Behind the scenes of Brutal Legend: "we both underestimated the total content push and, more importantly, didn't anticipate the huge content spike at the very end of production"
Crystal Clear distilled: "The lead designer and two to seven other developers … in a large room or adjacent rooms, ... using such as whiteboards and flip charts, ... having easy access to expert users, ... distractions kept away, deliver running, tested, usable code to the users … every month or two (quarterly at worst), ... reflecting and adjusting their working conventions periodically."
Mix the sizes of backlog items you commit to: "To avoid having multiple product backlog items wrapping up the last few days of the sprint, mix the size of the product backlog items you choose to bring into each sprint."
Lessons learned from distributed scrums: "The following rules of thumb came about when I had to run teams of consultants where no one was in the same place and the places they were ranged from their office to their home or car, or airport lounge, or even their bed when they were in on the other side of the world."
The difference between motion and action: "He was confusing “the accounting” of the effort with achieving the goal. But Jim felt that since he was doing lots of motion, “lots of stuff was happening.” In reality we hadn’t gotten any closer to our goal than the day we hired him."