Ten good reasons to attend a Professional Scrum Developer course

 

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During ScrumWeek Madrid 2011, it’s going to take place the first Professional Scrum Developer .NET course in Spain, arranged by Plain Concepts (given by Rodrigo and myself), and with the support from Microsoft.

I’d like to summarize why a PSD course can be interesting for you, and why it can be valuable for any of you working as developers in Scrum projects or planning to do so.

About courses in general:

1. PSD is specific for developers. Most Scrum courses available tend to be generic, and present all the Scrum roles without going in depth into any of them, or taking care only of the ScrumMaster. PSD is designed with developers in mind, within a Scrum Team, who at the end make up the majority of the ones committing to a project.

2. A Scrum Team is cross-functional; it must be able of facing any task needed to turn the agreed commitment into a valuable increment each Sprint. During a PSD course you’ll deal with practices and tools that enable this cross-functionality, not only related to coding, but also from architecture, testing, bug management and many other aspects which a team, and thus, its members, face during a project.

3. A PSD course is mainly practical. Usually, the best way to lay down learned concepts is to apply them in practice, and during a PSD course you’re going to do exactly that, working as a team, using the presented tools and practices from the beginning, and employing them in building value increments the same way you’d do during a real project.

4. During a PSD course you’ll experiment a total immersion in Scrum. Not only the elements which make up Scrum are presented, but also work is done along several days within a project, doing Sprints and the rest of the Scrum practices like Sprint Planning meetings, Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives. You’ll obtain a complete Scrum experience.

5. A PSD course is based on the right Scrum definition, as it was conceived by Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, and is gathered into the Scrum Guide. You can discuss a lot about if it’s possible or beneficial to modify Scrum, but at least, once you’ve finished a PSD course, you’ll have the right base on which you’ll be able to begin working and pursuing improvements.

6. During the course we’ll specifically deal with typical dysfunctions and difficulties which usually represent a problem while applying Scrum for real projects. Therefore, when problems arise, you’ll have support that will guide you in the search for solutions.

7. One of the greatest advantages of the course is the interaction with the attendants. Not only you’re going to have fun, but also you’ll learn a lot from the experience of sharing several days, working as a team with people who have different points of view and ways of facing the problems.

About PSD.NET courses in particular:

8. PSD.NET is endorsed by Microsoft. It has been jointly developed by Scrum.org and Microsoft, and is THE COURSE for Visual Studio 2010. There’re not any other courses about Visual Studio 2010 and ALM where Microsoft has participated in developing; this is the one from the Visual Studio product group.

9. This is the only Microsoft supported course where Team Foundation Server is presented in depth, from a developer’s perspective. There’s only one official course from MSLearning for TFS, but it is centered around administration.

And at last, but not least:

10. Attending the course will give you the chance of obtaining the PSD.NET certification, a worldwide industry-recognized certification, that assures the knowledge about developing software with Scrum in .NET platform. It’s not easy to pass the assessment, but the course will prepare you pretty well to take it.

 

After writing the title for the post, I thought about two more reasons regarding specifically to the course being held during ScrumWeek Winking smile:

11. Since it’s the first course in Spain, we’d like to give to the maximum number of people the opportunity to take it. Because of this, it has a very tight price which means a 50% discount over the official recommended price.

12. If English is an issue for you, the course is going to be given in Spanish. But have in mind that materials and assessment (if you finally go for it) are in English at the moment.

 

There are still some remaining seats! See you at the ScrumWeek.

Diez buenas razones para asistir a un curso Professional Scrum Developer

 

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Coincidiendo con la ScrumWeek Madrid 2011, se va a realizar el primer curso Professional Scrum Developer .NET en España, organizado por Plain Concepts (impartido por Rodrigo y un servidor), y con el apoyo de Microsoft.

Me gustaría resumiros por qué os puede interesar un curso PSD, y qué os puede aportar de valor a los que estáis trabajando como desarrolladores en proyectos Scrum o tenéis pensado empezar a hacerlo.

