Jekyll2020-08-12T00:10:01+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/feed.xmlSandglaz Blog ArchiveAn archive of the Sandglaz blog. Read posts about productivity, teamwork and building high performing teams.Sandglaz is shutting down :’(2018-01-03T00:18:25+00:002018-01-03T00:18:25+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/sandglaz-shutting-down<p>Unfortunately, we have some sad news to share. Sandglaz will be shutting down
at the end of February and Sandglaz will cease to operate on March 1st, 2018.</p>
<p>No further charges will be made to your accounts and you will have access to all
paid features until the end of February.</p>
<p>We are grateful for all the support you have given us in the last 8 years.
We gave it our all but unfortunately couldn’t create a sustainable business.
For this we are truly sorry.</p>Unfortunately, we have some sad news to share. Sandglaz will be shutting down at the end of February and Sandglaz will cease to operate on March 1st, 2018.Offline editing is here2016-08-20T19:21:50+00:002016-08-20T19:21:50+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/offline-editing-support<p>Today we're thrilled to announced that offline editing—our most requested featured—is now available to all Sandglaz users. Whether you are working on plane or have poor internet connectivity while hiking up a mountain, you can add or edit your Sandglaz tasks and all changes will be synced the next time you launch Sandglaz online.</p>
<p>Thank you for everyone who helped us with testing this feature and providing feedback.</p>Zaid ZawaidehToday we're thrilled to announced that offline editing—our most requested featured—is now available to all Sandglaz users. Whether you are working on plane or have poor internet connectivity while hiking up a mountain, you can add or edit your Sandglaz tasks and all changes will be synced the next time you launch Sandglaz online. Thank you for everyone who helped us with testing this feature and providing feedback.3 tips for hiring the best talent in 20162016-04-21T14:24:50+00:002016-04-21T14:24:50+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/3-hiring-trends-keep-eye-2016<p>As the US economy <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-idUSKCN0W60F1" target="_blank">continues to add jobs at a brisk rate</a>, small businesses across the country are hiring large numbers of new workers. That means business owners are running headfirst into challenges hiring the best talent across the country.</p>
<p>From concerns about finding qualified and experienced candidates, to worries about data security, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So what should small businesses be doing to hire the right kind of workers? These three major trends go a long way to explain both what difficulties there currently are, and how you can address each and thrive.</p>
<h3>There’s a shrinking pool of entry-level workers</h3>
<p>This is a huge point of frustration on the part of both workers and business owners. Many young job seekers feel that every position they encounter requires years of experience they don’t see a clear way to obtain. Small business owners, on the other hand, often feel this new generation of workers isn’t willing to put in the time to develop skills and simply want to skip to the better positions.</p>
<p>Both parties have a point. But that <a href="http://dailyfreepress.com/2016/03/04/growing-skills-gap-larger-job-vacancies-concern-employers-study-suggests/" target="_blank">shrinking pool of entry-level workers</a> is still a very real fact in today’s hiring market. With US colleges and universities churning out graduates in record numbers, why is there such a mismatch? Why is it that “attracting the right candidates in terms of qualifications, skills and experience” is the <a href="http://offers.indeed.com/rs/699-SXJ-715/images/SMB_ExecutiveSummary_Q12016.pdf" target="_blank">number one concern</a> of small businesses in their hiring in the first quarter of 2016?</p>
<p>Sadly, a far larger issue exists which small businesses have little control over: namely, that the US education system is not producing graduates with skills matching what the job market is demanding. Combine this with the changing cultural perception of careers, with millennials moving away from the idea of staying with one long-term. What are small businesses to do?</p>
<p>The short answer is to compete. Small businesses need to be prepared to offer competitive incentives and to update their expectations for entry-level employees. The right talent is still out there if you’re willing to fight for it. That brings us to the second major trend small businesses need to be on top of.</p>
<h3>Focus on potential</h3>
<p>This gets right to the heart of the conflict mentioned above: job seekers feel that experience requirements are unfair, while small businesses feel that applicants are simply under-qualified. One major step towards improving this situation is a shift in mindset on the part of small businesses away from a focus on skills and experience, and towards potential.</p>
<p>The reality here is that teaching skills is far easier than teaching overall mindset and general aptitude. Bearing that in mind, it makes sense to shift towards finding candidates with the kind of mindset you’re looking for. You can teach a 22-year-old how surety bonds work or how to do basic accounting, but if they’re not a good fit for the culture of your firm, then it won’t be worth the effort.</p>
<p>So small businesses can try removing that “minimum 4 years of experience” requirement and see what kind of applicants come in. There’s a good chance you might find some great potential you didn’t expect in that new candidate pool. But even without those limiting requirements, attracting talent remains an overarching concern.</p>
<h3>Appeal to a new generation of workers</h3>
<p>Let’s face it, millennials are looking for different things in a job than their predecessors. And, as Rob Asghar <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/01/13/what-millennials-want-in-the-workplace-and-why-you-should-start-giving-it-to-them/" target="_blank">pointed out in Forbes</a>, you should really start giving them what they want. He points to startling data that shows the extent to which this generation’s focus is on things like making the world a better place (64%), working collaboratively (88%), being able to work flexibly (74%), and having a good work-life balance (88%).</p>
<p>Sure, you could aim for the tiny fraction of young job seekers who aren’t looking for those things, but if you think your small business is going to attract quality talent without making strides to adjust your workplace culture, you’re kidding yourself. The numbers are too overwhelming to ignore. It's time to start thinking about how to integrate the values of this new generation into your business.</p>
<h3>Adapt to these trends to hire the best talent</h3>
<p>What should be crystal clear from all of these trends is that today’s small businesses can’t be stuck in their ways and expect stellar candidates to come to them. With economic growth projected to continue in the near future, hiring is only going to become more competitive. By 2020, nearly <a href="http://www.kenan-flagler.unc.edu/executive-development/custom-programs/~/media/DF1C11C056874DDA8097271A1ED48662.ashx" target="_blank">half of all workers</a> will be millennials. If small businesses don’t adapt for this new reality, they simply won’t survive. Why not start evolving now?</p>
<p>What other trends are you noticing in hiring and how are they affecting your business? Let us know what you’re experiencing today in the comments.<br />
<br />
---<br />
Eric Halsey is a historian by training and disposition who’s been interested in US small businesses since working at the House Committee on Small Business in 2006. Coming from a family with a history of working on industry policy, he has a particular interest in the Surety Bonding industry and loves sharing his knowledge for <a href="http://www.jwsuretybonds.com/" target="_blank">JW Surety Bonds</a>. </p>Eric Halsey (Guest Author)As the US economy continues to add jobs at a brisk rate, small businesses across the country are hiring large numbers of new workers. That means business owners are running headfirst into challenges hiring the best talent across the country. From concerns about finding qualified and experienced candidates, to worries about data security, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. So what should small businesses be doing to hire the right kind of workers? These three major trends go a long way to explain both what difficulties there currently are, and how you can address each and thrive. There’s a shrinking pool of entry-level workers This is a huge point of frustration on the part of both workers and business owners. Many young job seekers feel that every position they encounter requires years of experience they don’t see a clear way to obtain. Small business owners, on the other hand, often feel this new generation of workers isn’t willing to put in the time to develop skills and simply want to skip to the better positions. Both parties have a point. But that shrinking pool of entry-level workers is still a very real fact in today’s