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In the last post, I wrote about how you can get started with #NoEstimates when you use story points right now. Today I want to write about different kinds of estimates. [You might be also interested in: What is An Estimate, Anyway?]

There are different techniques to come up with an effort estimate, and the estimates themselves are different. We can classify these techniques and estimates along a spectrum with different axis:

How can you get started with #NoEstimates when you use Story Points to estimate right now? Easy:

Just replace all story point values with “1”. Then use all the analytics you used before to make predictions and do planning.

Ok, that’s a grossly oversimplified view on #NoEstimates, but it’s the gist of it. You can start now.

In this series of posts I will describe how the agile doctrine [1] relates to the agile manifesto [2]… For example, “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools”: The frequent interaction of developers, testers, product owners and customers will reduce the distance between problems and problem solvers.

“Agile Doctrine”, as defined by Jason Yip, is:

Does your agile team need to improve? Yes it does, no matter how good you already are - because continuous improvement is a main characteristic of agile software development.

This free course will help you with your continuous improvement initiative.

But where do I start?</a> Maybe you just got started with agile software development, so you don't really know where to start. Starting can be very hard for teams and individuals who are not used to doing continuous improvement. Either you do not see any improvement opportunities because you have developed so many blind spots over time. Or you see so many improvement opportunities that you do not know where to start. Maybe your team has been working together for a long time, and you have reached some kind of plateau. Retrospectives are getting boring, and you only find minor improvement opportunities anymore. Maybe you have deveoped some new blind spots over time: You have solved all the obvious problems and got used to the rest. So you are looking for new ideas. This course will teach you to find out where and how to start.

Will this be another wast of my time?

Some email-courses only dump information on you. You get an email once or twice a week, read it, and forget about it. After them, you have learned a little bit. Still, you feel like you have mostly wasted your time. This course is different: All the e-mails you get focus on acting. With every email you'll have something to do, a little exercise to solve. First, you will assess your current situation. Then you will plan your improvement effort, based on the assessment. After that (and even during the course), you should start improving. In the coming months after the course you will receive three more emails. Those should remind you to stay on track with your improvement plan and give you a chance to contact me with any questions you'll have. All of this will happen on a time scale you can easily handle. Improving an agile team is a long journey. There is no need to rush at the start. You will get an email every week for five weeks, each containing a little exercise and all the information you need to do it. You can easily do the exercise within the week until the next email arrives, without disrupting your day-to-day work. Every week you also get the chance to ask me clarifying questions and to ask me for help with the exercises. After five weeks, your improvement plan will be sketched out and you can get started.

Why should I trust you?

I have been working as an independent consultant and coach since 2006. During this time, I was on different agile teams in different roles (Developer, ScrumMaster, Coach). I guided teams who were starting with agile from scratch and mature teams who were working togehter for several years. Teams where I was a developer had hired great external coaches and trainers. I learned a lot of them. I was always interested in how teams can work together efficiently. I read many different text books about this topic. I spent a lot of time reading and writing blog posts. I discussed ideas with coworkers and people I met at conferences and industry events. I wrote blog posts and spoke at conferences about these topics and got valuable feedback. This course contains my compiled knowlege about assessing your current situation without wasting too much time and planning improvements based on those assessments.

What can I expect from this course?

In this five part email course, you will learn how to improve your agile software development process. In the first three parts, you will assess your current situation. You will assess how you currently define work packages for your team, how your team works together and the quality of the software you are creating. Then you will define where you want to be and find ways to get there. The course provides you with a structured framework for assessing your current situation and planning the next steps. After the five parts, you will have a concrete improvement plan. But the course does not stop there: I will send you three more emails. They will remind you about your plan and hold you accountable. They will also remind you to contact me with any questions you might have.

This course is for you

Are you a Team Leader, Product Owner, Scrum Master, Developer, Tester, ...? It does not matter what role you play on your team. As long as you are interested in improving, this course is for you. It might be easier or harder to convince your team to start the journey with you, depending on your role. But after this course, you will have some data and ideas that can help you convince them. Whether you work on an agile team or in a traditional environment, with this course you can learn about starting a continous improvement initiative. What you learn will help you to see where to start and to become un-stuck when you don't know how to continue. If you are interested in continuous improvement, this course is for you. Start it - it's free!

Get Started

You are now ready to take the free online course “Improving your Agile Practices”. You will receive the first email in the next few days.

If you have friends or colleagues who might benefit from this course, please tell them about it. You can send them the main page of the course, where they can find out more and start the email course:

Improve your Agile Practices: The Course

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