My New Agile Plan

The agile methodology I’ve followed for my last few projects can best be described as Scrum. We had daily stand-up, sprint reviews, retrospectives, sprint planning, weekly demos to the client, and a scrum board. The projects went very well. But I’m not happy with the team communication. I’m not happy with the project flow. So I’ve been looking for something new.

What I’ve decided on something a little new and something a little borrowed. I’ve been reading up on Kanban and I really liking the idea of limiting the workflow and not being constrained by the sprint plan. I’m planning on running my next project with the following:

• Visualize the workflow (I’m going to use Trello and a wall of post-its)
• Limit the workflow – combined with appropriate workflow, I’m hoping to use this to keep us on track and true to our definition of done
• Use a cumulative flow diagram to depict/track project progress (I’m hoping to hook into Trello’s API to pull these metrics out automatically)
• Daily Stand-ups – our teams see the value in these to keep the communication flowing
• Definition of Done – I like working with the team to come to an agreement on this.
• Flexible sprint plan – I want to be able to be more responsive to shift client demands
• 2 week sprints – I want to increase the duration of our sprints to minimize the meetings (sprint planning/sprint review), but I’ll be looking close at whether we need to have strictly defined sprints
• Adjust the methodology as needed for project success

That’s the plan for now, I plan to post more on what worked and didn’t.