Technical Debt: A Horror Story

This is an excerpt from Dan Rawsthorne’s upcoming book “Project Management with Scrum”. Dan is a Certified Scrum Trainer for 3Back, a world-leader in Scrum development, and co-author of “Exploring Scrum: The Fundamentals”. This excerpt will give you a basic understanding of technical debt as well as a glimpse into an real-world example of technical debt overwhelming a team.

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R.A.T. – Remembering Agile Teams

One of our students in our Scrum classes sketched out a new way to remember agile teams: R.A.T. Take one handsome rat, combine him with great Scrum techniques and you’ve got a stunning, perceptive diagram.

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Break the Habit

Communication and learning are highly intertwined and as Scrum believers, we are compelled to do both at a high level. We need to shape questions to drive the learning and to forge a path for the product development. How can we ever gain robust, vital feedback without engagement of our audience?

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One Scrum Team. Four Languages.

Some of these languages are pleasant and palatable to us. Others repel us like vinegar. Our challenge as Product Owners, ScrumMasters and teammates is to peel the words and find value in the thought. Let’s revisit the statements and reveal what the intent truly is.

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The Scrum Wheel and the Learning Wheel United

Scrum teams spin the wheel daily.  Every product, story, and task begs for the Scrum wheel to be in motion.  Another wheel is spinning every time the Scrum team gathers.  Whether it be for a daily stand-up, a product demo or a sprint retrospective, the learning wheel is also present. Learning wheels churn through ideas and…

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Teams: Meet Keith.

I once chaired a small leadership team, just four people.  Keith, my operations lead, was highly tuned into telling us how our ideas could or could not be implemented.  Keith had a million ways to process, but he appeared to have a  lack of caring about the people we were serving.  Keith was bottom-line results…

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