hiring market. With US colleges and universities churning out graduates in record numbers, why is there such a mismatch? Why is it that “attracting the right candidates in terms of qualifications, skills and experience” is the number one concern of small businesses in their hiring in the first quarter of 2016? Sadly, a far larger issue exists which small businesses have little control over: namely, that the US education system is not producing graduates with skills matching what the job market is demanding. Combine this with the changing cultural perception of careers, with millennials moving away from the idea of staying with one long-term. What are small businesses to do? The short answer is to compete. Small businesses need to be prepared to offer competitive incentives and to update their expectations for entry-level employees. The right talent is still out there if you’re willing to fight for it. That brings us to the second major trend small businesses need to be on top of. Focus on potential This gets right to the heart of the conflict mentioned above: job seekers feel that experience requirements are unfair, while small businesses feel that applicants are simply under-qualified. One major step towards improving this situation is a shift in mindset on the part of small businesses away from a focus on skills and experience, and towards potential. The reality here is that teaching skills is far easier than teaching overall mindset and general aptitude. Bearing that in mind, it makes sense to shift towards finding candidates with the kind of mindset you’re looking for. You can teach a 22-year-old how surety bonds work or how to do basic accounting, but if they’re not a good fit for the culture of your firm, then it won’t be worth the effort. So small businesses can try removing that “minimum 4 years of experience” requirement and see what kind of applicants come in. There’s a good chance you might find some great potential you didn’t expect in that new candidate pool. But even without those limiting requirements, attracting talent remains an overarching concern. Appeal to a new generation of workers Let’s face it, millennials are looking for different things in a job than their predecessors. And, as Rob Asghar pointed out in Forbes, you should really start giving them what they want. He points to startling data that shows the extent to which this generation’s focus is on things like making the world a better place (64%), working collaboratively (88%), being able to work flexibly (74%), and having a good work-life balance (88%). Sure, you could aim for the tiny fraction of young job seekers who aren’t looking for those things, but if you think your small business is going to attract quality talent without making strides to adjust your workplace culture, you’re kidding yourself. The numbers are too overwhelming to ignore. It's time to start thinking about how to integrate the values of this new generation into your business. Adapt to these trends to hire the best talent What should be crystal clear from all of these trends is that today’s small businesses can’t be stuck in their ways and expect stellar candidates to come to them. With economic growth projected to continue in the near future, hiring is only going to become more competitive. By 2020, nearly half of all workers will be millennials. If small businesses don’t adapt for this new reality, they simply won’t survive. Why not start evolving now? What other trends are you noticing in hiring and how are they affecting your business? Let us know what you’re experiencing today in the comments. --- Eric Halsey is a historian by training and disposition who’s been interested in US small businesses since working at the House Committee on Small Business in 2006. Coming from a family with a history of working on industry policy, he has a particular interest in the Surety Bonding industry and loves sharing his knowledge for JW Surety Bonds.Color Code your Projects2015-09-01T13:28:36+00:002015-09-01T13:28:36+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/color-code-your-projects<p>We're excited to announce that you can now color code your tasks based on which project they belong to. </p>
<p>"My Tasks" aggregates all your tasks from across multiple projects. Today, we added the ability to customize each project's color. This will automatically color code the tasks in your "My Tasks" for easy visualization of function.</p>
<p>Here's how "My Tasks" looks after I customized the colors of my projects. Notice how the labels are now colored. For example you can see that I set blue for my "Product Backlog" project.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/project-color-mytasks.png"><img src="/assets/project-color-mytasks.png" alt="project-color-mytasks" width="768" height="437" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3318" /></a></p>
<p>To set your project's color, go to the project's settings and select the color. That's all you need to do.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/project-color.jpg"><img src="/assets/project-color.jpg" alt="project-color" width="768" height="436" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3319" /></a></p>
<p>Sandglaz visualizes your task's priorities by mapping your sprints into columns — at a glance you can see what tasks need to be accomplished when. In addition you can drag and drop your tasks in the order of priority within the same sprint. Today's release adds colors as yet one more dimension to your visualization!</p>
<p>Start color coding your tasks now at <a href="http://www.sandglaz.com">Sandglaz</a>. </p>
<p><b>What do you think of this feature? Let us know in the comments below.</b></p>Nada AldahlehWe're excited to announce that you can now color code your tasks based on which project they belong to. "My Tasks" aggregates all your tasks from across multiple projects. Today, we added the ability to customize each project's color. This will automatically color code the tasks in your "My Tasks" for easy visualization of function. Here's how "My Tasks" looks after I customized the colors of my projects. Notice how the labels are now colored. For example you can see that I set blue for my "Product Backlog" project. To set your project's color, go to the project's settings and select the color. That's all you need to do. Sandglaz visualizes your task's priorities by mapping your sprints into columns — at a glance you can see what tasks need to be accomplished when. In addition you can drag and drop your tasks in the order of priority within the same sprint. Today's release adds colors as yet one more dimension to your visualization! Start color coding your tasks now at Sandglaz. What do you think of this feature? Let us know in the comments below.Expert Interview: How Project Managers Can Leverage Team Brainpower2015-07-15T11:00:08+00:002015-07-15T11:00:08+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/expert-interview-how-project-managers-can-leverage-team-brainpower<p>Nada Aldahleh, the Co-Founder and CEO of Sandglaz, was a recent guest on the TechnologyAdvice Expert Interview Series to share her insight on project management trends. The series, which is hosted by TechnologyAdvice’s Clark Buckner, explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders.</p>
<p>Nada joined Buckner to discuss project management technology, as well as transparency and autonomy within teams and organizations.</p>
<p>Below are a few highlights from our conversation:</p>
<p><b><i>TechnologyAdvice: Let's take a look at one or two trends in the project management software space that you've seen in the last three to six months? How does Sandglaz help businesses react to these trends?</i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada </b><b>Aldahleh</b><b>:</b> It's interesting that you ask about trends and project management because we actually recently published a book about the major trends affecting the project management world. I'll tell you about the two. I'll start with the trend of embracing change. This is the trend of continuously evolving project plans to meet market changes as opposed to sticking to the initial plan.</p>
<p><b><i>TA: You're never going to be able to escape change. It's always going to happen, so businesses need to be able to respond to that and be ready for it.</i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada:</b> Embracing change has its roots in the Agile methodology and Lean Startup method, but we now see this trend has moved into many other fields. Basically, any project where after the fact changes are easy to incorporate, can and should leverage that advantage. For example, marketing teams who measure how their campaigns are doing, can adjust future work accordingly, design teams can collect customer feedback and adjust.</p>
<p><b><i>TA: So you're able to adjust accordingly, based on the feedback that you're receiving, that is the purpose of Agile.</i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada: </b>Correct. The second trend is the increased level of transparency and autonomy within teams and organizations. Managers used to have all access to information required to make decisions, and they would share information with their employees only if and when those employees needed them for their jobs.</p>
