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I have come across some papers for same projects done based on traditional approach and Agile approach, which proves that Agile approaches have delivered significant better results. Some are from Starlabs SCRUM papers.Im in the process of customising an Agile framework and curious about following.Have you come across in any comparisons that the bug per [...]

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Scrum Is a project Management Framework. That’s why it doesn’t talk about any technical disciplines or engineering principles. Look at other widely used methodologies for project management such as PMBOK, PRINCE2 or even KANBAN; they don’t talk about any engineering principles either, But Ive not heard anyone blaming PMBOK because it doesn’t talk about [...]

This is about Risk. There are visible and invisible risks in any software project and those risks may appear any time during the project life. PMBOK has a separate knowledge area on risk management. YES it’s that important!So ..Then why most the SCRUM practitioners are so silent about risk management ( Ok we Agilists think [...]

I wish a Happy and prosperous 2010 to all my readers and advertising sponsors. Thank you so much for your support during 2009. In 2010, I wish to have more knowledge sharing, Interesting discussions and more than anything else to link up with you more closely… no matter who you are or which part of [...]

The part 1 of this article has already received industry attention than I have expected. I’ve seen it has been referred in some discussions, forums and even in twitter and FB many times. Now it has been published in ICPM where it meant to be.This is the 2nd article of the series. In this article [...]

Exilesoft Celebrates another successful year.. !!! We have been scrumming a lot this year !! and now its time to have fun!!

Its again Winter in North.. So we are busy here at Exilesoft, Sri Lanka with most the customers who visit us. That’s one nice thing in offshore business, as much as we enjoy travelling Europe, it seems our customers have found a second home to come when the winter starts in their countries. This is [...]

Monday :Most the speakers who reached Cairo before the conference had a visit to Giza Pyramids and the museum on Monday which was quite fascinating , specially to get to know each other as some of us have never met before and in the same time to explore Cairo, History etc. We all had an [...]

Scrum master is a servants leader .. We say this all the time.. So Scrum masters .. how good you rate yourself as a leader is scrum project. check out this matrix introduced by Bob Hartman (Agile Bob)1. Listening – actively listening to what others are saying2. Empathy – feeling the pain and thrills of [...]

We have openings for a Microsoft Dynamics AX consultant and few AX developers from Sri Lanka or India, if anyone.. Please send me the CV to twi@exilesoft.com

The Guest Speech: Challenges to be faced when move from Waterfall to Agile.Speaker: Mr. Finn-Worm Peterson, CEO ExilesoftDate: 8th October 2009Venue : Taj Samudra Hotel 5 PM – 7 PMRSVP: Please call Vajira on 0714353787 to reserve your seat (None members fee Rs. 500)

Did you hear about the facebook addicted criminals story on Sheryl’s keynote speech at Advertising Week! (She is the COO of Facebook. She explained a true story of a criminal entering to a house, seen facebook in the computer. Logged in to it but didn’t log out ! He must be a Facebook addict [...]

International Project Managers day is scheduled for 5th November. ( Cool Like Moms day , Fathers day, valentine’s day. … PMs who are always in firing line also should have a day for them I believe :)There is a very good webcast program which you can join on 4th and 5th [...]

the Scrum Alliance Board of Directors (Board) has decided to move forward with the launch of the online Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) exam on October 1. For more details Visit Scrum Alliance web page.

I know I was suppose to write few posts totally focused on practical aspects of user stories. But I thought to write this post first, because last week I had an interesting discussion at office which could be really useful to other agile practitioners as well.We were talking further about agile testing. Especially with Scrum. [...]

Someone had an argument with me about something I mentioned about scrum at some place.. ( Ok I would call it a “discussion” :-)) I love when someone challenges me on something what I talk about..!Ok the “conversation” I had is this;I said the scrum project starts only when the Product backlog is ready !! [...]

Every person whom I meet teaches me how much I don’t know about some subject. Either its about the world, history, culture, religion, different industries… whatever it is…This happens to me all the time when travelling. I have some luck to have good company most the time while travelling or in transit. Those strangers ended [...]

Very interesting project to work with some cool robots and nice people. and more than anything the office is located in a beautiful area..I love this trees houses, plants, flowers..and seen 2 apple trees today while walking to find the train station . its a picture book enviorenment outside and I love them [...]

Recent past this has been a very painful discussion in many organizations moving towards Agile.. What are we to do with our PM? Is he/she going to be a Product Owner, Scrum Master or will work as the developers of the team with his skills of development , testing etc. ? All that is fine.. [...]

