Try this: Go to Google and search on GIS Project Management. You’ll get back about 2,490,000 results (give or take a few). Now start clicking on them and see how long it takes you to find a result that remotely resembles an Agile approach to GIS Project Management. I got about 140 results in before I gave up. Notice, I didn’t search on GIS application development or some similar search term. I specifically wanted to know how people view all types of GIS Project Management. There was a reason I tried this search (and no, it wasn’t due to sheer boredom at work) .  Read the rest of this post

I’m not a huge believer in tools for tools sake.  And, I’m really not a big believer in big tools for project management, especially when you’re going Agile.  However, since we started scrumming, we have been using spreadsheets to manage our product, project, release, and sprint backlogs.  As our projects grew and our team embraced Scrum, our spreadsheets became increasingly complex.  We were using Excel to not only create backlogs, but also to create “executive” dashboards, developer dashboards, team utilization reports, actual time keeping for tasks, etc.  The spreadsheets were turning into a relational database of sorts…and they were getting unwieldy.  While the team was really enjoying what we had created in Excel, the ScrumMaster (that’s me), was working behind the scenes to “manage” the spreadsheets.  It was taking a few hours every Sprint just to update the spreadsheets, create the correct linkages, generate the reports, etc.  In addition, as we tried to link multiple projects across Excel workbooks for utilization reports, timekeeping, and other assorted TPS type reports, things grew even more complex.  Read the rest of this post

You’ve probably heard this conversation before (or even been a participant):

Developer 1: I’m done with the Foo functionality?

Developer 2: Is it tested and documented too?

Developer 1: I said it was done, not done done!

A question that arises often for many Scrum teams is “When is some particular functionality done?”  A primary rule of Scrum is that at the end of every iteration, or Sprint, the Team must build a potentially shippable product increment.  That is Scrum’s definition of “done”.  So, what exactly does a potentially shippable product increment mean?  Read the rest of this post

In just about every article I’ve posted so far, I’ve most likely mentioned the book Agile Project Management with Scrum by Ken Schwaber.  You’re probably wondering why I keep referring to it.  No, I don’t get $1.00 each time I cite the book (although, that would be nice).  So I figured, it’s probably about I time I wrote a quick post about this book.

Who should read this book? Anyone interested in learning the basics of Scrum.  No need to be a project manager type.  This book is for everyone.  The managers, the developers, the DBA’s, the analysts, the clients…anyone who works on any type of project can benefit from this book.  Read the rest of this post