Dear Agile enthusiast, these Cheat Sheets (work in progress) provide glossary information about most aspects you encounter when your team is using Agile to deliver a product. I try to use generic terms, but since some of it is based on Scrum, you will also encounter some more specific terms.
The Cheat Sheets are only reminders of what is important, I highly advice you to read some books or follow a training to get familiar with Agile and/or Scrum.
As you start using them you might find that information is not applicable to your situation or you need additional information. The document is created in Word and you are free to edit your copy to your hearts desire.
The sheets are based on the following books and some internet research (wiki etc).
Overall Agile and Scrum:
- Essential Scrum – Kenneth S. Rubin
- Succeeding with Agile – Mike Cohn
Deliverables and roles:
- Agile Product Management with Scrum – Roman Pichler
- User Stories Applied – Mike Cohn
- Agile estimating and planning – Mike Cohn
- Agile Testing – Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory
Retrospectives and coaching:
- Agile Restrospectives – Esther Derby, Diana Larsen, Ken Schwaber
- Coaching Agile Teams – Lyssa Adkins
You can download a copy here.
They are not “perfect” yet but some are complete enough to start using. They don’t yet align when printing double sided. Any suggestions or remarks? Please drop me a note at astrid dot claessen at gmail dot com.
“IF YOU’RE NOT HAPPY WITH WHAT YOU HAVE, IMAGINE NOT HAVING IT”
It’s the quote on a magnet on my fridge reminding me of priorities in life.
And I already felt the quote for a long time, but today it led me further in my decision making. I’ve made some “new life” resolutions (not “new years” resolutions) that I’ll follow from now on, in THIS life.
I will NOT LIVE IN A BIG HOUSE. Don’t get me wrong, I love space. My living-room should be a minimum of 40 m2….. but that’s my main requirement. I don’t need a castle, I currently have a 45 m2 studio at a gorgeous location in Utrecht (which means my living-room is 40 m2). I’m happy here, very happy, why should I search for something else?
If I ever buy a car or get a lease car it will be a CUTE LITTLE CAR. Don’t get me wrong, I love certain cars, my favorites are a Jaguar E-type and an old fashioned Saab 900 convertible…. but what about the environment? I don’t have kids, never intended to have them…. but so many people do, I want there to be a healthy world even after I have left it. So cute little, or Green Wheels will do.
I will prioritize my COMMUNITY over my work. That does certainly not mean I don’t care about work, I care about work a lot…. ask my friends…. a lot. I love adding value to my work environment, but when push comes to shove, it’s family, friends and the community at large that are important.
I will continue to CONNECT people and initiatives. There is so much to do in the world and so many people with great ideas and initiatives and since I have a sizable network, I will continue to connect people in the hopes it will bring them closer to achieve their goal.
Nothing material ever gave me lasting happiness…. people do.
They are my priority!
“WHY YOUR COMPANY HAS NO NEED FOR AGILE”
On a regular basis we encounter lists of arguments on why the entire world should become agile.
But agile is certainly not for everyone. If the below statements apply to your company, be very, very HAPPY, because your company could absolutely not benefit from going agile.
- Your business executives are people with perfect vision of the future. They are great at defining requirements at the start of the project and they never ever ever change their mind. So there is no need for a flexible process that can handle progressing insight.
- Your business executives have an endless supply of funding. There is enough money to build and buy everything they hear about at the golf course or indeed that great seminar they visited. So there is no need to prioritize for business value.
- Your employees perform best on their own. Each and everyone is perfect and could not possibly learn anything from someone else. You are always able to create the perfect team by throwing some random people together whenever there is a project. So there is no need for people to jell into a team and become more than the sum of the individuals.
- Everyone is motivated and working very hard all the time, because all your employees care about is money. So if you want them to work harder, or better, all you have to do is offer a bit more money (here the endless supply of money also helps). So there is no need to appeal to intrinsic motivators like mastery and purpose.
- The periodic high level reports you receive about the status of your project portfolio give real insight into their status. Over the years you have never been surprised by projects going from “running perfect” to “the shit hits the fan” overnight. So there is no need for better insight into the real status of the project or product.
- The products you deliver are perfect (or at least near perfect). They are delivered on time, contain everything agreed upon in the project plan, have no defects and are easy to use. The users just love them.
- The outside world is not changing, it has been the same for decades and will remain the same for decades more. Your competitors are unable to improve upon your perfect products and you have the most loyal customers in the world.
If all these apply to your company, you can rest easy at night. It aint broke, so don’t fix it. No need to try something as radical as agile.
