Author Archives: Perri Pappas

Scrum basics

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Hi, this is me Perri…

you probably know that during my internship by ProjectWizards, I am not only up to learn how to use Merlin, but also more about project management.

So while searching the internet for understandable documentation to Scrum, I came up with a post listing its basics. I really liked the 3 questions on the daily scrums when doing the sprint:

  1. What did I do since our last daily scrum?
  2. What am I planning to do until the next daily scrum?
  3. What is stopping me to do what I plan to do?

I also see a great benefit in the sprint retrospect with the next 3 questions:

  1. What went well?
  2. What can be improved?
  3. What will we focus on improving in the next sprint?

I intend to plan my work to meet the scrum basics. It really makes sense and I am very curious to see  how it helps me delivering successful projects.

When to sprint

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Hi, this is me Perri…

I had the other day a good idea to blog about and I though, I should write a ‘to-do’ before I forget it. So I started our Daylite, logged into the server, added a new task and written down a resume for the feature blog post. I categorized it, set up a priority, even entered some referencing URLs for external links and as I was about to save the task I remembered what I had read in the blog post Sprint is a Great Idea of Pawel Brodzinski:

Next time you have a task which you should take you fairly short time (a few days) try to sprint. Not much strategy, not much thinking about anything else – just run as far as you can.

So… canceled saving, copied the summary, logged into the Merlin blog, created a new post, pasted the clipboard and simply did my sprint. Editing and posting was quicker than task creation or scheduling and had not really delayed the other plans of the day at all.

I really have to write a post-it for this:

Remember: Scrum techniques apply on many areas, not only on project management.

Meta blogging…’the new team’

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Hi, this is Perri…

the theme of the latest Project Potion episode is ‘the new team’. Bas de Baar and Dave Prior are talking about interview situations, their favorite questions while assembling a new team, kick-off strategies, the rules of engagement for project launch, how to make sure that people stay engaged in daily scrum stand-ups and how to manage problems with team members not meeting the expectations.
It’s very interesting and as always entertaining as well.
But why making a short story long?
See it for yourself or at http://projectpotion.blip.tv/file/3071826/

Which are your little tricks when it comes to similar situations?

Have yous

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Hi, this is me, Perri…

searching in the internet for PM information, I happened to stumble upon presentation chunks of Tom Peters. I assume you know him and maybe have already read his books (In Search of Excellence to name one). I must confess I hadn’t until yet.

Following a hint in a blog post, I located a PDF file called Top 50_HaveYous. I find the questions very interesting and probably very helpful in making good things even better.

As you can see the file was created  in 2007.  What do you think? Is there a ‘Have you’ Tom Peters might have added meanwhile?