<p>But now, there's a trend to increase the level of transparency and empower our employees with more information that may not be in an obvious way required by them; because it has been shown that greater sharing and openness has a lot of benefits. It allows employees to act more autonomously and it makes them feel more trusted and involved. It encourages them to care more about the business, which increases their productivity and fulfillment.</p>
<p><b><i>TA: What challenges is lean </i></b><b><i>project management software</i></b><b><i> facing today? What are some of the pain points that project managers have on a daily basis when managing the way they work and the way their team works?</i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada: </b>Projects can be quite complicated, and there's always a degree of uncertainty. Meeting a deadline while keeping quality and budget is almost impossible, and teams are spending a lot of time creating detailed plans, and then they completely miss them. I think this is one of their biggest challenges. Another challenge is prioritizing and ensuring that the work being done is delivering value. It's not only about speed, it's also about direction. Teams moving in the wrong direction is like a car driving really fast off of a cliff.</p>
<p>In addition to moving fast, you really want to move in the right direction.</p>
<p><b><i>TA: Right, and making sure work is being done that delivers value. And if your technology can evolve and grow and change with how your strategy is changing, then that's going to empower your project manager. </i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada: </b>Yeah.</p>
<p><b><i>TA: I'm really interested to hear about the importance of increasing transparency, and some of the benefits you mentioned: it's going to increase trust, and it's going to increase the involvement and ownership and buy-in from your team members. Tell me more about why it's so important to make sure your team members have a way to be more transparent.</i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada: </b>When you have the involvement of all of your team, then you have a bigger set of people to be more creative and to innovate. You want to use all the brainpower that you have. Traditionally, managers used to have all access to the information, but not give it to the employees unless it's obviously needed by them.</p>
<p>With time, they're realizing that if we empower our employees with more information, then they can act more autonomously, and when needed, they can make more informed decisions. In turn, the employees feel that they're being trusted, they feel that they're involved, so they care more about the business as a result and then they produce more, and they feel more fulfilled. It's really an advantage to both the employer and the employee.</p>
<p><b><i>TA: Right. And if you're not tapping into that, you're completely missing, and then you end up being in that car that's driving off a cliff.</i></b></p>
<p><b>Nada: </b>Yeah. And getting your employees involved will get you to make better decisions. Now, of course there's challenges with this because teams always have to discuss and agree. So you need to facilitate that discussion and you need to make everyone feel heard.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Listen to the entire show above in order to hear our full conversation, or (download the show) to listen later. You can subscribe to the TA Expert Interview Series via Soundcloud, in order to get alerts about new episodes. You can also subscribe to just the project management category.</p>
<p>This podcast was created and published by TechnologyAdvice. Interview conducted by Clark Buckner.</p>TechnologyAdviceNada Aldahleh, the Co-Founder and CEO of Sandglaz, was a recent guest on the TechnologyAdvice Expert Interview Series to share her insight on project management trends. The series, which is hosted by TechnologyAdvice’s Clark Buckner, explores a variety of business and technology landscapes through conversations with industry leaders. Nada joined Buckner to discuss project management technology, as well as transparency and autonomy within teams and organizations. Below are a few highlights from our conversation: TechnologyAdvice: Let's take a look at one or two trends in the project management software space that you've seen in the last three to six months? How does Sandglaz help businesses react to these trends? Nada Aldahleh: It's interesting that you ask about trends and project management because we actually recently published a book about the major trends affecting the project management world. I'll tell you about the two. I'll start with the trend of embracing change. This is the trend of continuously evolving project plans to meet market changes as opposed to sticking to the initial plan. TA: You're never going to be able to escape change. It's always going to happen, so businesses need to be able to respond to that and be ready for it. Nada: Embracing change has its roots in the Agile methodology and Lean Startup method, but we now see this trend has moved into many other fields. Basically, any project where after the fact changes are easy to incorporate, can and should leverage that advantage. For example, marketing teams who measure how their campaigns are doing, can adjust future work accordingly, design teams can collect customer feedback and adjust. TA: So you're able to adjust accordingly, based on the feedback that you're receiving, that is the purpose of Agile. Nada: Correct. The second trend is the increased level of transparency and autonomy within teams and organizations. Managers used to have all access to information required to make decisions, and they would share information with their employees only if and when those employees needed them for their jobs. But now, there's a trend to increase the level of transparency and empower our employees with more information that may not be in an obvious way required by them; because it has been shown that greater sharing and openness has a lot of benefits. It allows employees to act more autonomously and it makes them feel more trusted and involved. It encourages them to care more about the business, which increases their productivity and fulfillment. TA: What challenges is lean project management software facing today? What are some of the pain points that project managers have on a daily basis when managing the way they work and the way their team works? Nada: Projects can be quite complicated, and there's always a degree of uncertainty. Meeting a deadline while keeping quality and budget is almost impossible, and teams are spending a lot of time creating detailed plans, and then they completely miss them. I think this is one of their biggest challenges. Another challenge is prioritizing and ensuring that the work being done is delivering value. It's not only about speed, it's also about direction. Teams moving in the wrong direction is like a car driving really fast off of a cliff. In addition to moving fast, you really want to move in the right direction. TA: Right, and making sure work is being done that delivers value. And if your technology can evolve and grow and change with how your strategy is changing, then that's going to empower your project manager. Nada: Yeah. TA: I'm really interested to hear about the importance of increasing transparency, and some of the benefits you mentioned: it's going to increase trust, and it's going to increase the involvement and ownership and buy-in from your team members. Tell me more about why it's so important to make sure your team members have a way to be more transparent. Nada: When you have the involvement of all of your team, then you have a bigger set of people to be more creative and to innovate. You want to use all the brainpower that you have. Traditionally, managers used to have all access to the information, but not give it to the employees unless it's obviously needed by them. With time, they're realizing that if we empower our employees with more information, then they can act more autonomously, and when needed, they can make more informed decisions. In turn, the employees feel that they're being trusted, they feel that they're involved, so they care more about the business as a result and then they produce more, and they feel more fulfilled. It's really an advantage to both the employer and the employee. TA: Right. And if you're not tapping into that, you're completely missing, and then you end up being in that car that's driving off a cliff. Nada: Yeah. And getting your employees involved will get you to make better decisions. Now, of course there's challenges with this because teams always have to discuss and agree. So you need to facilitate that discussion and you need to make everyone feel heard. Listen to the entire show above in order to hear our full conversation, or (download the show) to listen later. You can subscribe to the TA Expert Interview Series via Soundcloud, in order to get alerts about new episodes. You can also subscribe to just the project management category. This podcast was created and published by TechnologyAdvice. Interview conducted by Clark Buckner.4 ways to improve Scrum2015-07-09T16:34:41+00:002015-07-09T16:34:41+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/four-ways-to-improve-scrum<p>Let’s say you created a new product. You think it’s beautiful and perfect. You go out and test it on real people<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">—</span>your target customer. And to your surprise, they don’t interact with it the way you thought they would. They stumble on things. Some of them don’t get it at all. Are your customers broken, or does your product need improving? Perhaps you can evolve your product to meet your customer's needs.</p>