I was thinking of upgrading my Scrum master status to Scrum Practitioner and I did the case study which was provided to gain the status., Following is the email I receieved from Scrum alliance today after inspecting the case study…Hi Thushara,Congratulations! Your application has been approved. The next step is to submit payment of $250 [...]

Thanks to my Project Managers.. They asked me this question lately when I was talking about scrum for upcoming projects.. How do we conduct the annual appraisals of the individual team members when practicing Agile?.. Specially Scrum. Because I have been chanting the mantra all the time …..”Scrum is all about team and not about [...]

The Scrum Team Scrum teams do not include any of the traditional software engineering roles such as programmer, designer, tester, or architect. Everyone on the project works together to complete the set of work they have collectively committed to complete within a sprint. Scrum teams develop a deep form of camaraderie and a feeling [...]

P2P 2009 Global project management conference is scheduled to be held in Cairo on 2nd, 3rd and 4th November at Hotel Marriot.You can find more information about the conference on http://p2p.brisk-consulting.org/details_sp.php I will be addressing the conference in 3 sessions and I will be doing my presentations based on following abstracts.http://www.p2pevents.net/p2p/main.php?page_label=Thushara%20WijewardenaSoftware project management in outsourced [...]

P2P 2009 Global project management nonconference is scheduled to be held in Cairo on 2nd, 3rd and 4th November at Hotel Marriot.You can find more information about the conference on http://p2p.brisk-consulting.org/details_sp.phpI will be addressing the conference in 3 sessions and I will be doing my presentations based on following abstracts.Software project management in outsourced project [...]

The talk of the town ! Project Management 2.0 :-)Yea we all know that Project management has moved a long way from traditional management and those long gone methods are not recognized anymore. The days that project manager becomes the center for all the information and he filters information for various stakeholders and make stake [...]

Yesterday one of my colleagues was discussing some stuff on this blog and I got some exiting comments about how popular this is in some of the search engines. I was very happy by the comments because I can see over hundreds of people visiting this blog every day but very few times my colleagues [...]

Are you a PMP ? Ok this is the most important post Im going to write in this blog for you .If you are also a PMP in my category who waited till the last moment to claim PDUs ( Please I don’t recommend that period! PMI can always reject what you claim so you [...]

Okii.. This is not about Project Management.. But something which I think worth dedicating a post of my blog for.In the past I’ve been very lucky to work with colleagues who have quite unique skills in IT industry and the guys who pitched the top in their own technical domains.. They have been always a [...]

You can download the 4th Edition of PMBOK guide free now..To access the digital edition of the PMBOK® Guide:Visit www.PMI.orgLogon to Your Members AreaSelect the Resources tabGo to Global Standards LibraryClick on “Library of PMI Global Standards”Click on “Projects (View Details)Right Click on Language and select “Save Target As..”

Good news is that I found this “seems to be cool “ Agile PM tool “Agila”http://www.agile42.com/cms/pages/tools/The bad news is that they charge 29 Euro for 30 day trial.. Smart ha..

1. Scrum is only one of the Agile methods. There are many. But at the moment Scrum is the most popular due to its simplicity and not forgetting the scrum alliance marketing effort too.. ;-)2. I had a situation where the product owner had an idea.. Agile is no documentation.. period!.. This is not right! [...]

PM Network April Issue 2009 [...]

I will let him speak

Last week I had really a good opertunity. A customer located in Stavenger wanted to impliment SCRUM for their project management process. So I was just there to help them on that with a new project.The customer didn’t have any matured project management methodologies, frameoworks or tools already in place. Therefore setting up the new [...]

Ok first of all I don’t believe there are any dumb questions.. Its only dumb people. No questions are dumb. But people who don’t question are really dumb.As a project Manager /Scrum master you need your team members to ask questions. You need your product owner /customer to ask questions.. you need your senior [...]

If you are a software company, depending on outsourced projects from western; USA, Europe, What may come along your way now ?How you should analyze the risk and get prepared to face the worst and still to deliver your projects as planned? Something to think about JAfter hearing many things happening in the industry what [...]

Uncertainty of project estimates (Specially the software projects) is the biggest problem we face when planning a project ahead. I’ve never made a perfect plan for a project (The preliminary plan to be valid till the project is completed and to complete the project successfully with the same exact number of hours I planned initially?? [...]