Inspired by artwork by Pictofigo
A Lack of a Shared Understanding
Earlier this week, I facilitated a backlog refinement meeting. In the past, the team was used to all of the requirements being completed (in advance) by the analysts. The delivery team would then execute on those requirements. The problem, of course, was no shared understanding. We came into the meeting with everyone agreeing they were on the same page. That was true for about 15 minutes. The more we talked, the more they realized they were looking at things from individual perspectives.
At the beginning of the meeting, we had less than 10 user stories, from an analyst's perspective. By the end of the meeting, we had a prioritized backlog with over 100 user stories at different levels of granularity. It's not perfect and it's never done. But, it's a start. For the first time, developers and testers were engaged at the beginning. At LeadingAgile, we call this the Product Owner team. When the highest priority stories get to a "ready" state, they will be pulled into a delivery team's queue. Until then, we need to answer some of the more complicated questions, mitigate risk, and achieve that shared understanding.
Image Source: Based on hand drawn image from Pictofigo
Post-It Note T-Shirt Contest
The Idea
It seems like every time I deal with a customer, I have a backpack of painters tape, Sharpies, and Post-It notes. When I was recently working with Pictofigo on the new Agile Process poster, I had an idea of a new product with original Pictofigo artwork. I thought, why not have a contest where everyone could benefit from crowd-sourced ideas?
Just answer the simple question:
If you could WEAR a Post-It note, what would it say?
Post-It Note T-Shirt 1
The Post-It note will be on the left pocket and will be roughly 4x4 inches in size. What would you want to appear on the post-it note? Make it count! Size is very limited.
Post-It Note T-Shirt 2
The Post-It note will be on the center chest and will be roughly 10x10 inches in size. What would you want to appear on the post-it note? I really like this one. Would you write the Agile Manifesto? Would you want a team rule like "No cooking fish in the microwave"? Would you just have a giant light bulb? You tell us! Tell the world!
Contest Rules
- Please list your ideas in the comments section. You may enter as many times as you wish.
- Please add a link to the contest in a post on your favorite social networking site (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn...)
- Two winners will be chosen at the end of the month (March 2012).
- Each winner will receive a free t-shirt (their choice of size) with their winning submission.
- By submitting your ideas, you give us free license to reproduce it on a Post-It Note T-Shirt.
That's it!
Good Luck!
If you want to just buy an "Lightbulb" idea T-Shirt, I have them at CafePress.
Agile Process Posters v2.0
I am happy to announce the collaboration with Pictofigo has resulted with a new Agile Process poster. The new process poster includes product backlogs, sprint backlogs, and user stories. We have these posters in three sizes and they come in both male and female styles. Want to hang some original artwork in your team area, while helping people understand the standard Agile process? Check them out!
Pictofigo Promotion
I've been working with Pictofigo for a few months now. I give them ideas for drawings I think others would find helpful. In turn, I get access to some pretty cool (and original) stuff. It's quid pro quo at its best. There are currently over 900 drawings available for free on the Standard Pictofigo site. In addition to those, there are 13 Premium items. These items range from a few free desktop wallpapers to Scrum posters and traditional project management posters. What's the difference and why pay for stuff? The standard site has drawings at 72 dpi resolution, perfect for a blog, website or presentation. The Premium site has drawings at 300 dpi resolution, suitable for print or products. Yes, I do offer links from my site to CafePress, if you want printed posters. But, the actual high resolution drawings are available if you want to print out a few posters at a lower overall cost. I got a notice today that Pictofigo is going to run a half off promotion on their premium content. Because I like to encourage and support entrepreneurs, I wanted to write this quick post. If you're in the market for some original drawings, look them up. They are constantly iterating on the site so check back often. If you have an idea for a drawing or poster, give them a shout. If you want, you can send me the request and I'll forward it along. To be clear, I am not Pictofigo. I merely love what they do and want to see them succeed.
HT: Pictofigo
Free Intro To Scrum Wallpaper
Around 2005, when I started using Scrum, I went looking for figures that would help me describe the process to my product owners, stakeholders, and my team. I think that it's always good to use a visual aid to help someone understand process or where they fit into that process. Well, I found a free wallpaper over at Mountain Goat Software. Since then, I've seen this exact wallpaper used over and over again by many people, to describe Scrum.
Scrum Intro Wallpaper - Mountain Goat Software
Well, I thought it was time for a refresh. After I created my first prototype of a new wallpaper, I worked with Pictofigo to refine my vision of the Scrum process. Because the process is centered around people, I wanted to make sure they were in the drawing. Additionally, we made male and female versions. This free 300 dpi wallpaper is available for download from Premium Pictofigo. The first wallpaper (of figure) is 1600 x 1200. More sizes will be posted soon, so you don't have to mess with them. Depending on feedback from the Scrum Community, we may refine the drawing a little. To get the latest and greatest, go to the Pictofigo website and get it for free.
Scrum Intro Wallpaper - Pictofigo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License, which means you can copy, distribute, and display the images including in commercial and derivative works as long as you include attribution to Pictofigo and myself. (just don't delete our names)
New ScrumMaster Poster
Our newest Scrum poster(s) are ready! We started with a poster that included the 3 primary roles of Scrum. We then singled out each of the roles and made individual posters. First up, the ScrumMaster. This poster depicts a ScrumMaster with a taskboard and burndown chart behind him. Below are the activities associated with the ScrumMaster as detailed by the Scrum Alliance.
Please note, the female version of this poster will be out soon.
This poster has been discounted, compared to our others. Download the 300DPI image file for $14.99 to use on your own products or buy the poster!
Posters Mini (Size: 11" x 17") $9.99 Small (Size: 13" x 20") $17.99 Large (Size:23" x 34.5") $21.99
Free Drawings + Agile = Good
While I've been working with Pictofigo, they've developed over 800 free drawings (and a few premium drawings). It's really exciting to discover blogs that are using Pictofigo drawings. I see new drawings almost daily and more people will benefit from this free freehand drawing search engine.
Recently, I was asked to write a guest post about an Introduction of Agile for Waterfall PMs. Now, I certainly believe if you're going to write a blog post, you have to have a drawing or graphic included. 
Where else should I turn to get my drawing or graphic to capture Agile for non-agile people? For several years, I've seen people go over to Mountain Goat Software and use their illustrations and figures. These are awesome and free! Sometimes the users give credit to Mountain Goat, sometimes they don't (though they should). So, to start fresh, I did a quick v1.0 mockup using free Pictofigo drawings. It only took me about 20 minutes to do this. What do you think?
For my first iteration, I captured the following:
- Product Backlog
- Sprint Backlog
- 2-4 week iterations (Sprints)
- Daily (Scrum or Stand-up) meeting every 24 hours
- Potentially deployable/shippable product increment
Though this is just a rough mockup, you get the idea. Get out there an build something! Hopefully, by the time I complete my guest post, I'll have a refined drawing for everyone to download. Until then, iterate, iterate, iterate!