Here are two weeks worth of linkie goodness for everyone.

1. 4th Annual State of Agile Survey - VersionOne, an Agile project management tool, has published their annual survey on the adoption of Agile; a great source of industry statistics and window into how other companies are using Agile.
2. From Waterfall to Agile – in this 16-minute video Ian Culling, the CTO of VersionOne, talks about the Agile journey and common pitfalls he has observed.
3. Scrum for Managers – in this 90-minute talk Mitch Lacey, CST and (former) Microsoft PMP, gives an excellent overview of Scrum and the new role for managers.
4. Protect People - Jurgen Appelo discusses the role of managers in creating a safe interpersonal environment so self-organizing teams can form and flourish.
5. Tips for First-Time Scrummasters – pitfalls to look out for on that first Scrum project.
6. Top 10 Estimation Practices in Agile – excellent, excellent summary of current practice on Agile teams today.
7. Assessing Agile Readiness – a 20-minute video from Joshua Kerievsky discussing the process of kicking off Agile at your company.
8. Getting Better Agile Transitions - Mike Sutton describes some factors to consider when selecting a coach to help your company become more Agile.
9. 10 Rules for Better Management – a short checklist on ways to become a better manager; I like to item on control charts.

Continuing with links to the best of the blogs since last week.

1. Three things I wish I knew before jumping – PMP and Certified ScrumMaster, Pat Guariglia, shares some lessons learned after his first Scrum pilot project in 2007.
2. Mike Cottmeyer on the Agile PMP – InfoQ has a 78-minute video from Mike Cottmeyer’s Agile 2009 talk on how Agile’s approach to managing cost and time reduces project risk rather than the traditional approach of managing scope.
3. Determining how Agile you are comparatively – discussion on the Comparative Agility assessment for teams looking to understand how Agile they are doing in seven areas: teamwork, requirements, planning, technical practices, quality, culture and knowledge creation.
4. Demystifying the Product Owner role – Roman Pichler provides some truth about the Product Owner role and clears away some myths.
5. Self-discipline & self-organization – Cutter Consortium Fellow, Jim Highsmith, emphasizes the need for discipline and excellence on Agile teams.
6. Eight reasons why the estimates are low – some common reasons why software estimates are often too small.
7. How pair programming really works – the IEEE publishes an article sharing four mechanisms that can improve pair programming.

I am facilitating an Agile Playground session with June at XPSD tonight.  Stop by if you are interested in learning some Agile games and want to have some fun.  Here is the short write-up from the XPSD wiki:

“What is Agile software development? What are the essentials I need to know about this stuff? Why is my Agile team so dull and boring? Looking to get energized? Come to this introductory session hosted by Carlton Nettleton & June Clarke and they will demonstrate as many Agile principles and practices as they can in 75 minutes of fun through a variety of short simulations and participatory games. Walk away with the critical insights, the “ah-ha” moments, where the essential Agile concepts slip into place and make sense.”

Here are some links to the best of the blogs since the beginning of the year.

1. The Role of Leaders on a Self-Organizing Team - Mike Cohn talks about the important role management continues to play on Scrum teams.
2. Agile Scales, Waterfall Doesn’t – or so claims Vasco Duarte during this 48-minute video from the Agile Eastern Europe 2009 Conference.
3. Scrum, But – in this 10-minute video Scrum co-founder, Ken Schwaber, explains the negative impact on your business of “We use Scrum, but…”
4. Management 3.0: The Era of Complexity - Jurgen Appelo describes the new role of social networks as management dives into the 21st century.
5. Faster, Better, Cheaper! TDD wins in a simple experiment – a side-by-side comparison of two software developers working on the same project – one using Test-Driven Development (TDD), the other not; the developer who used TDD increased his productivity by 50%!
6. Agile Game Interview: Simplicity is Hard - Clinton Keith interviews Chris Ulm, CEO of Appy Entertainment, about why Agile is an essential factor in their successful launch of high quality, iPhone games.
7. Embedded Collaboration - Dave Rooney kicks off this post with a classic quote from “The Princess Bride” to explain the real meaning of collaboration.
8. Agile Office Space – the Motley Fool shows off their cool Agile workspace and describes the principles they used to create this space.
9. Wives of Rockstar San Diego Employees Have Collected Themselves – apparently some people are fed-up with yet another death march in the gaming industry and interesting from commentary from Clinton Keith that Scrum is not the solution, but provides visibility and a reality check to wishful thinking.

