Knowledge of an Agile Leader to enhance efficiency

An Agile leader plays a major role in the performance and output efficiency. Migrating to Agile does not only mean change of process. It means a big change in culture and mind-set, and that is mostly the tough part. People become comfortable with their existing processes. Also, it is very difficult for them to transition to a process that accepts and embraces change. Following an Agile process also means that some people will become redundant, because efficiency increases which leads to increase in productivity with less resources. Again, all the managers are trained in agile to control ownership and dictate terms. Agile believes in delegating responsibilities, which can again cause resentment among managers. For all these reasons, an Agile leaders needs to be proactive, and should follow the following parameters:

1. Foster an Agile culture: Agile practices such as high customer interaction, collaborative design and value driven delivery should be encouraged very early during the transition phase itself, so that it becomes a habit by the time 3 to 4 months pass. Then it gets internalized and becomes part of the team culture.
2. Hire a good Agile Coach: A good Agile coach guides, motivates and helps a team stay away from pitfalls. The past experience and track record of the Coach should be carefully evaluated and once chosen, he/she should be given 3 – 4 months to make an impact, because implementing Agile Processes take time.
3. Avoid a cookie cutter approach: Business scenarios are very dynamic now-a-days, with customers becoming more and more demanding and smart. Some experts are of the opinion that one flavour of Agile is a panacea for all the hurdles. But this is not a good approach, as it greatly restricts the processes’ impact, and also makes Agile less flexible. It also goes against the Agile principle of providing maximum value to the customer as the highest priority. The Agile Coach should evaluate all the factors within and outside the organization/team, and then recommend any one flavour of Agile, or a mix of different flavours. Customization is embraced in Agile and it should not matter which flavour is followed.
4. Equation with other managers: Here, the Coach or the Scrum Master should have the respect of all the stakeholders through his/her performance and people management skills, as the line managers do not directly report to the Coach. So, here it’s more about collaboration and trusting and respecting one another.

If the above mentioned parameters are followed, the Agile leader can successfully help his/her teams transition in Agile.
 To know more click on: http://www.scrumstudy.com/blog/knowledge-of-an-agile-leader-to-enhance-efficiency/

How do Story Points prove their worth in Scrum?

Relative values are used for story points estimation instead of absolute values. This approach renders it quite simple enough to create these kinds of estimates while facing uncertain situations. With experience and time, Scrum teams will develop the capability to sharpen up their estimates for more precision. They can figure out the number of story points that can be accomplished within a single iteration. While planning for long term execution of tasks in the evitability of facing uncertainties in a project, story points provide the best worth in terms of creating relative quantitative measurements.
In terms of a website creation project, the project management team adopting old-fashioned mode may see it pertinent to put in a condition pre-stating the needs related with the website. Internal stakeholders such as the developing team would need to provide an estimated time for coding the website to the project manager to determine a fixed schedule and the date of delivery.
In Agile development projects using the process of Scrum, representation of the varied requirements are made through those stories. Instead of letting team members figure out the duration of each story, they can be asked by the project manager to allot story point values per every single requirement. An upper point value can be allotted to stories which are more complex compared to average ones.  Instead of an absolute value of time, the story points in comparison are pretty more complicated. Velocity of the team can be determined according to the number of completed story points per iteration.
Historical data helps to calibrate the velocity over time, allowing for improved predictability. Consistency of the velocity of the team can be attained through the self-rectification process which is continual, even though some inconsistencies were realized in the initial stage. Data recorded historically can prove to be valuable by readjusting the velocity over the passage of time which in turn can lead to enhanced predictability.
Accuracy pertaining to estimation can be achieved over a period of time due to the iterative feature of Agile development. There is no real benefit of the team striving to ascertain the definite timelines when faced with uncertain specifics. Then it’s time for the team to make use of systematic guess work which would be more helpful.

To know more click on: http://www.scrumstudy.com/blog/how-do-story-points-prove-their-worth-in-scrum-2/