As a follow up to my previous micro-blog on Agile Australia 2014 (You are your Process – Jim Benson), I thought I’d share another valuable and enjoyable talk I attended on Day 2 of the conference.
Posts Written ByRyan McKergow
Agile Australia 2014 Wrap up: “You are your process” – Jim Benson
Agile Australia 2014 kicked off with a bang, with Jim Benson – author and expert on Kanban – challenging how we work in IT and on projects, particularly in the Agile world. Today I’d like to share with you what I learnt from Jim’s keynote presentation.
Who says there’s no planning in Agile?
As Agile software development becomes increasingly popular there’s still a common misconception that it requires no planning. And yet a study undertaken by VersionOne discovered that 30% of respondents are actually worried about Agile’s lack of up-front planning
Forming to Performing teams: accelerating with agile
Management experts have long been trying to study the behaviours of high performance teams, hoping to distill their insights into a magical recipe for leadership success. One of the most famous studies is Tuckman’s Model of Team Development, which identifies a set of stages (Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing) that teams need to pass on the way to optimal performance – and some of the barriers to progression.
Retrospectives: a fresh look
Retrospectives are fairly common among Agile teams, but it sometimes seems that every team uses the same format:
- What worked well?
- What didn’t work so well?
- What still puzzles me?
Throughout this blog I’d like to introduce you to some different Retrospective techniques.
What is a Story Card workshop?
What is a Story Card workshop? Ryan takes us through this lesser known Agile ceremony to provide an understanding of how it works and the benefit.
Ryan also provides an overview of a technique that has proven to be effective which helps define the scope of user stories in an easy and clear manner.
Techniques for keeping Workshops running on time
Keeping Workshops running on time can be challenging as there are many factors involved. Ryan discusses a couple of techniques that he recently used for a Project Inception Workshop to keep it on time.
Should BAs be co-located with their Development team?
Co-location is one of the many implications of adopting Agile, however, are many Development Teams, and more specifically Business Analysts adopting it? Ryan will discuss the benefits of co-location, and how to overcome barriers that may prevent co-location.
Turn it up to 13!
Ryan attended LAST Conference ’13 in Melbourne in early August and provides his reflections from what he learnt. His focus was to attend Business Analysis presentations and has shared his highlights from the Conference.
How to introduce Story Kickoffs to your team
Youmay have heard of an Iteration Kickoff, but how about a Story Kickoff? Ryan will take you through what this Agile ceremony is, and how you can introduce it to your team.
Requirements pitfalls with BDD
When using a new way to document requirements, it can be easy to fall into pitfalls on ‘what not to do’. Ryan will be taking you through practical examples of what to look out for when using BDD, in order to provide a starting point for writing good requirements.
A practical blog on how to write Scenarios using BDD
Learning how to write Scenarios can be tricky to pick up. This is why Ryan has decided to write a practical blog on how to write Scenarios using BDD. The aim is to start with the basics of a Scenario using Given… When… Then… and build from there.