<p>Now the same logic applies to <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/introduction-to-scrum-using-sandglaz/" target="_blank">Scrum</a>. Are there so many scrum teams failing to implement scrum, or could there be reasonable improvements to scrum?</p>
<p>I’m in no way attacking scrum. I actually quite like it. I founded the scrum project management app <a href="https://www.sandglaz.com/">Sandglaz</a>. It’s just that too often there are teams spending their scarce time and money trying to implement scrum rigidly, and gaining little value out of it. And for what? Scrum is not a religion. And scrum is not your goal. Scrum is just a framework to help you move faster towards your <i>real</i> goal.</p>
<p>By watching many teams implement scrum, I have gathered the top four improvements to scrum. These improvements are not the kind of improvements that come out of a formal decision or a retrospective (although they certainly could!), but they are the kind that often happens organically in high performing teams as team members tend to do what is faster and makes more sense for them without thinking about it.</p>
<h2>1. Decoupling releases from sprints.</h2>
<blockquote style="font-style:normal;"><p>A team can deliver live software multiple times during a sprint. The fastest Scrum I know today is at Hubspot where they deliver 170 live feature updates per day and almost 300 new releases a day at peak.</p>
<div style="float: right;">—Jeff Sutherland</div>
</blockquote>
<p>In scrum, you release at the end of each sprint. This is when you present your product to your customers (or customer representative) and get feedback. When scrum was written, two week releases were considered often, but nowadays it’s common to release every day and even multiple times a day. Don’t let scrum stop you. There is no reason not to release to customers more often, but hold your planning meetings at the end of the sprint.</p>
<p>Some good reasons to release more frequently than sprints:</p>
<ul>
<li>Shorter feedback loops—you learn what you did right, and what you did wrong sooner—so you can act on this feedback faster. For example:
<ul>
<li>Start running the next A/B experiment sooner.</li>
<li>Start collecting qualitative feedback from customers sooner</li>
<li>Learn about and fix bugs faster.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Encourages smaller increments of work, which is a safer way to iterate on a product. Especially true for junior developers. Most senior developers work in small increments regardless of how many times they release.</li>
<li>Gets you closer to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_integration" target="_blank">continuous integration</a>, since you will need to automate most of the process to be able to release daily.</li>
</ul>
<h2>2. Beyond the Scrum of Scrums</h2>
<blockquote style="font-style:normal;"><p>Scrum of Scrums can itself be a bottleneck if it is the sole owner of dependency management.</p></blockquote>
<p>For those who are scaling scrum to a larger organization, you may have heard about the scrum of scrums. This technique consists of dividing the organization into scrum teams of 5-10. Each daily scrum within a team ends by designating one member as “ambassador” to participate in a daily meeting with ambassadors from other teams, called the scrum of scrums. The scrum of scrums has been criticized that it creates a hierarchal, tree shaped communication network rather than promoting self organization of teams. On the other hand, some teams find it helpful when used for removing impediments rather than updating status.</p>
<p>While scaling scrum is not an easy problem to solve and it doesn’t have a one solution fits all, it is possible and the successful implementations have a few things in common:</p>
<ul>
<li>Teams are organized to reduce coordination overhead. Team members have complementary skills, but a common responsibility and accountability and a common work goal. They are cross-functional teams based on context.</li>
<li>Information flows across and through rather than up and down. Cross team communication is made explicit.</li>
<li>Continuous integration is done within context, while integration across contexts is done as a second level.</li>
<li>Product dependencies are actively minimized to simplify context links. Teams should mutually agree upon and develop automated tests across context boundaries.</li>
</ul>
<h2>3. Drop estimates</h2>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">Estimates are like the weather forecast: Ok for the next day, and most likely wrong in a month. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NoEstimates?src=hash">#NoEstimates</a></p>
<p>— Zaid Zawaideh (@zzawaideh) <a href="https://twitter.com/zzawaideh/status/614505164762914816">June 26, 2015</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The scrum book recommends estimating how long tasks take. However, in software estimates are usually way off, and when people give estimates they tend to treat them like promises—they do anything to keep them. This might mean working faster and cutting down on value, or it might mean working slower.</p>
<p>To help you decide whether or not you should keep estimating ask yourselves these questions:</p>
<ul>
<li>Are you making worthwhile decisions based on these estimates?</li>
<li>Does it take more time estimating a task than doing it?</li>
<li>Are estimates being used as a forecast or as a promise?</li>
</ul>
<p>The important thing is to focus on delivering value and quality rather than adhering to predetermined project plans.</p>
<h2>4. Stop optimizing velocity</h2>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Screen-Shot-2015-07-09-at-11.37.42-AM.png"><img src="/assets/Screen-Shot-2015-07-09-at-11.37.42-AM.png" alt="Scrum Velocity" width="1064" height="166" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3297" /></a><br />
Your team can’t keep worker faster and faster. They’ll burn out. Measuring and optimizing velocity is arguably a waste of time.</p>
<p>You might be thinking the goal of scrum is to optimize responsiveness to customer needs, and if you optimize your velocity then you move faster and can be more responsive. True in principle, but not in practice.</p>
<p>Velocity is measured by story points per sprint, and you don’t want to encourage team members to try and get more story points done each sprint on the expense of code quality. What increases the speed of development is how well your code is organized and how close you are to continuous integration. Assuming it is possible to estimate well—which it probably isn’t—the estimates on a story will simply go up when the developer is aware of all the code smells and lack of unit tests she has to work with. Therefore stories will be allocated more points, points per sprint will go up, but not your true velocity!</p>
<p> </p>
<p>These are the top improvements I am seeing. They may not all be applicable to you, but they are worth reading about. Chances are you’ll find some relevant to you, or at least they may trigger other ideas of improving scrum that works for you and your team. To reiterate, I'm not welcoming adaptations of scrum to hide organizational dysfunctions. I'm welcoming adaptations to scrum that sincerely make you more effective and reach your goals faster!</p>
<p><strong>How’s your implementation of Scrum? Are you making any modifications to scrum that are worth sharing? Please share with us in the comments below.