Ward Cunningham posted a video on Technical Debt, and Kent Beck and Ed Yourdan (and I) have been tweeting about it. Let me share some thoughts with you here.
02/19/2009
Technical Debt
02/17/2009
Need Some Help, v.2.
After a valiant effort, a helper has determined that his proposed scheme for updating the site, converting the main site to WordPress, is not practical. Thanks to him for his effort and professional behavior.
Let’s try again. I’ll put down new stories for what I need below. If you’re interested, let me know. Read More…»
02/17/2009
Brita Water Filter Fiasco
I bought a new Brita on-faucet water filter the other day, because the existing GE one had developed a crack. I chose the Brita because the GE was not available in the store that day, and the Brita was the least expensive. In the previous sentence I should have used the word “cheapest” instead of “least expensive”.
These things all come with adapters to connect them to various faucets, which have different threading. The Brita’s adapters are made out of a substance not unliked uses chewing gum, shaped into the rough semblance of threaded tubes. The device cannot be made not to leak. If you turn the fittings tight enough not to leak, the threads on the chewing gum give way and the thing dethreads.
In the manual, they offer to provide new fittings if yours does not “fit” for some reason. I called the 800 number and keyed in the usual 36-digit sequence. I reached a recording that asked me to say and spell my name, say and spell my address, and listen to the playbacks a time or two. At no time did it ask for any information about my installation.
Then it said “Your shipment should reach you in one to three weeks.”
Guess what, Brita. I am not comforted by talking to a machine, I have no confidence that whatever you’re sending will fix the problem and “one to three weeks” is too long to wait to find out. I’m going to have filtered water in a lot less than three weeks, and it isn’t going to be using your product.
02/10/2009
Ordered a Kindle 2
At the Borders in Brighton that Chet and I visit, they’ve had the Sony reader on the shelves for quite a while. They look good, and useful. When I travel, I carry books with me to read on the plane. Sometimes I read at the bookstore (duh). I read after exercise class. I read a lot. Having all the books in the world in a little box seems kind of neat to me.
02/06/2009
Why is Refactoring a “Must”?
“In order to do Scrum or XP or any form of Agile successfully, you must refactor. Sorry, not optional. Necessary.”
02/04/2009
Code Improvement is Never Costly
Let’s talk about more about code improvement. Some people seem to think that code improvement has a high associated cost. I think it only has a high cost if we’re not very good at it.
02/04/2009
Isn’t Money Fungible?
Companies receiving “bailout” funds spend money on questionable items like giant bonuses, trips to Las Vegas, or airplanes. When questioned about it they say that they did not use bailout money for that, they only use bailout money for purposes we should consider valid, like loaning to people who need it.
No, sorry. Money is fungible. If you have $1000 and I loan you $1000, and you spend $500 on ball caps for your executives, $250 of that was loan money.
I would hope that someone in government understands money well enough to see through those weak excuses.
Hope never dies.
02/04/2009
How you get your CSM does matter!
The traditional CSM course is only two days. That’s not enough time to cover the things a ScrumMaster needs to know to help their team be successful.
CSM Plus Training Course
Over three days, we put theory into action through a variety of exercises. We cover the fundamental principles of Scrum, qualifying you as a Certified ScrumMaster. More important, we give you a jump start dealing with the obstacles that confront Scrum teams. You’ll leave much better equipped to put Scrum in place and succeed with it.
Purpose
Gain hands-on experience with the basic principles of Scrum, including:
- Product backlog;
- Sprint backlog;
- Daily Scrum meetings;
- Sprint planning meeting;
- Burn charts.
Practice dealing with the obstructions to high productivity on your Scrum team, such as:
- Incomplete stories at Sprint end;
- Endless revisions to supposedly completed backlog items;
- Thrashing at the end of the Sprint;
- Obscure “technical” backlog items;
- “Scrummerfall” Sprints with lengthy analysis, and time-consuming testing;
- Increasing technical debt slowing development to a halt;
- Slow draggy Sprints, furrowing into your soul, turning your existence into a distressing miasma.
Learn practical approaches to increasing productivity while increasing Product Owner and management satisfaction. Explore techniques for applying Scrum to large and distributed teams.
Benefits
Following successful completion of the course, each participant will be designated as Certified ScrumMaster. This certification includes a one-year membership in the Scrum Alliance, where additional ScrumMaster-only material and information are available.
Beyond certification, participants will leave with hands-on practice with Scrum essentials and important experience. You will learn ways to help your teams execute Scrum efficiently and productively.
Based on their combined experience of more than a quarter-century in the Agile community, the instructors will be giving you insights and a depth of approach that are unique to this course.
PMI members can claim up to 21 PDUs upon completing this course.
The fee for this course is $1600US. Please contact us to discuss team discounts.
Logistics
You’ll receive bound and digital copies of the course materials, reference materials, and course slides. Refreshments will be provided.
Your Instructors
Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson began working with Agile Software Development in 1996 and have been helping others with it since 1998. Their 25 years of combined Agile experience and 60 plus years of software development experience is unique among CSM course providers.
Ron is an author of the Agile Manifesto, the document that helps provide the conceptual underpinning for Agile methods such as Scrum and Extreme Programming. Chet was the Manifesto’sfirst signatory.
Ron and Chet, along with Ann Anderson, wrote Extreme Programming Installed. It detailed XP’s core practices, how to do them, and how they work together to help teams be successful.
In Extreme Programming Adventures in C#, Ron detailed the agile approach he and Chet took as they taught themselves C# by writing an XML editor. This book gives a “warts and all” look at the work practices of two of the world’s foremost Agile practitioners.
Together and separately, Ron and Chet help teams succeed using Scrum’s project management and XP’s software development practices.