Scrumy!

I just discovered a new (very simple) web app called Scrumy. It's a basic, easy to use Scrum project application (reminds me a lot of EpiServer's Scrum Dashboard for TFS). It takes literally seconds to get up and running and isn't a bad solution for simple projects. A pro version is available that seems like it would be a good tool for distributed Scrum teams that don't want to get involved with a larger application. The only must-have feature missing from the free version is a burndown chart. Without it I think it would be hard to figure out how much time (or number of story points) remain to be completed. The pro version is only $7/mo though.

On a side note, I've been very happy with EpiServer's solution (which sits on top of Cochango's Scrum for Team System) primarily because it is open source and we can customize it to suit our particular flavor of agile. Scum for Team System is also free.

Fancy Datatables with jQuery

I ran across a few blog posts that, when combined together, allow a very performant client side implementation of sortable, searchable, nice-lookin datatables.

Here are the pieces to make it come together:

quickSearch (via Encosia)

jQuery Filters (via Rick Strahl - helps performance immensely)

tableSorter and quickSearch Together (via Beckelman.net)

Lean, Kanban, and Enterprise Agile

A few good links I've run across this morning:

Achieving Enterprise Agility - NetObjectives has a good portion of their upcoming book posted on their site. Especially interesting to me is the chapter "Going Beyond Scrum". Scrum is extremely team-centric; an approach the can break down as development teams grow larger and can contain many teams working on the same project.

Kanban Systems - A good introduction to Kanban and how they can be used in software development. Includes lots of good links for further reading.

Snapshot of Current Practices - I wish there were more posts out there like this. One team's current agile/lean dev practices.

Beyond Scrum: Lean & Kanban for Game Developers - Why teams often abandon Scrum in the 11th hour and revert to waterfall development, and alternatives to such a reversion.