Beyond Story Points: A Practical Guide for Grown‑Up Agile Teams
Story points aren’t the problem. They were created with good intent. A soft way to guide planning without the stress and politics of time estimates. Ron Jeffries, one of the ...
Blog
Agile Compass
A growing collection of articles on agility, innovation, leadership, and product management. Practical insights to help you navigate change and build high-performing teams.
Filtered by tag: User Stories — Clear
The Story Point Illusion: Why "Per Person Velocity" is a Corporate Fairy Tale
The first time I heard someone talk about “per person story points,” I laughed. Surely, it was a joke. Like someone suggesting we measure teamwork by how many push-ups each p...
The Story Points Trap: How We Lost Sight of Real Value
“How many story points do you complete per sprint?”“What’s your team’s velocity?”“Why isn’t it improving?” If you’ve heard these questions before, you know they’re usually...
The Pitfall Of Customer-Driven Decision-Making (And How To Avoid It)
In the world of business and innovation, there’s a common misconception that listening to your customers means asking them what they want or analyzing the data you have on th...
The Surprising Truth About the Definition of Done (DoD)
Explore the concept of the Definition of Done (DoD) in agile practices and its impact on team success. And understand the the pitfalls. Access this content with a premium s...
Why Agile Spikes Can Hurt You – And How To Master Them
What is a spike in agile? Why can it be dangerous? And how can your team use it for to reduce uncertainty? Access this content with a premium subscription This post is on...
How To Abuse Story Points And Mess Up Everything
Alright, we need to talk about something that’s been going on far too long in the agile world. You know what I’m talking about: Story Point Abuse. We’ve all seen it, we’ve al...
The Truth About User Stories: Unlocking Their Power in Agile Development
User stories are often misunderstood and misapplied in agile development. At their core, they’re simple yet powerful tools that focus on the user’s needs and foster meaningfu...
Why Managing Dependencies Is Dangerous And How To Do Better
When it comes to dependencies, most teams and managers immediately ask, “How do we manage these dependencies?” But are we asking the right question? What’s a Dependency? A de...
The Iron Triangle from an Agile Perspective
(See full article for paying members) Have you ever been told that agile methods can’t meet deadlines or stay within budget? It’s a common myth that leaves many skeptical abo...
Why You Shouldn’t Assign Team Members to User Stories During Sprint Planning
The Agile Compass by Matthias Orgler Hello Reader, last week we talked about why we can’t seem to let go of “finalizing the plan”. This week we’ll loo...
How long is your backlog?
If you start having trouble finding stories – or wondering whether the story is already in there somewhere – your backlog is probably too long ? The idea of a product back...
Almost done – how to ruin your agility with unfinished user stories at the end of a sprint in Scrum!
What to do with an almost finished story at the end of the sprint? Finish it? Carry it over? Put it back? Count 90% of the story points? 100%? 0%? We cannot predict the fu...
How to split a user story between two teams?
Do you have user stories that need the expertise of more than one team? How do you organize this? The situation Your specific situation might be slightly different, but...