Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CEO of Watermark Learning (Lately I’ve been getting questions from Agile seminar participants about how to apply Scrum to “real life,” as though these methods are “good in theory, but not at my company!” Some organizations may not be ready to adopt agile methods completely, so I encourage students to take an organizational readiness self-assessment to see if Agile in general and Scrum in particular is right for them. The questions on the self-assessment can be used to begin conversations as a way to raise issues that need to be resolved in organizations thinking about adopting Scrum.
Be Satisfied with what I Give You- It’s Better than what You Asked for
My husband and I usually stay in hotels on vacation and sometimes our expectations, those unspecified requirements, are not met. This blog deals with two aspects of unmet expectations: unwanted features and making changes.
Unwanted Features
How many of us are universally delighted with every room assigned to us? Recently, despite asking for a quiet room with a king-size bed (my husband is 6’3”), we were assigned a room with a double bed facing a busy, noisy street. When we asked to change rooms, the front desk clerk sighed with disgust and said, “But we gave you a suite.” We didn’t ask for a suite. We asked for a quiet room with a king-sized bed. We got features we neither wanted nor asked for and didn’t get features that were important to us. Clearly in the clerk’s mind the suite was more valuable than the features we requested.
Five Rules for Project Success
Based on the Children's World Cup Soccer Rules
I am not a big sports fan. My husband is an avid fan of baseball and American football, but I usually go about my business despite the frequent exclamations of euphoria and despair that reverberate throughout the house during sporting events. But a recent visit with our grandsons raised my interest in one sport-soccer (football). Having recently played World Cup soccer with four grandsons aged 8-2, where the rules were emphatically if inconsistently enforced, I thought about how these children's rules apply to projects. Given my lack of knowledge about the real World Cup rules, I don't have the slightest inkling of whether these kids' rules even come close to reality, but they seem to work. So, at the risk of overusing the myriad analogies relating to children's play to projects, here are five Kids' World Cup Rules for successful projects.
Is the Business Analyst a Product Owner or Tester on Agile Projects?
There have been many articles lately about the role of the BA on Agile projects. Some postulate that the BA role is closest to the product owner. After all, it is often suggested, they reside with and represent the business. They are in the best position to be the final voice when defining and prioritizing requirements. Others believe that the key role for the BA on Agile projects relates to testing. Since they define the requirements, they should complete the appropriate testing processes to ensure the final solution meets the requirements. I believe that neither of these is a business analyst role. That’s not to say that someone with the title of BA cannot play other roles as well. It’s just that when they are playing these other roles, they are not doing business analysis work.
Scrum vs. Waterfall Round 2; The Fight Continues
Last month we began our "fight" by exploring two estimating techniques that are often used on both Scrum and Waterfall projects (view here). The first was relative sizing (one kind of analogous estimating) and the second Delphi (called Planning Poker in Scrum). Scrum won both rounds (barely) because, although both techniques can be used on both types of projects, their usage in Scrum seems easier to understand, learn, and apply. I don't know about you, but when I hear the terms Analogous and Delphi I think academics and hard work. When I hear about tee-shirt sizes and planning poker, I think fun.