I was inspired by tweet I saw today from highligthing Peter Stevens post discussing the essence of Scrum.  Here is my description of Scrum without any of our jargon.

“Scrum is a framework for Teams to get work done.  Every activity, ritual and artifact found in Scrum enables the team to provide visibility, make commitments and focus on continuous improvement.  While there are two roles to help the Team remain concentrated on their objectives, the cross-functional, collaborative Team is the central hub of Scrum.  Scrum Teams work in fixed iterative cycles from a few weeks up to 30 days.  At the end of each increment, the Team discusses their progress to date, receives feedback from their sponsors, and makes any necessary adjustments to reach their goals.”

98 word – not bad.

Here are my submissions to PMI San Diego’s 7th Annual PM Conference scheduled for May 12th to 14th.  I am hoping that one of them gets accepted.

1. Leaping to Success with High Performing Teams: this is a one-day workshop on the importance of team building through SIMSOC.
2. Debunking Myths About Agile Software Development: this is a new presentation for me and I am really excited about the format.  Instead of your typical powerpoint presentation where I dissect each of the common myths I have and the the audience passively listens to me, I am going to engage the participants in collecting the myths and we’ll have a conversation about the myths they are interested in learning more about.
3. Agile Playground: another one-hour tutorial where we are going to play games to illustrate common Agile principles and concepts.  Hat tip to Tobias Mayer for the great name.

New Year links, a little late, but ready for your review.

1. Defense Procurement Goes Agile – a summary from the Agile Process Leadership Network’s (APLN) October 2009  meeting describing how the DoD is moving away from waterfall to an iterative, incremental processes.
2. Mixing it up with Agile & PMI – Orange County PM, Donna Reed, makes the claim that to be a successful Agile PM one needs to “move away from ACTIVITY-BASED project management toward VALUE-BASED project management.”
3. Starting Scrum: What Would be the Logical Position of a Classic PM – SM or PO? – a Google groups discussion posed by a member with some excellent commentary.
4. Synchronize Rather than Overlap Sprints - Mike Cohn explains why aligning Sprint end dates within one or two days of each other is a much better way to coordinate multiple Scrum teams.
5. Agile Antipattern: Changing the Definition of Done – Bob Hartman discusses how the pressure to meet deadlines is simply “deficit spending” on your project with a bill that will get paid off sooner than you think.
6. Welfare CSM Day 3: Experimental Mobiles & Rainforest Birds – interesting experience report about a different type of Certified ScrumMaster trainer; be sure to read the comments for additional insights and reflections by the other participants.
7. UI Test Automation Tools are Snake Oil – an opinionated piece from Michael Feathers on the value of that expensive UI test tool gathering dust in your organization.

If you are looking to see me speak in person, be sure to come to the Fullerton Code Camp.  I will have three presentations on Agile.

