Adventures of a Seattle Dad

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The Scrum method of Agile development is excellent. I have used it with my teams for more than 5 years now, and we deploy successful sprint after successful sprint, each and every month. One of the secrets of that success is that I have varied from the traditional burndown chart and sprint estimation suggestions that are taught when a person learns about Scrum. Fortunately, the original Scrum books state that Scrum is not "prescriptive" - meaning that it is not a hard and fast set of rules that are set in stone. We are suppose to modify and adapt it to work in our organization. If you have had issues with making accurate burndown charts that reliably tell you when your sprint will finish, then perhaps my suggestions can help. The traditional definition of a Scrum team is that of a self-managed team that does not have set roles. The team is supposed to decide who will perform each task. That is a great concept, except that some people have developed careers as software d

Have you ever seen the traction control light come on in your car? The little picture of the car with squiggly tire tracks that blinks at you when the car is trying to save you from yourself? I have seen that light come on once in a while if I am driving "enthusiastically" in an unfamiliar car, but usually only once or twice. The rest of the times that I see it come are when I do something on purpose, but that is another story. Last night I drove a vehicle that blinked its traction control light at me almost constantly. Was an AMG Mercedes? A V12 BWM? Maybe a Porsche 911? Nope. It was a minivan. My wife's car is in for service and the shop gave her a loaner vehicle - a 2013 Dodge Grand Caravan with only 3200 miles on it. This van is a base model. I don't think that it has one option on it. Scratchy, hard plastic interior, not even a center console with a lid - just the basics. One thing that all 2013 Grand Caravans do have, however, is a 285 hp, 260 ft lbs of torque