Scrum User Group

Greetings to all SUGSA visitors!

This is the announcement and your official invitation to our first event in Cape Town for 2009, to be held in just two weeks’ time.

When: Tuesday 24 Feb, 2009 at 18h00 for 18h30

Where: MagmaTec House, Greenford Office Estate, Punters Way, Kenilworth, Cape Town. Go to http://www.magmatec.co.za/ for a map. Parking is available on-site.

We have an interesting programme lined up for our first event of 2009:

* Aimed at Scrum newbies, Carlo Kruger will give a brief overview of Agile principles and the Scrum framework. It should help you with some of the practical questions of what Scrum is and how to get it started in your organisation.

* Chris Tisdall will share some experiences of implementing Scrum at Allan Gray from his perspective as Product Owner.

The event is being kindly sponsored by MagmaTec, which means that attendance, snacks and drinks are free!

Space is limited, so please do confirm your attendance as soon as possible by clicking the following link: http://www.prohmote.com/892ab682. Just fill in your name and how many guests you will bring.

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I’m starting a hopefully regular feature here where I will be posting links to articles elsewhere on the web, with content about scrum and agile that I find interesting.

First up is Kent Beck’s ‘State of Agile’ presentation.
http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/01/Agile-Trends-Kent-Beck
He has some very interesting things to say about the alignment between agile’s values of transparency and how they help business, particularly in our current difficult economic climate.

Mike Cohn posted what amounts to a “Requirements Koan”
http://blog.mountaingoatsoftware.com/?p=77
This challenge was like a brain worm that I kept thinking about for days after. It is intended to get you to think about the fact that all new requirements can be thought of as merely improvements. Or something. Go read the post.

Also, Mike Cohn’s presentation on what scrum is has received a small update and a face lift. You can find it at:
http://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/scrum-a-presentation

Martin Fowler has an interesting piece on the importance of using engineering practises that support agile development
http://martinfowler.com/bliki/FlaccidScrum.html
Of particular interest to me was his statement that team’s who do not adopt these practises are risking the reputation of scrum as a whole, but that he’s not worried about it.

Boris Gloger posted a review of the VersionOne software:
http://scrum4you.wordpress.com/2009/02/03/scrum-tools-version-one/

Lastly, if you’re looking for a comprehensive rundown on the tools available for supporting scrum in your organisation, Mike Cohn has started a website at:
http://www.userstories.com/
Coming later in the year will be samples and examples of stories and backlogs.

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