1. Experiencing Agile Through Games: Are you bored at work? Is your Agile team devoid of fun? It could be that you are following the mechanics of your process, but missed out on the critical insight, the “ah-ha” moment, where everything clicked and it all fit into place. Come to this session hosted by Carlton Nettleton and he will demonstrate as many Agile principles and practices he can in 75 minutes through a variety of short simulations and games. Walk away energized and excited about working on an Agile team.
2. Agile Planning Workshop: Every time I speak about Agile software development, I often hear this statement, “Agile teams never know when they are going to be done.”  With the teams I coach, this is not the case.  Come to this workshop and we will walk through the steps I use when planning an Agile team.  Learn the practical tools and techniques for estimating, planning, reporting progress and keeping the stakeholders in the loop. This session will focus more on principles and tools used in Agile planning.
3. Debunking Myths About Agile Software Development: With so many myths surrounding Scrum, Extreme Programming, Lean and Agile software development these days how is someone supposed to succeed with these processes when there is so much half-truth and opinions masquerading as practice and fact? In this workshop, we will look at the myths surrounding planning, deadlines, documentation, architecture & design, requirements, testing, pair programming and other common misconceptions about Agile teams. By the end of this session, Carlton Nettleton will provide real facts about Agile software development, refuting many of these myths once-and-for-all.

A group close to my heart, Extreme Programming San Diego (XPSD), is looking for speakers to talk about their experiences applying Agile software development practices.  XPSD meets on the 1st Thursday of every month at The Linkery in North Park from 6 PM to 8 PM to network, share ideas and discuss trends in the Agile software development community.

XPSD is an excellent, knowledgeable community resource on the topic of Agile software development, Scrum and Extreme Programming in San Diego County.  I am consistently impressed with the experience and passion in our group.  I am very proud of how much XPSD has grown over the years and I am glad we have created a friendly space for great dialogue on Agile in San Diego.  We are seeking speakers in these three areas:

1. Experience reports on applying XP, Scrum or Agile techniques in your organization.
2. Explanations on the business and management side of using Scrum on projects or the enterprise.
3. Technical presentations on useful tools or the technical practices of XP or Agile software development (pair programming, iterative design, refactoring, TDD, testing, etc.) that enable agility.

We provide a variety of ways for our speakers to contribute (see below), so if you just want to share some ideas on how something might work or to talk about what your team did, please get in touch with our organizers – Carlton Nettleton (carlton@lookforwardconsulting.com) or June Clarke (joonspoon@yahoo.com) – for more details.

These are the formats we provide for our speakers:

• Roundtable: a casual discussion where we can examine one or two ideas from a variety of perspectives for about an 60 to 90 minutes. The roundtable “host” provides a 10 to 15 minute overview of the topic(s) in order to frame the conversation and then starts the discussion with a provocative question.  This is a great format to get a number of expert opinions on a difficult problem you’ve been facing.
• Lecture: in-depth discussion of one or two themes or ideas and is expected to be about 60 minutes, but no longer than 75 minutes. Great format for an experience report or sharing some results with a wider audience.  XPSD is an inquisitive group, so expect questions during your talk.
• Short topic: intended to explain a technical topic or highlight a new idea.  This new, short format (15 to 30 minutes) is provided by XPSD to help new speakers, ideas, perspectives and experiences get in front of the members.
• Workshop: illustrate a concept or technical skill primarily through audience participation and ideally should not exceed 90 minutes. Workshops are fun and members love them.

A bag full of Christmas links.

1. Grooming the Product Backlog – Laura Brandenburg talks about the role of requirements management through the Scrum Product Backlog.
2. Make the Product Backlog DEEP – more on good practices for maintaining the Product Backlog from Mike Cohn.
3. Why is Agile so Hard to Sell? – describes some of the issues growing Agile in the enterprise.
4. Is Scrum for Lazy Project Teams? – looks at the misconception that Scrum does not challenge teams to work their hardest.
5. When the Scrummaster Becomes the Impediment – different perspectives on how to solve the problem when the Scrummaster becomes a bottleneck.
6. A Day in the Life of a Scrum Team – a short 6-minute YouTube video of a Scrum Team in their native environment.
7. Agile Business Analysts – what is the role of the business analyst on an Agile team?
8. Building trust – five concrete things you can do to build trust on your teams.
9. Something in Agile Needs Fixing – Rob Bowley summarizes the Open Space discussion on the topic of “Agile isn’t solving our customers problems because they aren’t here.”