</strong></p>Nada AldahlehLet’s say you created a new product. You think it’s beautiful and perfect. You go out and test it on real people—your target customer. And to your surprise, they don’t interact with it the way you thought they would. They stumble on things. Some of them don’t get it at all. Are your customers broken, or does your product need improving? Perhaps you can evolve your product to meet your customer's needs. Now the same logic applies to Scrum. Are there so many scrum teams failing to implement scrum, or could there be reasonable improvements to scrum? I’m in no way attacking scrum. I actually quite like it. I founded the scrum project management app Sandglaz. It’s just that too often there are teams spending their scarce time and money trying to implement scrum rigidly, and gaining little value out of it. And for what? Scrum is not a religion. And scrum is not your goal. Scrum is just a framework to help you move faster towards your real goal. By watching many teams implement scrum, I have gathered the top four improvements to scrum. These improvements are not the kind of improvements that come out of a formal decision or a retrospective (although they certainly could!), but they are the kind that often happens organically in high performing teams as team members tend to do what is faster and makes more sense for them without thinking about it. 1. Decoupling releases from sprints. A team can deliver live software multiple times during a sprint. The fastest Scrum I know today is at Hubspot where they deliver 170 live feature updates per day and almost 300 new releases a day at peak. —Jeff Sutherland In scrum, you release at the end of each sprint. This is when you present your product to your customers (or customer representative) and get feedback. When scrum was written, two week releases were considered often, but nowadays it’s common to release every day and even multiple times a day. Don’t let scrum stop you. There is no reason not to release to customers more often, but hold your planning meetings at the end of the sprint. Some good reasons to release more frequently than sprints: Shorter feedback loops—you learn what you did right, and what you did wrong sooner—so you can act on this feedback faster. For example: Start running the next A/B experiment sooner. Start collecting qualitative feedback from customers sooner Learn about and fix bugs faster. Encourages smaller increments of work, which is a safer way to iterate on a product. Especially true for junior developers. Most senior developers work in small increments regardless of how many times they release. Gets you closer to continuous integration, since you will need to automate most of the process to be able to release daily. 2. Beyond the Scrum of Scrums Scrum of Scrums can itself be a bottleneck if it is the sole owner of dependency management. For those who are scaling scrum to a larger organization, you may have heard about the scrum of scrums. This technique consists of dividing the organization into scrum teams of 5-10. Each daily scrum within a team ends by designating one member as “ambassador” to participate in a daily meeting with ambassadors from other teams, called the scrum of scrums. The scrum of scrums has been criticized that it creates a hierarchal, tree shaped communication network rather than promoting self organization of teams. On the other hand, some teams find it helpful when used for removing impediments rather than updating status. While scaling scrum is not an easy problem to solve and it doesn’t have a one solution fits all, it is possible and the successful implementations have a few things in common: Teams are organized to reduce coordination overhead. Team members have complementary skills, but a common responsibility and accountability and a common work goal. They are cross-functional teams based on context. Information flows across and through rather than up and down. Cross team communication is made explicit. Continuous integration is done within context, while integration across contexts is done as a second level. Product dependencies are actively minimized to simplify context links. Teams should mutually agree upon and develop automated tests across context boundaries. 3. Drop estimates Estimates are like the weather forecast: Ok for the next day, and most likely wrong in a month. #NoEstimates — Zaid Zawaideh (@zzawaideh) June 26, 2015 The scrum book recommends estimating how long tasks take. However, in software estimates are usually way off, and when people give estimates they tend to treat them like promises—they do anything to keep them. This might mean working faster and cutting down on value, or it might mean working slower. To help you decide whether or not you should keep estimating ask yourselves these questions: Are you making worthwhile decisions based on these estimates? Does it take more time estimating a task than doing it? Are estimates being used as a forecast or as a promise? The important thing is to focus on delivering value and quality rather than adhering to predetermined project plans. 4. Stop optimizing velocity Your team can’t keep worker faster and faster. They’ll burn out. Measuring and optimizing velocity is arguably a waste of time. You might be thinking the goal of scrum is to optimize responsiveness to customer needs, and if you optimize your velocity then you move faster and can be more responsive. True in principle, but not in practice. Velocity is measured by story points per sprint, and you don’t want to encourage team members to try and get more story points done each sprint on the expense of code quality. What increases the speed of development is how well your code is organized and how close you are to continuous integration. Assuming it is possible to estimate well—which it probably isn’t—the estimates on a story will simply go up when the developer is aware of all the code smells and lack of unit tests she has to work with. Therefore stories will be allocated more points, points per sprint will go up, but not your true velocity! These are the top improvements I am seeing. They may not all be applicable to you, but they are worth reading about. Chances are you’ll find some relevant to you, or at least they may trigger other ideas of improving scrum that works for you and your team. To reiterate, I'm not welcoming adaptations of scrum to hide organizational dysfunctions. I'm welcoming adaptations to scrum that sincerely make you more effective and reach your goals faster! How’s your implementation of Scrum? Are you making any modifications to scrum that are worth sharing? Please share with us in the comments below.Integrate Sandglaz with your favorite app using Zapier2015-06-25T13:30:34+00:002015-06-25T13:30:34+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/integrate-sandglaz-with-your-favorite-app-using-zapier<p>Today we're thrilled to announce our integration with Zapier. Connect Sandglaz with the tools your team uses like Gmail, Github, Google Calendar and Uservoice and automate your project management workflow.</p>
<p>Zapier is a web automation platform that makes it easy to connect hundreds of apps together. Imagine Sandglaz tasks getting created automatically when you star an email in Gmail, or capturing Uservoice tickets automatically in Sandglaz. Well you don't have to imagine, Zapier makes it super simple!</p>
<p>1- <a href="https://zapier.com/app/signup" target="_blank">Sign up for a free Zapier account</a>, and connect your Sandglaz account.</p>
<p>2- <a href="https://zapier.com/zapbook/sandglaz/" target="_blank">Check out all the integrations</a> you can create with Sandglaz. <em><strong>Or</strong></em> start with one of the zap templates we’ve created for you:</p>
<p><script src="https://zapier.com/zapbook/embed/widget.js?iframe=true&guided_zaps=2505,2507,2508,2513,2514,2515,2520,2526" type="text/javascript"></script></p>
<p>The zaps above are just a few of the integrations you can create. Zapier supports hundreds of apps. They are all now available to you to integrate with Sandglaz. All you need to do is set up a new zap.</p>
<h2>Setting up a new zap</h2>
<p>Setting up a new zap is fast and straightforward. A trigger in one app sets off an action in another app. Here’s an example:</p>
<p>1- In your Zapier account click on ‘Create a Zap’</p>
<p>2- Choose the two apps you are integrating, and the trigger in one app that will cause the action in the other app. For example if you want new issues in Github to create Sandglaz tasks, then choose <i>Github</i> as the trigger app, <i>New Issue</i> as the trigger, <i>Sandglaz</i> as the action app, and <i>Create Task</i> as the action. Then click ‘Continue’.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/when-this-do-that.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3243" src="/assets/when-this-do-that.png" alt="when-this-do-that" width="2342" height="952" /></a></p>
<p>3- Next, you’ll connect your account with Zapier.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/authorize.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3244" src="/assets/authorize.png" alt="authorize" width="2022" height="878" /></a></p>
<p>4- Then match up the Github Issue to the Sandglaz Task.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/github-issue-to-sandglaz-task.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3245" src="/assets/github-issue-to-sandglaz-task.png" alt="github-issue-to-sandglaz-task" width="1478" height="1034" /></a></p>
<p>5- Test the Zap with real data to make sure it works the way you want it to.</p>
<p>And you’re done!</p>
<h2>Other Integration Ideas</h2>
<p>The above are just a few integration examples. There are hundreds of possibilities — too many to list here. But here are just a few popular ways.</p>
<h3>Send emails to Sandglaz</h3>
<p>If you get tons of email that need to be dealt with and often worked on before you can respond, you probably want to capture that work in Sandglaz and use it to remind you to get it done. Easy! Create a zap to automatically map emails from Gmail into tasks in Sandglaz. The trigger can be by email label, starred emails, attachments, etc.</p>
<h3>Turn your Github pull requests into Sandglaz tasks assigned to you</h3>
<p>Let's say you do all the code reviews for your Github repository. Your team members do a pull request and you review their work before they merge. You want Sandglaz to remind you to do all those reviews. Then you can just create a zap to turn Github pull requests into Sandglaz tasks.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/assigned.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-3252 size-full" src="/assets/assigned-e1434737107566.png" alt="assigned" width="500" height="161" /></a></p>
