Tools for a mobile office
I'm constantly trying to boost my productivity. For me that includes to enable myself to write ideas down instantly. In the present age of the smartphone, the question is no longer which device you should use to write down notes on the go but instead it is: Which applications should I use?
In this article I will present my current tool set of choice for the iPhone.
Scrum with pen & paper
A friend of mine recently asked me if I'd know any good freeware tools for use with Scrum. Well, I told him, I don't have any first hand experience with freeware Scrum tools but there certainly are a few.
However in the case that you're just starting with Scrum I would argue that you might be better off without tools. All tools force you into some kind of process that works for somebody else, but might not be optimal for you.
So instead of jumping to a fancy tool that comes with all the bells and whistles instantly, I'd recommend starting as low-tech as possible, learn the basics and discover your individual needs. After that you are enabled to get the Scrum tool that does exactly what you need it to do.
How do you start low-tech? Use pen and paper.
Estimation techniques compared
I was inspired to write this article by several threads in forums covering agile methodologies. The basic discussion was whether to estimate based on Story Points or time. To me - and most people participating in those discussions - there is no silver bullet and you will have to find out what works best for you yourself. In this article I'd like to muse about the various estimation techniques that I'm familiar with as well as the pros and cons that I ran into with each of them.
I will compare PERT and COCOMO, both being traditional techniques with a long history and Planning Poker, probably the most prevalent agile estimation technique.
All techniques have their pros and cons and it will be up to you to determine which technique will work best in your environment.
My comparison is purely based on experience, which is broader for PERT and more narrow for COCOMO and to some extend Planning Poker. Your mileage may vary. This article does not intend to be the definite guide on estimation techniques.
That being said, let's start shall we?
The power of free gifts
I'd like to share an experience with you that I had a couple of days ago. Although this happened in the physical world I believe there are a few lessons to learn for online business and online marketing / sales.
I own a bike here in India, the Royal Enfield Bullet. The apartment I live in provides each tenant with a (car sized) parking lot. So my bike spends quite a bit of time next to an Innova van owned by a business man.
The sheer number of people in India makes labour really cheap. Not to have a maid for house keeping is rare. Even employing a maid, a cook and a driver does not raise many eyebrows when you're in the middle management.
While I have none of those yet, the gentleman owning the Innova does employ a driver. The driver also washes the car every other day. That guy is a nice fellow and although his English is really bad, we're greeting each other and have a three half-sentence long chat every now and then.
My experience I'd like to share started on the day where he started washing my bike.
Welcome!
Hey! I'm glad you could make it.
Here I keep posting my latest experiences, but also technical oddities and curiosities as well as random thoughts and ramblings.
All of it will be related to the IT industry and me in it.
My thought cloud
Entries by topic
- Agile (14)
- Commerce (1)
- Events (3)
- General (8)
- Management (7)
- PHP (3)
- Social Web (2)
- Test Automation (5)
Events Calendar
Pages
Other places to find me
Xing Profile