First, the scrum book, by its co-creator ken schwaber
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735 61993X/ref=pd_sim_b_4/103-6526029-2864653?_encodin g=UTF8&v=glance
interestingly enough, its published by MS Press
Second: what people seem to be missing in this thread is that scrum is essentially a anarchist/communist/utopian project management technique. there are no bosses telling you what to do. teams are self-organizing and autonomous. this is a _radically_ different project management technique -- no folks, its not about the daily meetings. it's about being bossless.
A buddy of mine went through scrum training with schwaber, and he had them do an interesting exercise. teams of two were instructed to walk exactly 300 paces in exactly 2 minutes. each team was composed of a boss and a walker. the walker was told by the boss to take a step, slow down, or go faster.
_none_ of the teams successfully walked the 300 paces in the time period. so they were broken up such that each person had no boss, and simply had to walk the 300 paces. _every_ person completed the task.
lesson: micro-managing bosses just slow you down.
third: a very interesting practical example of this sort of project management technique is the GE jet engine plant in durham, NC.
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/28/ge.html
This shop is organized around a bossless culture. They are the most successful and productive jet engine manufacturer in the world. A great example of how this sort of technique isn't just for pot smoking hippies.
Finally: the essential thing that binds all of these agile/xp/scrum-ish like techniques together is TESTING. No code can be written without unit tests. All requirements have a direct mapping to a suite of acceptance tests (written, say, using fitnesse -- www.fitnesse.org).
There are three types of developers in this world: those that test first (the ones I want to work with), those that have never tested at all, and don't want to (stay away from these ones), and those that have read/heard about test first and want to try it out (these can be saved).
--sozin
Slashdot Mirror
First, the scrum book, by its co-creator ken schwaber http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0735 61993X/ref=pd_sim_b_4/103-6526029-2864653?_encodin g=UTF8&v=glance
interestingly enough, its published by MS Press
Second: what people seem to be missing in this thread is that scrum is essentially a anarchist/communist/utopian project management technique. there are no bosses telling you what to do. teams are self-organizing and autonomous. this is a _radically_ different project management technique -- no folks, its not about the daily meetings. it's about being bossless.
A buddy of mine went through scrum training with schwaber, and he had them do an interesting exercise. teams of two were instructed to walk exactly 300 paces in exactly 2 minutes. each team was composed of a boss and a walker. the walker was told by the boss to take a step, slow down, or go faster.
_none_ of the teams successfully walked the 300 paces in the time period. so they were broken up such that each person had no boss, and simply had to walk the 300 paces. _every_ person completed the task.
lesson: micro-managing bosses just slow you down.
third: a very interesting practical example of this sort of project management technique is the GE jet engine plant in durham, NC.
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/28/ge.html
This shop is organized around a bossless culture. They are the most successful and productive jet engine manufacturer in the world. A great example of how this sort of technique isn't just for pot smoking hippies.
Finally: the essential thing that binds all of these agile/xp/scrum-ish like techniques together is TESTING. No code can be written without unit tests. All requirements have a direct mapping to a suite of acceptance tests (written, say, using fitnesse -- www.fitnesse.org).
There are three types of developers in this world: those that test first (the ones I want to work with), those that have never tested at all, and don't want to (stay away from these ones), and those that have read/heard about test first and want to try it out (these can be saved).
--sozin