scrum

Burn down charts help agile development teams track sprint and release progress. The basic idea of a burn down chart is that the team starts with estimates for all of the tasks in the sprint, and then on daily (or more frequent) basis re-estimates the amount of work remaining.

One of the new roles introduced by agile software development is that of the team coach. Until agile came along, coaches were confined to the executive suite or the sports field. As with any new role, it will take awhile before it is fully understood and scoped. Agile teams can—and do—exist without the coach role, but such teams do not necessarily achieve peak performance.

Go-karting is where most of the current Formula One racing drivers first learned the basics of race-craft. Antony Marcano, a former kart racer himself, recounts a father-and-son racing experience that helps him explain what goes wrong for many organizations that adopt Scrum as their first attempt to "go agile."

If a process tool or service claims to be agile it must be good, right? Not necessarily. The term "agile" has become abused and, since we don't have a standard dictionary definition, it is open to interpretation. So, let's look beyond the label to what really matters—value.