En cuanto a los cursos en general:

1. PSD es un curso orientado específicamente a desarrolladores. La mayoría de los cursos Scrum que se ofrecen, suelen ser generalistas y presentan todos los roles sin profundizar en ninguno en concreto, o se centran más en el ScrumMaster. PSD está diseñado para desarrolladores en un equipo Scrum, que al fin y al cabo constituyen la gran mayoría de los comprometidos en un proyecto.

2. Un equipo Scrum es multi-funcional; debe ser capaz de afrontar cualquier tarea que sea necesaria para convertir el compromiso adquirido en un incremento de valor en cada Sprint. En un curso PSD se tratan prácticas y herramientas que facilitan esta multi-funcionalidad, no sólo relacionadas con la programación, sino también desde el punto de vista de la arquitectura, las pruebas, la gestión de defectos y otros muchos aspectos a los que un equipo, y por lo tanto sus miembros, se enfrentan durante un proyecto.

3. Un curso PSD es fundamentalmente práctico. Por lo general, la mejor forma de asentar los conceptos que se aprenden es aplicarlos en la práctica, y en un curso PSD vas a hacer precisamente esto, trabajando en equipo, utilizando desde el principio las prácticas y herramientas presentadas, y empleándolas en construir incrementos de valor tal y como se haría en un proyecto real.

4. Durante un curso PSD se realiza una inmersión total en Scrum. No sólo se presentan los elementos que constituyen Scrum, además se trabaja durante varios días en el marco de un proyecto, realizando Sprints y el resto de prácticas de Scrum como reuniones de planificación de Sprint, retrospectivas y demos. Se obtiene una experiencia Scrum completa.

5. Un curso PSD se basa en la definición correcta de Scrum, tal y como fue concebido por Ken Schwaber y Jeff Sutherland, y está recogido en la Scrum Guide. Se podría discutir bastante acerca de si es posible o beneficioso modificar Scrum, pero al menos al terminar un curso PSD, tendrás la base correcta sobre la que comenzar a trabajar y a perseguir mejoras.

6. Durante el curso se tratan específicamente disfuncionalidades, y dificultades típicas que suelen suponer un problema a la hora de aplicar Scrum en proyectos reales. Por lo tanto cuando aparezcan los problemas, tendrás un criterio que te guíe en la búsqueda de soluciones.

7. Uno de los mayores atractivos del curso es la interacción con los demás asistentes. No sólo te vas a divertir, sino que vas a aprender un montón de la experiencia de compartir varios días trabajando en equipo con personas que tienen diferentes puntos de vista y modos de enfrentarse a los problemas.

En cuanto a los cursos PSD.NET en particular:

8. PSD.NET tiene el respaldo oficial de Microsoft. Ha sido desarrollado por Scrum.org y Microsoft en conjunto, y es EL CURSO con mayúsculas para Visual Studio 2010. No hay más cursos sobre Visual Studio 2010 y ALM en los que Microsoft haya participado en el desarrollo; éste es el del grupo de producto de Visual Studio.

9. Es el único curso respaldado por Microsoft en el que se trata Team Foundation Server a fondo, desde la perspectiva del desarrollador. Sólo existe un curso oficial en MSLearning para TFS, pero está centrado en administración.

Y por último, pero no menos importante:

10. Asistir al curso te la la posibilidad de obtener la certificación PSD.NET, una certificación reconocida internacionalmente por la industria que demuestra el conocimiento adquirido acerca de cómo desarrollar software con Scrum en la plataforma .NET. Pasar la evaluación es duro, pero con la ayuda del curso irás bastante bien preparado.

 

Después de escribir el título del post, se me han ocurrido un par de razones más que aplican al curso concreto de la ScrumWeek Winking smile:

11. Al ser el primer curso en España, queremos que se pueda beneficiar del mismo el máximo numero de personas posible. Por esta razón tiene un precio muy ajustado que supone un 50% de descuento sobre el precio oficial recomendado.

