Producing Documents

I wrote this answer in response to a question on one of the Yahoo groups: “What is the list of documents produced when you are implementing a pure Agile project?” Martine Devos liked it, so I decided to preserve it here in hopes that someone else might like it as well.

Making the Date

It seems like every development project begins with the date, and we’re held responsible for “making the date”. Making the date is a management responsibility, not a development responsibility. Here’s why.

Updated with cool cartoon from Simon Baker.

RTF: Maximize Each Iteration

Delivery of the running, tested, features the customer wants is the purpose of the development team. Sometimes the work we signed up for won’t quite fit into the iteration. What should we do?

Agile, Top Down

There’s a recent thread on the Scrum list about how an executive or highly-placed manager could get Agile going. I’ve been one of those guys, and I know a bit about Agile, and here’s how I’d proceed. First, focus management attention on cyclic delivery of running tested software. Second, provide the resources to learn how to do that.

Where’s the Spec, the Big Picture, the Design?

These questions were recently asked on the XP group, in the context of a review of Mike Cohn’s User Stories Applied. The answers are a function of the whole project, not just User Stories.

Big Visible Charts

It’s time to revisit the topic of Big Visible Charts. Display important project information not in some formal way, not on the web, not in PowerPoint, but in charts on the wall that no one can miss. [Updated: Velocity Charts]

As You Were

It’s important to take grammar seriously, even if she has been dead for years.

Hearts as Weapons

To every Card, turn turn turn, there is a season, turn turn turn, and a time for every Suit under heaven. It’s not the Suits, it’s the Game.