Let's face it: People skills is not an area in which the software development community has traditionally excelled. The very traits that can help a developer excel at technical problem solving can often make him or her challenging to work with day...

Backlog refinement is an important part of the Scrum team activity as it allows to gain a shared understanding of the work flow. Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a technique that use a business language to define acceptance testing (test cases) of requirements. In this article, Zia Malik explains how teams can use BDD to support product backlog refinement. At the beginning of each sprint, the Scrum team members and the product owner meet to discuss and write out the conditions of acceptance testing for the next-highest priority Product Backlog Item (PBI), ...

CollabNet and UC4 Software have announced the availability of CollabNet Deploy with UC4. CollabNet Deploy with UC4 is integrated within the TeamForge project workspace for centralized access to the extended toolset, and is offered as a priced option. Elements pertaining to automating release and ...

We know that self-organization is a critical aspect of every successful Agile and Scrum team and we also know that it takes trust, respect, openness and responsibility; so why many teams have a hard time to achieve it? Self-organization changes the dynamics between the manager and the team and between the teammates themselves. Resistance may arise and the source is frequently rooted in mental habits, such as a latent blaming culture, confusing guidance and command, fear of taking responsibility or losing status, unconscious agendas. Through real stories from the field and ...

When you're about to engage in a risky activity, such as flying an airplane, it's wise to be prepared. The cost of a mistake may be measured in lives. Thankfully, aviators have figured out a simple but effective means to keep planes flying safely....

The Agile Software Engineer is responsible for the design, development, and implementation of services (process and technology) required to deliver business value. You are skilled in problem solving and fearless in exploring both new and innovative technologies as well as weeding through large l ...

Scrum Gathering® India Regional 2013 is the first ever Regional Scrum Gathering® conference in India that will take place in Pune, July 36 and 27 2013. Scrum Gathering® is the flagship conference of Scrum Alliance, the organization which provides the globally-recognized Certified ScrumMaster™(CSM) certification. For Scrum , Agile and Lean Practitioners, Scrum Gathering® India Regional 2013 is a unique opportunity to share and learn from community leaders, fellow practitioners and coaches. This is also a platform to connect to Agile gurus, thought-leaders, who’s who of Agile organizations and also to your ...

User stories and story points A user story is a description of functionality at the lowest level of granularity that can be independently developed and demonstrated to generate feedback. Since, in Scrum, we focus on developing the smallest increm...

Considering the increasing number of companies practicing Agile, getting a ScrumMaster on the rolls has almost become mandatory. Consequently, lot of people (including PMPs) are getting themselves certified as ScrumMasters (or Certified Scrum Deve...

The top priority for a ScrumMaster should be to remove anything impeding his team to progress, in other words the impediments. In his article, Ilan Goldstein defines an impediment as “An event that impedes the ability of any of the team members to work to their estimated sprint capacity.” The post starts with a list of possible impediments that includes ungroomed product backlog, absent product owner holding up key decisions or broken build. The most interesting part of the post is however the six step approach to deal with Scrum impediments ...

Scrum Gathering® India Regional 2013 is the first ever Regional Scrum Gathering® conference in India that will take place in Pune, July 36 and 27 2013. Scrum Gathering® is the flagship conference of Scrum Alliance, the organization which provides the globally-recognized Certified Sc ...

I recently was asked this question: Typically, does the ScrumMaster have stories in any given sprint that track for iteration planning, backlog refinement, or any other sprint/Scrum tracking activities? Or does the ScrumMaster's time fall outside...