“If you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.” – Henry Ford Over the past several years, I have heard agile experts claim Scrum does not scale.  Many of these experts never really address why they believe Scrum does not scale. Instead, they usually spend their time talking about their own homegrown process—a process that according to them does, in fact, scale. Anyone who is familiar with my articles knows that I am not one to get into process wars.  My intention in writing this article is to discuss why I believe Scrum... [More]

Tags:  scrum agile scaling

“It’s possible to achieve almost anything as long as you are not worried about who gets the credit.” – Harry S. Truman Over the past several years, I have worked with many clients who were in the process of incorporating Scrum that either did not have company-wide implementation or who had contracts with third parties who were using Waterfall and who did not intend to change to Scrum or any other Agile process.  This became an issue when the Scrum team(s) were implementing functionality that was required by the Waterfall teams and... [More]

Tags:  waterfall agile scrum

Foundations of the Scaled Agile Framework: --> Be Agile. Scale Up. Stay Lean. And Have More Fun   Date: Apr 1, 2014 Time: 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM (Eastern Time) Presented by: Dean Leffingwell (Scaled Agile, Inc.), Jennifer Fawcett (Scaled Agile, Inc.)     Link to reco rdin g:   htt p:// yout u.be /H_7 52O8 P_B s Link to presentation mate rial :   htt p:// ow.l y/vl aD c     Scrum, XP, Kanban and related methods have been proven to provide step changes in productivity and quality for software teams. However,... [More]

Tags:  xp lean kanban webcast safe scale scrum agile scaled-agile-framework

“The snake which cannot shed its’ skin has to die.  As well as the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.”  Friedrich Nietzsche Recently, I was attending a Deep-Dive study group that was hosted by Lyssa Crispin and Michael Spayd of the Agile Coaching Institute.  During our discussions, I began to think about all of the agile transformation efforts I had participated on and what, in my opinion, seemed to be one of the deterrents to a successful agile transformation. What I determined was... [More]

Tags:  agile agile_transformation

A new Infinite Undo blog article provides some great examples from Google, Amazon and Facebook that demonstrate that “ Continuous Delivery is mainstream .”  Core practices and techniques that support DevOps and continuous delivery have been around for years. Not only is continuous delivery possible, but surveys are demonstrating that there is significant value in embracing continuous delivery. The 2013 DevOps Survey showed that high-performing organizations are delivering 30x more frequent releases than their peers and with much greater... [More]

Tags:  #agile lean agile continuous-delivery transformation devops

The challenge Our agile program and release planning tool Sellegi ACT has been developed for several years. It was a monolithic, eclipse-based, thick client with file based data storage. We knew that the features in our product are one of a kind; supporting enterprise agility in an extremely efficient way. But the UI on the thick client makes it less intuitive to understand and use. In June we decided to migrate the complete tool to a web-based, client / server application. A complete shift of architecture, platform, storage model, and what... [More]

Tags:  devops agile

Session 2:  Backlog management and release planning Agil e AL M Vi rtua l St udy  Grou p Se rie s for information on registration and details on the different sessions During the second session on this series, we review the key element of a Rational Team Concert (RTC) project based on the Scrum-Agile ALM process template. IBM Rational Solution for Agile ALM with Scrum . Explore elements in an Agile ALM project Share a product vision Create and manage a product backlog Plan a release After this session,... [More]

Tags:  enablement agile-alm-study-grp agile-alm alm rtc scrum rational-team-concert agile

Session 1: Understand and reuse the technical solution assets (See the Agil e AL M Vi rtua l St udy  Grou p Se rie s for information on registration and details on the different sessions)   During the first session on this series, we want to describe what the  IBM Rational Solution for Agile ALM with Scrum is, and what are the technical assets it contains. We also want people to understand how to find, install, and use those assets quickly. So we will cover the following topics: Explore the IBM® Rational... [More]

Tags:  rational-team-concert enablement agile alm rtc scrum agile-alm-study-grp agile-alm

As promised in Part 1 , I have continued my effort to document  the differences between the RTC Scrum template and the  Agile ALM Scrum template. The summ ary- of-d iffe renc es docu ment ,   Lin k-to -Sum mar y , h as been updated with links to detailed information on the revised Defect and Story  workflows . (See the first bullet under  Work Item Types and Attributes .) The states and actions for these two work item types caused some confusion in the user community. T he  Agile ALM Scrum... [More]

Tags:  scrum rational-team-concert agile-alm alm agile rtc agile-alm-template

All activities of the Agile ALM Virtual Study Group are now completed. More information on each session (files, recording, workbooks) is available from:. Virtual Study Group Part 1:   htt p:// bit. ly/A alm_ S 1 Virtual Study Group Part 2:   htt p:// bit. ly/A alm_ S 2 Virtual Study Group Part  3:   htt p:// bit. ly/A alm_ S 3         The IBM  Rati onal  Sol utio n fo r Ag ile  ALM  with  Scr u m (aka  Agile ALM ) is a solution for customers looking to adopt Scrum... [More]

Tags:  rational-team-concert enablement agile-alm agile-alm-study-grp agile rtc scrum alm

At or around Innovate 2013, IBM released a new Agile ALM Scrum process template for RTC.  The Agile ALM Scrum template is based on the Scrum template, with modifications promising better support for  Agile Planning with Scrum .   After reviewing the new template, I became interested in morphing a Scrum-based project to the Agile ALM Scrum definitions. My first step was to create a summary of the differences between the two templates. (Thank you to the template authors for their help in finding and understanding these changes.)... [More]

Tags:  alm rtc rational-team-concert agile-alm-template scrum agile

     Recently, Ken Schwaber--an Agile thought leader, co-creator of Scrum and someone I think very highly of--posted a controversial blog entry " unS AFe  at A ny S pee d " during Agile2013. During my career as an agile transformation consultant, I have had the opportunity to work with Ken, Dean Leffingwell of SAFe and both Scott Ambler and Mark Lines of Disc ipli ned  Agil e De live r y . I have studied their histories, intensely reviewed their current approaches beginning in 2007 and... [More]

Tags:  scaled-agile-framework safe disciplined-agile-deliver... scrum agile agile-planning agile-development

In response to: 10 Reasons to Consider Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) Scott Ambler presents an in-depth, live, virtual class: "Disciplined Agile Delivery Overview" on Thursday, June 20th. [Fee: $100 (register below); 3 PDUs]   Enrollment and details: http ://d isci plin edag ilec onso rtiu m.or g/ev ents ?eve ntId =690 688& Even tVie wMod e=2& Cale ndar View Type =0&S elec tedD ate= 6/18 /201 3

Tags:  disciplined-agile-deliver... enterprise-agile agile

The Zone had an early morning skip level meeting.... more like skip three levels to kick off the day.... to start off a rockin' day.   It is with profound gratitude that the Zone wishes to thank Dennis Schultz of IBM Rational Unleash the Labs. Dennis took time in his busy schedule to meet with one of the Zone's clients to walk through Rational Functional Tester.  The session was highly educational for the client.  It cleared up one of the architectural hurdles they face in implementing an improved Requirements->Test... [More]

Tags:  agile ibminnovate