by Bob Hartman on January 25, 2010
Dear Diary,
I completed day 1 of my 2-day Certified ScrumMaster course today and I’m feeling a little bit overwhelmed. I didn’t have any idea there was a prerequisite of reading a particular book. Luckily not a lot of other people knew about that either so I didn’t look too stupid. Nothing we covered today was particularly difficult, it was just new to me. A whole lot of it seemed like common sense, but as was pointed out, common sense isn’t so common, especially in software development! [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 18, 2010
Dear Diary,
Tomorrow I am going in to speak to Henry about becoming a Certified Scrum Master. I’ve done more reading about it and it appears there are more than 60,000 people in the world who have done it before me. Those kinds of numbers have to help me with my argument. I also know the popular abbreviation is CSM. Apparently I just have to attend a specific course for 2 days then pass a test and I get certified. Who knows, maybe I’ll be certifiable instead! Ha, ha! The good news is we can’t get a whole lot worse than we are right now, so I hope Henry is open to the idea. We’ll see.
-Nick [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 14, 2010
I’m going to give you the punch line first: this is definitely the best agile book on the market today!
If that is all you wanted to know, then you can leave now. If you want to know why I believe this, then feel free to read on. In the next few paragraphs I’ll explain why I give this book the highest possible marks. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 13, 2010
Ever see a trash can look like that? I know I have – plenty of times. I have 3 kids so I sometimes even see it in my own house! It is amazing how kids can walk right past a full trash can and decide it is not in their best interest to empty it out! But I still love them 
Anyway, back to the point of this blog post… Too often our process, even our agile process, of software development looks like that trash can, and like my kids we all walk right past it without emptying it. We tend to forget some of the basics about agile because we are focused on the process and doing the various practices well rather than taking time out to remember the principles that drive those practices. Or better yet, we should be LIVING those principles by BEING agile, not doing agile. In order to do that we really need to know and live by lean principles. I’ve touched on some of them, but in this blog post I want to say a little bit about each one and why I think it is vitally important. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 11, 2010
Dear Diary,
This is Nick. I’ve never been much of a writer before, but I made myself a New Year resolution to try to keep an ongoing diary so I could look back in a few years and see how things have gone. Right now I’m hoping it will be a happy thing to see. I’m just not so sure it will be. Today was a pretty rough day at work and it is making me wonder if I made the right choice by going to work for WidCo 6 months ago. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 7, 2010
I’m going to be spending a lot of time in 2010 writing blog entries. Remember, I’ve committed to trying to write 4 blog entries per week, but in order to continue to grow in my abilities as a trainer and coach I need to continue to expand my knowledge. The internet is great for things like this, especially now that blogging is done by more people. I can now find niche content which fits my needs and just focus on those sites. I’ve decided to share some of the blogs which will be on the top of my “must read” list. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 6, 2010
The theme of the blog this month is “Getting a Fresh Start.” In order to get a fresh start it is important to know WHY you want to do it! I’ve seen many presentations over the years about why agile is something a software development organization should use. I’ve seen this sort of presentation called “The Business Case for Agility” and several other names. I’ve seen people walk out of those presentations, go back to their organizations, implement agile – and fail miserably. Clearly having a reason for using agile is not the only important thing. I think many of these presentations are presenting some possible reasons for using agile, but they sometimes miss a key point – WHY are those reasons important. In the spirit of Agile For All’s second agile belief, I’m going to try to explain WHY some of the popular reasons are important to consider. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 5, 2010
Time for another chance to win a $25 Amazon gift certificate. This month’s theme is “Getting a Fresh Start” so the question is going to be about starting an agile project. This question is simple, but has a lot of nuances which make a complete answer imperitive. Remember, everyone is eligible no matter who they are, but also remember that I am the final arbiter and my decision is the one that counts. Keep in mind that I am a Certified Scrum Coach so that will be my perspective. As in the last contest I won’t be answering questions (much) and please list any assumptions I should make when reading your answer. Please your answer in the comments section below so we can all see it. Also use a real email address when leaving the comment since that address has to be valid in order to get the Amazon gift certificate. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 4, 2010
Back on September 23, 2009, I posted a blog entry titled “New to agile? What does the ScrumMaster do anyway?” The response was amazing. It was easily the most popular blog posting I’ve ever created. It made me realize people are starving for information about the ScrumMaster role and what it entails. At the time I didn’t quite know what I could do to give people more on the topic without boring myself writing it and boring YOU with dry content. Then I thought maybe this could be fun for all of us if I wrote it as a continuing story. Sound like fun to you? It certainly sounded like more fun to me to do it that way! Brilliant (I hope!).
So, based on my brilliant idea, this is the introduction to “The ScrumMaster Diaries.” It is a fictional account of an organization converting to Scrum. It is VERY loosely based on some things I have actually witnessed, but all of the names have been changed (to protect the guilty) and even if people see themselves in these blog postings I doubt I was really basing it on them anyway. Each person in the story is more of a blend of people, not specific individuals. [click to continue…]
by Bob Hartman on January 1, 2010
This will be a monthly feature during 2010 and beyond. I’m going to give you some blog posts, articles and popular items from right here that I think are interesting enough to share. There is plenty of good stuff here, so take your time exploring… [click to continue…]
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