One of the elements of Agile project management that makes it truly high performance is the Sprint Retrospective meeting. It takes place at the end of a sprint (project iteration) and its goal is to improve the processes being used by the project. Sprint Retrospectives are the secret that makes the agile project management system so effective in increasing productivity … [Read more...]
How to Run a Useful Sprint Review Meeting
Sprint Review meetings represent the finish line of the sprint. It's a great feeling to finish a project iteration. In a sprint review meeting, finished product is presented to the product owner and the stage is set for the next iteration. In agile project management, a sprint review meeting is conducted at the conclusion of each 1-4 week long "sprint" … [Read more...]
Guide to Agile Certification
The universe of Agile project management certifications is truly mind blowing. There are at least 27 different designations, with different letters after your name, from three major certifying bodies. In contrast, doctors, lawyers, and engineers only have one certification body in any location, and you can perform your education and practical requirements anywhere, … [Read more...]
Agile Sprint Planning
The Agile project management revolution has affected planning more than anything else. Whereas project managers used to create a complex plan of the entire project and then hope to stick with the plan, today project management consists of iterations, or sprints, which adjust themselves to new project realities at each iteration. But that's not to say that planning has … [Read more...]
The 7 Responsibilities of a Scrum Master
In the scrum development framework (part of the Agile project management methodology) the scrum master is the servant leader for the scrum team. They are not the boss nor the project manager. Rather, they promote scrum practices and facilitate scrum meetings. They are the resident scrum expert within the team and attempt to maximize the productivity of the … [Read more...]
How to Build an Agile Roadmap
In agile project management, the roadmap is the guiding document that provides the overall project plan. It is not equivalent to a traditional project schedule (gantt chart) because it is not a carved-in-stone plan whose exact execution is directly linked to project success. Because priorities change, the product roadmap is updated throughout the project, and this … [Read more...]
The Agile Principles, Broken Down
The 12 Agile Principles, which were developed at the same time as the Agile Manifesto, provide a little bit more detail from the Agile founders relating to vision and implementation of the Agile project management methodology. In the 12 Principles, the founders expand on the four points in the Manifesto and provide a more detailed working explanation. The Agile … [Read more...]
The 4 Main Agile Roles
In project management, efficiency is everything. Projects that run like well oiled machines create high quality products and delighted stakeholders, especially the product owner. Fortunately, the Agile roles and responsibilities make it easy to create just such a project. But let's get some semantics out of the way first. Agile does not have roles as such. It is … [Read more...]
Understanding the Agile Manifesto
The agile project management revolution has transformed project management. Instead of the fully planned and predictive methods of the past, the world now recognizes that an iterative, cyclical process is significantly faster and cheaper, even if you can't promise everything up front. The origins of this revolution trace back to the creation of the Agile … [Read more...]
The 4 Parts of a Sprint in Agile
Since the beginning of civilization, sprinting has been one of man's most prominent pursuits. Being the fastest runner is an accomplishment worthy of praise and admiration. This ultimate form of achievement has many parallels to project management, where progress and pursuit of an end goal is a daily focus. The sprint is the basic building block of scrum, a … [Read more...]