<p>Don't forget to put your @username as part of the Task name so it's automatically assigned to you.</p>
<h3><b>Turn Uservoice tickets into Sandglaz tasks</b></h3>
<p>Your users report tickets. They could be questions, real bugs, or other. Regardless, your team needs to deal with them. You can make a zap to create a Sandglaz task into the appropriate project whenever there is a new ticket in Uservoice (or Zendesk).</p>
<h3><b>Turn Evernote notes into Sandglaz tasks</b></h3>
<p>Let's say you use Evernote to save articles from the web to read later. And let's say you want to use Sandglaz to share the articles you’ve saved in Evernote with your team. Create a zap!</p>
<p><b><i>Now it’s your turn. Integrate Sandglaz with your favorite apps. Let us know what integrations you’ve done, and how you are using them.</i></b></p>Nada AldahlehToday we're thrilled to announce our integration with Zapier. Connect Sandglaz with the tools your team uses like Gmail, Github, Google Calendar and Uservoice and automate your project management workflow. Zapier is a web automation platform that makes it easy to connect hundreds of apps together. Imagine Sandglaz tasks getting created automatically when you star an email in Gmail, or capturing Uservoice tickets automatically in Sandglaz. Well you don't have to imagine, Zapier makes it super simple! 1- Sign up for a free Zapier account, and connect your Sandglaz account. 2- Check out all the integrations you can create with Sandglaz. Or start with one of the zap templates we’ve created for you: The zaps above are just a few of the integrations you can create. Zapier supports hundreds of apps. They are all now available to you to integrate with Sandglaz. All you need to do is set up a new zap. Setting up a new zap Setting up a new zap is fast and straightforward. A trigger in one app sets off an action in another app. Here’s an example: 1- In your Zapier account click on ‘Create a Zap’ 2- Choose the two apps you are integrating, and the trigger in one app that will cause the action in the other app. For example if you want new issues in Github to create Sandglaz tasks, then choose Github as the trigger app, New Issue as the trigger, Sandglaz as the action app, and Create Task as the action. Then click ‘Continue’. 3- Next, you’ll connect your account with Zapier. 4- Then match up the Github Issue to the Sandglaz Task. 5- Test the Zap with real data to make sure it works the way you want it to. And you’re done! Other Integration Ideas The above are just a few integration examples. There are hundreds of possibilities — too many to list here. But here are just a few popular ways. Send emails to Sandglaz If you get tons of email that need to be dealt with and often worked on before you can respond, you probably want to capture that work in Sandglaz and use it to remind you to get it done. Easy! Create a zap to automatically map emails from Gmail into tasks in Sandglaz. The trigger can be by email label, starred emails, attachments, etc. Turn your Github pull requests into Sandglaz tasks assigned to you Let's say you do all the code reviews for your Github repository. Your team members do a pull request and you review their work before they merge. You want Sandglaz to remind you to do all those reviews. Then you can just create a zap to turn Github pull requests into Sandglaz tasks. Don't forget to put your @username as part of the Task name so it's automatically assigned to you. Turn Uservoice tickets into Sandglaz tasks Your users report tickets. They could be questions, real bugs, or other. Regardless, your team needs to deal with them. You can make a zap to create a Sandglaz task into the appropriate project whenever there is a new ticket in Uservoice (or Zendesk). Turn Evernote notes into Sandglaz tasks Let's say you use Evernote to save articles from the web to read later. And let's say you want to use Sandglaz to share the articles you’ve saved in Evernote with your team. Create a zap! Now it’s your turn. Integrate Sandglaz with your favorite apps. Let us know what integrations you’ve done, and how you are using them.The Scrumban Guide2015-06-04T13:54:38+00:002015-06-04T13:54:38+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/the-scrumban-guide<p>Scrumban is a mix of <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/introduction-to-scrum-using-sandglaz/">Scrum</a> and Kanban project management. Like both, it is meant for teams who need to <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/businesses-embrace-change-win/">embrace change</a>; teams who acknowledge that plans and requirements change often, and it’s to their advantage to be flexible. Scrumban falls under the agile project management umbrella.</p>
<p>Even though Scrum was meant to be lightweight, many teams still find it too strict for their fast-paced agile environment. We advise teams <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/when-scrum-is-not-agile/)">to not fixate on whether they are following scrum strictly or not, instead to evolve <i>their version</i> of scrum</a> to what works for them. Kanban on the other hand has been criticized to not be structured enough. Scrumban attempts to provide a middle ground between those two methodologies, by mixing some of the structure of Scrum with the loose planning of Kanban to create a methodology fit for agile teams.</p>
<p>Here’s what a simple Kanban board looks like:</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Screen-Shot-2015-05-29-at-12.11.20-PM.png"><img class="alignnone wp-image-3201 size-full" src="/assets/Screen-Shot-2015-05-29-at-12.11.20-PM-e1432929659587.png" alt="" width="300" height="503" /></a></p>
<p>Tasks move from the top to the bottom as they get done. You can add steps that are specific to your team’s needs. For example, you can split <b>Doing</b> into <b>Development</b> and <b>QA</b>. Kanban helps you visualize what there is to do and at the same time limits the amount of tasks you place under <b>Doing</b>.</p>
<h2>The Scrumban process</h2>
<p>Scrumban has short sprints (iterations) similar to scrum. This ensures that a team can easily assess, adapt and change their course of action quickly to changing environment. Planning and prioritization is done on demand or at the end of each sprint depending on what works for your team.</p>
<p>With Sandglaz, add a project, and set the Sprint length to what your team uses. This is where you will store, share and discuss all your tasks; where you will visualize what work needs to be done and who is working on what. To share it with your team, click on Share and add all your team members.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Sandglaz-Scrumban.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3208" src="/assets/Sandglaz-Scrumban.png" alt="Sandglaz Scrumban" width="2560" height="1458" /></a></p>
<p>In the image above the Kanban rows are Dev, QA, and Completed. But, you can customize it as you wish by adding and removing rows. The columns represent the sprints. While the current sprint is split into Dev, QA, and Completed, future sprints are only split into Dev and QA, as completing a task will automatically move it to the current sprint saving the correct date of completion. You can always scroll back to view what was completed in past sprints too.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Scrumban-scrolled-back.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3211" src="/assets/Scrumban-scrolled-back.png" alt="Scrumban scrolled back" width="2560" height="1456" /></a></p>
<p>Unlike Scrum, Scrumban doesn’t require any specific number of team members or team roles. The team members however are still self organizing in the sense that each team member chooses which task they are going to complete next. The planning meeting guides them into which tasks are more important. To grab a task they simple add their @username tag on the task. Teams can also filter on those tasks to see the tasks that belong to a specific team member.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/scrumban-filtered.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3215" src="/assets/scrumban-filtered.png" alt="scrumban-filtered" width="982" height="729" /></a></p>
<p>Hash tags work in a similar way and are meant to be used for categorization of tasks.</p>
<p>While you can place your tasks in the sprint you estimate you’ll get to it; you may also use the Someday column when you have no clue when you’ll get to the task. As your plans become clearer, you can easily drag and drop your tasks from the someday column to a sprint, and from a sprint to another as you see fit.</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Scrumban-someday.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3217" src="/assets/Scrumban-someday.png" alt="Scrumban-someday" width="380" height="467" /></a></p>
<p>As team members work on tasks, they can create subtasks, attach files, and discuss them with one another right from within Sandglaz</p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Scrumban-taskdetails.png"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3219" src="/assets/Scrumban-taskdetails.png" alt="Scrumban-taskdetails" width="783" height="548" /></a></p>
