In Search of the Right Scrum tools

We've started trying scrum out on our team. It fits many of our processes but the lack of a tool is really costing a lot of our momemtum. I've done many searches & found the list of tools at http://www.userstories.com/products are a great collection of the currently available tools. I've evaluated many of them for our needs and will do a future blog on the tools we've narrowed down to.
The evaluation criteria are:
Planning
Easy Requirements entry (& history)
Joint backlog
Drag & drop sched
Visual plan
Test suites integrated
Quick feedback on changes
What if abilities
Sprint
Enable multiple separate scrum teams
Easy status update
Sprint planning
Integrated PRs
Reporting
Burndown chart
Resource loading Report
Dependencies & graph
Custom Reports
Advanced
Modify tags & processes
API available
Scrum & Kanban


Any input into the best tools & why - I'm open to hear.
thx
Ben

Evaluating Education

We have a problem in the US. It is not the education, it is how we attribute value to it.

How do we evaluate and determine a particular school, grade, teacher, etc is doing better than another? Right now the only way we determine the value of the education is we give a test. That is arbitrary and except for very specific items is often not a good measure. And then we throw in standardized tests - which is the worse possible measure of valuing education.

Well if this is true & many studies have shown that standardized tests is not a good criteria for determining whether a student actually has learned & can use the information, then what measure should we use.

I propose we look at business for the answer. Why do we think one business is doing better then another? We look at the bottom line - is this company bringing in more then another company, are their products or services being used by more people, do the people who come from this business go on to be successful. Ok, my take away is that no-one in business is saying that the company that passes test better is the more qualified - they are looking for results. So turning back to schools - let's not measure on the test scores - lets measure based on results.

My proposal - a school should be evaluated on the success of their students. So there should be a ranking of schools based on the quality of colleges a student gets into AND/OR based on the quality of job they get into upon leaving the school. If we believe that success is measured on the ability of an adult to support themselves then we should see if the school has provided the education in order for that to happen.

I'd go on but I'm looking for some feedback here...

Last note: there is a push to now standardize the learning across all of America - http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/06/01/33standards.h28.html?tkn=OLSFMiMEtX62W3pmvC32l5ixVKicSASMnV9l. There is some good & bad here, but if the quantity of the knowledge isn't critical & the successful application is what is important then shouldn't we shoot for some other approach?

Think well & learn something new today!

Too much to do & not enough time to do it...

The ultimate problem - too little time & too much to get done.
Answers: Prioritize, delegate, ignore, work faster, choose high impact, sacrifice from personal time...
The problem I see is that no matter what I do, I must make a choice but if I have no time to think & the pile is so big I can't see over it how do I take the time to make the choice?

So I come to the real reason I'm in this mess - courage is fleeting. When I'm tired, I'm more likely to try to push thru rather then stop, think, have the courage to make the necessary decisions. When the phone doesn't stop ringing, when the line up by my cube is 2 deep, when the bakery calls complaining that their number dispenser is missing again - I start worrying and digging deeper and not making those hard choices.

I don't know if you have similar experiences, but when I have the courage to say no, when I have the courage to not attend the endless meetings and stop and think about what I should be doing, when I have the courage to push the keyboard back, stare at the sky, sketch on the white board - this is when I really get the most quality work done and feel best at the end of the day.

So after all grumbling and wishing for more help subsides, I send you all wishes of courage (and strength to act on that courage).

Fables by Bill Willingham

For a great distraction check out the 'Fables' series of graphic Novels.
Bill has brought together an excellent thought provoking series.
"What would happen if the Fables of our past stories were real and lived hidden among us?"

What would Prince Charming be like? How about Red Riding Hood or the big bad wolf?
How about Jack in the Beanstalk if he became a con artist?

Step by step Bill weaves an intriguing tale around how Fables would behave themselves, how the animal looking fables would manage in a human world, how would they hide their presence, could the fables get beyond their original animosities?

With beautiful illustrations and a complex storyline, Bill pulls off an absorbing fable for our day. Check it out.

Supergraphic or summarize

Supergraphic or summarize

Is the ideal of a presentation to tightly guide the viewer to a small set of conclusions. Or is the ideal to give the viewer a very detailed set of clearly diagramed data and them draw their own conclusions.

When learning the 'best method of powerpoint' the objective is the first. However Tufte http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/ puts forth in his presentation and books that it is important to display as much data and as clearly as possible and allow the audience to decide. Tufte's argument is very persuasive - that almost any important dataset would need to be multivarient and thus displayed very complexly.

So the reality is rather challenging. In a business situation presentations are supposed to be short, tight and to the point. However, there is so much complexity that to present clearly in a powerpoint one small page, simple graphic is impossible.

I'm starting to explore supergraphics and using paper instead of powerpoint to clearly show the breath of data, rather the just try to get the point across. I'm exploring the idea and we'll see the results.