers
134 views
Transitioning into an Agile Project
We will be working on an exciting new project that slightly blurs the line of PM and Consultancy. This organization are eager to introduce agile for supporting their existing applications, but they ...
9
votes
8answers
1k views
Best way to do peer code reviews in the development process [closed]
In our company, we use Scrum with short sprints of 1 or 2 weeks and peer code reviews as a requisite, but I'm still trying to figure out which is the best "flow".
One option could be doing the code ...
2
votes
2answers
229 views
Whose responsibility is it to encourage/ensure knowledge flow across Agile teams?
I am working with larger and larger organizations adopting Agile. One discussion recently has kept me thinking about a challenge I hadn't been paying attention to heretofore. That is, how do we create ...
2
votes
5answers
1k views
How to most effectively facilitate a value stream mapping exercise?
In the course of helping teams understand how their own project / service is structured and managed, I often facilitate value stream mapping (VSM) sessions.
What specific facilitation techniques are ...
1
vote
4answers
141 views
Given a “frozen” iteration plan, what happens if the plan's stories require more work than expected
I am not sure how to phrase this but I'd like to ask how Agile handles this.
My understanding is that in Agile, you freeze the stories that are in the current sprint.
What happens when a developer ...
14
votes
8answers
1k views
Does project management mean managing people?
Does project management mean managing people? So far, from my understanding, managing people is somehow part of project management. But I don't have any formal training in this direction and I can't ...
6
votes
6answers
726 views
How to handle user stories that cannot be split and do not fit even a 30 days long sprint?
Given a small team (3 people or so) and a technically challenging area (e.g. middleware, embedded software etc.), and
Assuming that a user story is a smallest thing that has value for the end user,
...
10
votes
9answers
2k views
How to handle big stories / epics in Scrum?
It's about a Scrum Team. PO and the couple of developers. They do well every time, when task is clearly defined and only technical part is to be done. It gets complicated when there is a need to work ...
4
votes
4answers
160 views
How to Give Better Estimations to Customers
We are working in an environment where customers give us thick requirement documents and they expect the technical team to do an estimation on the whole requirement. Once they receive our estimates, ...
1
vote
3answers
242 views
Tools in agile methods
We are currently in the process of implementing Scrum. I would like to let us started with a tool to help the team get along with it (see here about this point), but after a presentation I made where ...
2
votes
5answers
201 views
How should design changes be communicated in a waterfall/agile hybrid project during the implementation phase?
Several developers and I were recently added to a waterfall project. We were told that the project was almost done but needed a few extra coders to help finish it up (that's the first mistake). We ...
13
votes
3answers
302 views
Gameification - How would you gameify work in an Agile team?
During a recent open session at RallyON 2011 we talked about paradoxes in Agile. One of the items that came up during the conversation is when a high-performing team becomes so well greased that all ...
2
votes
2answers
199 views
In an agile process, should there be PMs in agile in the first place? Or Should they be replaced by a PO (Product Owner), or -may be- a Scrum Master?
Not to be confused with:
What role is there for a PM on an Agile project?
How does a Project Manager's job change when transitioning from waterfall to Agile?
In an agile process, where should ...
2
votes
2answers
309 views
Who is using Cynefin for their Agile adoption?
I've listened to some David Snowden podcasts on complexity theory and the Cynefin framework. It looks as though it could be powerful for guiding Agile adoptions.
Who has used Cynefin for this work? ...
2
votes
5answers
281 views
Who owns the issue of Agile team complacency?
I am really eager to hear different perspectives on team complacency about their Agile adoption. Is it the ScrumMaster's problem? The team's issue? The manager's fault? I can see so many complex webs ...
8
votes
3answers
345 views
What are you doing with Agile teams who no longer run retrospectives?
I have run into several teams who tell me that they no longer run iteration retrospectives: they were a waste of time and they weren't learning anything new. What is your answer to these teams? Should ...
5
votes
6answers
3k views
Open Source Agile Project tracker?
I have a small project I want to carry out.
I need that the open source Project Tracker could integrate with subversion.
And that it has a scrum oriented UI.
I'm trying to raise this a s a client ...
1
vote
2answers
93 views
eXtremely Distributed Software Development
In my previous post, Remote start up company software development. I have received a suggestion that XDSD will be useful in my case. The next question is how to do it?
5
votes
4answers
164 views
Risk Management - minimum data?
I'd like to come up with a "3x5 card risk board" which is essentially a movable dry-erase board where 3x5 sticky cards can be posted by the team and moved/reviewed daily/weekly as needed. (I use the ...
8
votes
6answers
581 views
Daily Scrum and flexible work time
Our company is in the process of introducing elements from Scrum in our working process. As we have flexible work time (not completly sure how to say it in english. People can come to work when they ...
6
votes
2answers
458 views
How does a Project Manager's job change when transitioning from waterfall to Agile?
When adopting Agile and moving away from waterfall what specifically changes in the day-to-day job duties of a PM? I'm interested especially in hearing from PMs who have made (or are in the process of ...
1
vote
5answers
86 views
How can you productively challenge corporate policies to investigate what can be changed?
Often, corporate policies governing a work-flow or project management processes are outdated or were decisions that were made arbitrarily. Sometimes there is a reason behind them. WHat are the best ...
1
vote
3answers
77 views
What are the benefits of reducing the size of scope or no. of story points in an iteration?
In convincing management of the benefits of working on smaller scopes in more iterations. Have you seen this make a difference in speed, quality or ability to adapt to change in requirements?
12
votes
4answers
790 views
How do you kick-off new Agile teams?