<p>Scrumban teams often use the concept of feature freeze. It means when a deadline is approaching no more features can be added to the backlog.</p>
<p>Scrumban is a useful methodology to follow, and like any other, it’s important to remember that the point is not to follow the methodology, but to use it as a tool to reach your goals. So by all means adjust your process to suit your team and your goals.</p>
<p><em><strong>Have you tried Scrumban yet? What were your experiences with it? Share with us in the comments below.</strong></em></p>
<p> </p>Nada AldahlehScrumban is a mix of Scrum and Kanban project management. Like both, it is meant for teams who need to embrace change; teams who acknowledge that plans and requirements change often, and it’s to their advantage to be flexible. Scrumban falls under the agile project management umbrella. Even though Scrum was meant to be lightweight, many teams still find it too strict for their fast-paced agile environment. We advise teams to not fixate on whether they are following scrum strictly or not, instead to evolve their version of scrum to what works for them. Kanban on the other hand has been criticized to not be structured enough. Scrumban attempts to provide a middle ground between those two methodologies, by mixing some of the structure of Scrum with the loose planning of Kanban to create a methodology fit for agile teams. Here’s what a simple Kanban board looks like: Tasks move from the top to the bottom as they get done. You can add steps that are specific to your team’s needs. For example, you can split Doing into Development and QA. Kanban helps you visualize what there is to do and at the same time limits the amount of tasks you place under Doing. The Scrumban process Scrumban has short sprints (iterations) similar to scrum. This ensures that a team can easily assess, adapt and change their course of action quickly to changing environment. Planning and prioritization is done on demand or at the end of each sprint depending on what works for your team. With Sandglaz, add a project, and set the Sprint length to what your team uses. This is where you will store, share and discuss all your tasks; where you will visualize what work needs to be done and who is working on what. To share it with your team, click on Share and add all your team members. In the image above the Kanban rows are Dev, QA, and Completed. But, you can customize it as you wish by adding and removing rows. The columns represent the sprints. While the current sprint is split into Dev, QA, and Completed, future sprints are only split into Dev and QA, as completing a task will automatically move it to the current sprint saving the correct date of completion. You can always scroll back to view what was completed in past sprints too. Unlike Scrum, Scrumban doesn’t require any specific number of team members or team roles. The team members however are still self organizing in the sense that each team member chooses which task they are going to complete next. The planning meeting guides them into which tasks are more important. To grab a task they simple add their @username tag on the task. Teams can also filter on those tasks to see the tasks that belong to a specific team member. Hash tags work in a similar way and are meant to be used for categorization of tasks. While you can place your tasks in the sprint you estimate you’ll get to it; you may also use the Someday column when you have no clue when you’ll get to the task. As your plans become clearer, you can easily drag and drop your tasks from the someday column to a sprint, and from a sprint to another as you see fit. As team members work on tasks, they can create subtasks, attach files, and discuss them with one another right from within Sandglaz Scrumban teams often use the concept of feature freeze. It means when a deadline is approaching no more features can be added to the backlog. Scrumban is a useful methodology to follow, and like any other, it’s important to remember that the point is not to follow the methodology, but to use it as a tool to reach your goals. So by all means adjust your process to suit your team and your goals. Have you tried Scrumban yet? What were your experiences with it? Share with us in the comments below. 11 powerful quotes to inspire you to embrace change2015-04-28T19:26:41+00:002015-04-28T19:26:41+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/11-powerful-quotes-to-inspire-you-to-embrace-change<p>Whether you're building a product or a service, working in a small or a large team, the ability to <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/businesses-embrace-change-win/">embrace change</a> is hard. Change is hard for us, as individuals, and perhaps even harder for organizations. Recently I wrote about how we, at Sandglaz, <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/built-culture-embracing-change/">cultivated a culture of embracing change</a>. Today, I gathered a few powerful quotes on change, growth and adaptation. Share them, tweet them, and most importantly use them to inspire you to embrace change.</p>
<p>Feel free to share and use the images for personal or commercial use, but <em>without </em>any modifications.</p>
<p id="line-79">1. "Each of us has the opportunity to change and grow until our very last breath. Happy creating." ~<i>M.F. Ryan</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ability-to-change-grow.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3180" src="/assets/ability-to-change-grow.jpg" alt="change and grow" width="1024" height="576" /></a></p>
<p id="line-442">2. "The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings." ~<i>Kakuzo Okakaura</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/art-of-life.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3181" src="/assets/art-of-life.jpg" alt="art-of-life" width="2100" height="1200" /></a></p>
<p id="line-82">3. "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change." ~<i>Charles Darwin</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/strongest.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3183" src="/assets/strongest.jpg" alt="manage change" width="2100" height="1250" /></a></p>
<p id="line-1147">4. "People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours." ~<i>Ken Hakuta</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/opportunities.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3184" src="/assets/opportunities.jpg" alt="opportunities" width="2100" height="1400" /></a></p>
<p id="line-1500">5. "Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation." ~<i>Mahatma Gandhi</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/resistance.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3186" src="/assets/resistance.jpg" alt="adaptability" width="640" height="175" /></a></p>
<p id="line-3134">6. "A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it." ~C<i>hinese Proverb</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/vessel.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3187" src="/assets/vessel.jpg" alt="adapts" width="640" height="307" /></a></p>
<p id="line-3499">7. "Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win." ~<i>Max McKeown</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/cope_win.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3188" src="/assets/cope_win.jpg" alt="adaptability" width="640" height="480" /></a></p>
<p id="line-3682">8. "All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns." ~<i>Bruce Lee</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/fixed_params.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3189" src="/assets/fixed_params.jpg" alt="fixed_params" width="640" height="427" /></a></p>
<p id="line-3962">9. "The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change." ~<i>Bill Clinton</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/price.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3190" src="/assets/price.jpg" alt="change" width="648" height="448" /></a></p>
<p id="line-4245">10. "You can't build an adaptable organization without adaptable people--and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to." ~<i>Gary Hamel</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/people.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3191" src="/assets/people.jpg" alt="adaptable organization" width="640" height="426" /></a></p>
<p id="line-5147">11. "Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you." ~W<i>illiam Frederick Book</i></p>
<p><a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/conditions.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3192" src="/assets/conditions.jpg" alt="adjust yourself" width="600" height="699" /></a></p>
