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Showing posts from 2011

Agile buzz words!

One of the great things about agile is the terminology we use... Theres nothing better than grooming the backlog, updating the information radiator and attending all of our ceremonies! But being honest - those of us in the agile arena do ourselves no favours talking about velocity and Kanban boards without first explaining some of these terms! I expect the following blog to be more of a WIP (Work in Progress) page as I add new terms over time Also check out....  https://www.christianmiles.com/faqs Acceptance criteria Specific criteria identified by the customer/stakeholder/Product Owner/Team for each functional requirement. The acceptance criteria are written in simple terms and from a perspective of the user. As a.....I want to..... so that I can...... Acceptance testing Activity conducted to determine whether or not a system satisfies its acceptance criteria. Agile A conceptual philosophy or mindset for undertaking projects. Agile is a framework that can b

MX5 - A winter sports car?

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OK, this article might seem a bit strange when compared with the usual mix of loosely IT related stories you'll find on this site but I'm a very big MX5 fan, I've owned several over the last decade - The MX5 is the perfect plucky British sport's car, rear wheel drive, front-engine, perfect 50/50 handling, not a super-car by any means but perfect  for throwing around country lanes, top-down on those barmy summer evenings.... even if they are actually built in Hiroshima. In the winter in snow and ice however - rear wheel drive and weighing roughly the same as Keira Knightley does make for rather interesting driving! which is why for years I've always switched to Winter tyres between November and March (as instructed to do so in the owners manual!) So what are winter tyres and do they really work.... to be honest 'Winter tyre' is bit of a generic term, The tyres I use in the winter are mud and sand tyres with the snow flake symbol. They contain much mor

The Sprint Goal

Everybody needs to have goals these days…. Whether you want to or not! It could be as part of an appraisal process or a team at work… Often these are medium to long term aspirations which nobody ever checks the progress of! However, For those that read my The Ten must do’s of Scrum one of the artefacts I list is the Sprint Goal This is one of those often overlooked aspects of doing Scrum but like time boxing it’s an excellent way to keep things targeted. Who sets the sprint goal? Ideally the goal of the iteration should be set by the product owner ( PO), It’s their opportunity to set the agenda and to ensure that everyone understands what the focus of the sprint is. It’s also the responsibility of the scrum team to commit to the goal or if the goal is unobtainable within a single iteration to explain this to the PO. In determining if a goal is achievable the final say is with the scrum team and the PO should be respectful of their opinion (That doesn’t mean that the PO should