I'm curious what others are doing with regard to getting teams up and running with Agile in a sustainable way. What do you emphasize first (practices, principle, process framework)? Or is there no one ...
14
votes
9answers
4k views
How Long Should an Agile Sprint Be?
I'm currently PM on a project that is scheduled to run for about 14 months. The current sprint structure is 4 weeks of development; week 5 allows us to show progress to the client, deploy it for ...
3
votes
4answers
245 views
How is agile different from the way in-house developers have always worked?
in-house in this context means developers working in a company department, where software is used only by that company (defined due to subtleties in translation)
I've been confused by this for a ...
14
votes
6answers
1k views
Scrum, Agile, Kanban looking for 'for dummies' type of information
I'm sure I'm not alone in this. I have heard and read a lot of snippets of information about this topic and I've formed my own understanding - probably not the best way to assess the value or try to ...
10
votes
12answers
1k views
Starting to learn Project Management, which book or path to follow ? [closed]
As I started to search to learn more about project management on Google, I was overwhelmed by all the certification links.
All I want to learn is about the various software (especially web ...
3
votes
5answers
140 views
What would I need to do to transition from a team coach / organizational change agent to a PM?
A lot of the skills I've picked up as a Lean / Agile coach seem to be relevant to project management, and I've started getting offers of PM work from agencies. Since I coach PMs, I feel like I ought ...
10
votes
7answers
793 views
Different ways of running Retrospectives
I'm about running another Retrospective with my team. I'd love to hear what different types of Retrospectives you do, not to fall into routine. How do you improve such meetings to keep people engaged ...
8
votes
3answers
352 views
What common techniques do Kanban teams use to make commitments to other teams in their organization?
When a team is first adopting kanban, they do not typically have reliable numbers for cycle time, and will struggle to make commitments based on a Service Level Agreement. What commitment techniques ...
10
votes
6answers
5k views
Agile methodologies such as Scrum in non-software development projects
Even though Scrum was originally suggested for managing product development projects, its use has focused on the management of software development projects.
None of the project management teams I ...
7
votes
4answers
472 views
How to implement SCRUM without forgeting the four principles of the agile manifesto on the way?
Don't the four agile principles get a bit lost in the middle of all the SCRUM process? How can this be avoided? How to promote these four principles over the process that is imposed? How to make the ...
8
votes
7answers
391 views
Is it possible to manage an agile project with international team members?
Some of the hallmarks of agile projects work best with a co-located team, perhaps all working out of the same bullpen where face to face interaction is the norm. In fact, some of the principles ...
5
votes
3answers
372 views
How can a team working on research based items work in an Agile project?
My R&D organization is following an Agile (SCRUM) development methodology. One of the development teams is working mostly on items that are really problematic in terms of the certainty during the ...
6
votes
5answers
337 views
Can metaphors in popular culture help with explaining agile or waterfall to clients?
After reading this blog post that suggests that the Death Star was an agile project I was wondering if using metaphors is a good way of describing methodologies in a slightly fun way.
'Movie x ...
7
votes
3answers
263 views
Is the PM's required knowledge in agile environment changing nowadays?
We see software developers these days that do not know what does it mean not to use TDD or other practices of XP, project leaders that never worked in a non-agile environment, etc.
These people don't ...
23
votes
4answers
964 views
How do you convince a client to use Agile Methods?
Here's the thing: In agile, client has very important role to fulfill - if they aren't involved, agile loses much of its value.
How do you convince clients to change the way they run projects, ...
4
votes
5answers
901 views
Scrum+Kanban SaaS tool [closed]
Do you want to use such tool?
It will be some tool with product backlog, sprint backlogs, Scrum/Kanban dashboard...
Me and my partners want to develop this.
21
votes
14answers
12k views
Where to Find a Desktop Kanban board application?
I have been looking for a week now, all over the net for a simple desktop based kanban management system. I work in a distributed team, but my company won't accept to use an exterior webapp like ...
1
vote
3answers
267 views
What about Prince2, FDD & Agile Development (with XP)?
Do you have any criticisms?
I've been having a hard time fitting it all together but I finally understand which parts go where and the need for me to customize to a certain degree to make them fit.
...
6
votes
5answers
270 views
How to actually empower self-organized team to remove its member?
One of the parts of self-organization in agile (but this is not necessarily related only to agile) is that we look at the team's performance and focus on supporting the team doing their job the best ...
13
votes
11answers
2k views
Should bugs be treated as stories or as tasks?
If you're using scrum you should know that there is a clear difference between tasks and stories. A story is something that is valuable to user. A task is a step to produce that value to user.
So how ...
4
votes
4answers
2k views
How to organize sprints during the user acceptance tests phase?
What is the suggested approach to sprints organization during the tests phase? Lets assume that we have finished development sprints, internal tests (analysts & developers) are over. Application ...
4
votes
6answers
844 views
How to approach project management using both Agile and Prince2?
I am new to Project management. My current position is helping to project manage a small software team. I have been giving the opportunity to attend the PRINCE2 course which from my reading I would be ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
Can Scrum Sprint duration change from 4 weeks to 2 weeks during the project?
Does it makes sense to adjust Sprint duration during the project?
Consider a 10 months project for a web portal, requirements are a little obscure right now, so I expect that at the beginning (first ...
3
votes
4answers
699 views
How the Product Owner should prioritize the backlog?
When the Product Owner prioritizes the backlog, should he do this side-by-side with the customer?
This step must be done during the Sprint Planning Meeting, or should be done before the meeting and ...