<p><b>Which one is your favorite quote? Please share with us in the comments below.</b></p>Nada AldahlehWhether you're building a product or a service, working in a small or a large team, the ability to embrace change is hard. Change is hard for us, as individuals, and perhaps even harder for organizations. Recently I wrote about how we, at Sandglaz, cultivated a culture of embracing change. Today, I gathered a few powerful quotes on change, growth and adaptation. Share them, tweet them, and most importantly use them to inspire you to embrace change. Feel free to share and use the images for personal or commercial use, but without any modifications. 1. "Each of us has the opportunity to change and grow until our very last breath. Happy creating." ~M.F. Ryan 2. "The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings." ~Kakuzo Okakaura 3. "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change." ~Charles Darwin 4. "People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up. In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours." ~Ken Hakuta 5. "Adaptability is not imitation. It means power of resistance and assimilation." ~Mahatma Gandhi 6. "A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it." ~Chinese Proverb 7. "Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win." ~Max McKeown 8. "All fixed set patterns are incapable of adaptability or pliability. The truth is outside of all fixed patterns." ~Bruce Lee 9. "The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change." ~Bill Clinton 10. "You can't build an adaptable organization without adaptable people--and individuals change only when they have to, or when they want to." ~Gary Hamel 11. "Learn to adjust yourself to the conditions you have to endure, but make a point of trying to alter or correct conditions so that they are most favorable to you." ~William Frederick Book Which one is your favorite quote? Please share with us in the comments below.When Scrum is not Agile2015-04-06T14:16:48+00:002015-04-06T14:16:48+00:00http://blog.sandglaz.com/when-scrum-is-not-agile<p>Do you work in a <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/introduction-to-scrum-using-sandglaz/">Scrum</a> team and think scrum sucks? Well, chances are you’re right - your scrum sucks. There are Scrum team members complaining about scrum more than ever, and scrum advocates telling them: <i>Scrum is great. Your problem is that you’re not implementing scrum properly. Scrum states blah, blah, blah.</i></p>
<p>I disagree.</p>
<p>There is no point in implementing Scrum strictly, but if Scrum team members are complaining then chances are there is something that needs fixing. In fact, the best way to go is to be very flexible about your version of Scrum and bend it to ensure <i>your</i> version of Scrum supports your goals.</p>
<p>Scrum itself is not a goal. It’s a framework to help us be agile. Heck, agile is not a goal either. It’s a methodology to help us deliver more value in the right direction, faster. Quite simply, to implement scrum in a useful way, we need to remember what our goals are and we need to continuously check that our scrum (and processes in general) support our goals.</p>
<p>Let me give you an example.</p>
<p>A close friend of mine, let’s call him John, is a web developer at an exciting 2 year old startup. They recently implemented Scrum. And he has plenty of wonderful things to say about it; loves the <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/the-6-characteristics-of-an-effective-product-owner/">Product Owner</a>’s vision and contribution, enjoys the collaborative environment, etc. But, he’s getting burnt out. Sprint after Sprint with no downtime is exhausting! “Is this good for the business?” He asks.</p>
<p>No, it’s not.</p>
<p>It might be the Scrum way to measure and improve velocity, and to start the next Sprint right away. But it doesn’t have to be <i>their</i> way. <a href="http://blog.sandglaz.com/the-startup-marathon/">Startups are a marathon</a>, and burning out does no one any good. So who cares about what the rules are. Figure out what works for your team. Suggestions would be:</p>
<ol>
<li>Find a sustainable pace. Slowing down is sometimes the right thing to do. It keeps you rejuvenated, creative, and happy!</li>
<li>End sprints on Friday morning with the retrospective and review meetings, and don’t start the next sprint planning until the next Monday. Keep Friday afternoon relaxed to catch up on other work and clear your minds.</li>
<li>Introduce the ‘20 percent time”. One day a week where everyone can work on projects that aren’t necessarily in their job descriptions. They can develop something new, or fix something that’s broken.</li>
</ol>
<p>Point is don’t fixate on whether or not you’re Scrum. Be honest about problems and open to solutions. Evolve your processes constantly.</p>
<p>Often when we disagree with one another we look for rules to… well, rule. We fix our conflicts by looking for company policies to follow. Scrum, unfortunately, has been used as a set of rules to clear conflicts in how things should be run. It’s counter productive. It’s much better to be flexible and develop your own version of Scrum that works for you.</p>
<p>Scrum itself can be agile. It can evolve incrementally just like you evolve your products. Get feedback from your team, learn and iterate. Your entire Scrum framework is up for improvement. What meetings to have, what roles to add or remove, etc. It’s all about what works for you.</p>
<p>Agile software development was born to uncover better ways of developing software products. Products that are delivered faster and better solve the customer’s needs. The agile manifesto states:</p>
<p><b>Individuals and interactions</b> over processes and tools<br />
<b>Working software</b> over comprehensive documentation<br />
<b>Customer collaboration</b> over contract negotiation<br />
<b>Responding to change</b> over following a plan</p>
<p>That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.</p>
<p>By applying Scrum we don’t become agile. On the contrary, we value agility and we use Scrum to help us focus on the items on the right.</p>
<p><em><strong>Does your Scrum make you agile? Share with us in the comments below.</strong></em></p>Nada AldahlehDo you work in a Scrum team and think scrum sucks? Well, chances are you’re right - your scrum sucks. There are Scrum team members complaining about scrum more than ever, and scrum advocates telling them: Scrum is great. Your problem is that you’re not implementing scrum properly. Scrum states blah, blah, blah. I disagree. There is no point in implementing Scrum strictly, but if Scrum team members are complaining then chances are there is something that needs fixing. In fact, the best way to go is to be very flexible about your version of Scrum and bend it to ensure your version of Scrum supports your goals. Scrum itself is not a goal. It’s a framework to help us be agile. Heck, agile is not a goal either. It’s a methodology to help us deliver more value in the right direction, faster. Quite simply, to implement scrum in a useful way, we need to remember what our goals are and we need to continuously check that our scrum (and processes in general) support our goals. Let me give you an example. A close friend of mine, let’s call him John, is a web developer at an exciting 2 year old startup. They recently implemented Scrum. And he has plenty of wonderful things to say about it; loves the Product Owner’s vision and contribution, enjoys the collaborative environment, etc. But, he’s getting burnt out. Sprint after Sprint with no downtime is exhausting! “Is this good for the business?” He asks. No, it’s not. It might be the Scrum way to measure and improve velocity, and to start the next Sprint right away. But it doesn’t have to be their way. Startups are a marathon, and burning out does no one any good. So who cares about what the rules are. Figure out what works for your team. Suggestions would be: Find a sustainable pace. Slowing down is sometimes the right thing to do. It keeps you rejuvenated, creative, and happy! End sprints on Friday morning with the retrospective and review meetings, and don’t start the next sprint planning until the next Monday. Keep Friday afternoon relaxed to catch up on other work and clear your minds. Introduce the ‘20 percent time”. One day a week where everyone can work on projects that aren’t necessarily in their job descriptions. They can develop something new, or fix something that’s broken. Point is don’t fixate on whether or not you’re Scrum. Be honest about problems and open to solutions. Evolve your processes constantly. Often when we disagree with one another we look for rules to… well, rule. We fix our conflicts by looking for company policies to follow. Scrum, unfortunately, has been used as a set of rules to clear conflicts in how things should be run. It’s counter productive. It’s much better to be flexible and develop your own version of Scrum that works for you. Scrum itself can be agile. It can evolve incrementally just like you evolve your products. Get feedback from your team, learn and iterate. Your entire Scrum framework is up for improvement. What meetings to have, what roles to add or remove, etc. It’s all about what works for you. Agile software development was born to uncover better ways of developing software products. Products that are delivered faster and better solve the customer’s needs. The agile manifesto states: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more. By applying Scrum we don’t become agile. On the contrary, we value agility and we use Scrum to help us focus on the items on the right. Does your Scrum make you agile? Share with us in the comments below.