12. Por si el Inglés es un impedimento para ti, el curso va a ser en Español. Eso sí, los materiales, y el examen de certificación (si te animas a hacerlo), por ahora sólo están disponibles en Inglés.

 

Ánimo que todavía queda alguna plaza disponible. ¡Nos vemos en la ScrumWeek!

Estuve en el Agile Open Spain 2010

El pasado fin de semana (12 y 13 de noviembre) asistí al Agile Open Spain 2010, celebrado en La Salle (Barcelona) y que contó con Plain Concepts como principal patrocinador.

Es muy difícil aburrirse en un evento tipo Open Space; de hecho, como era de esperar, en general se cumplieron las expectativas con creces. Éste es un pequeño resumen de mi experiencia:

  • Software que funciona, sesión propuesta por Xavi Gost. Se intentó poner de manifiesto la importancia de el software que funciona como única medida válida del avance del compromiso adquirido con nuestros clientes. Salieron a la luz grandes (y también incómodas) verdades
  • Software Craftmanship con Enrique Comba. Me pareció una sesión interesante en la que se describió muy bien la aproximación al desarrollo de software como una actividad más cercana a la artesanía que a la producción industrial (pese al distanciamiento que manifestaron los artesanos de lo que llamaban “la gente del Rugby”)
  • Frameworks sí o no, con Xavi Gost y Roberto Canales. Se estuvo discutiendo acerca de la conveniencia del uso de los frameworks en los proyectos de desarrollo. Para mi gusto la conversación derivó demasiado a temas “filosóficos” (yo esperaba algo más concreto o quizá más centrado en el propio desarrollo con frameworks que en las implicaciones “sociales” que pueda tener). Pero muy interesante en cualquier caso
  • Scrumban, propuesta por Ángel Medinilla, Frogtek y Biko. Una forma muy buena de tratar con toda la demanda no planificada que suele provocar bastantes problemas durante los proyectos Scrum
  • Formación y certificación. Esta sesión fue propuesta por mí, y en ella estuvimos hablando acerca de las opciones de formación y certificación disponibles en el mundo ágil. Nos detuvimos en especial en el programa Professional Scrum Developer de scrum.org, del cual os daré más detalles por aquí en breve
  • Slack (lo siento, no recuerdo el nombre de la persona que la propuso). Estuvimos hablando de maneras de asegurar un mínimo de tiempo de descanso a lo largo del día, que permita al equipo llegar a la concentración necesaria y hacer mejor su trabajo
  • Retrospectiva. Consistió en unas actividades de grupo en las que se recapituló lo acontecido y se buscaron posibles mejoras. La verdad es que a la primera parte, en la que se buscaron las ideas más relevantes mediante un juego con post-its, no le encontré mucho valor. Sobre todo porque cada uno tendrá algo que haya valorado más y no tiene por qué coincidir con la visión de otro, ni le veo mucho beneficio en compararlo con la visión global. En cambio, el juego de las “tribus” posterior para identificar puntos de mejora para próximos eventos, me pareció muy interesante y fructífero

Como cierre al evento tuvimos una sesión adicional en un escenario un poco distinto, compartiendo cena, copas y conversación con buena parte de los asistentes al evento. Por supuesto que fue como mínimo igual de enriquecedor que el resto de sesiones del día Smile

Felicidades a la organización, y nos vemos en el próximo Agile Open…

I attended Agile Open Spain 2010

Last weekend (November 12th and 13th) I attended Agile Open Spain 2010, which took place at La Salle (Barcelona) and counted with Plain Concepts as the main sponsor.

It’s very difficult to get bored at an event like an Open Space, so my expectations got easily fulfilled. This is a short summary of my experience around there:

  • Working Software, session proposed by Xavi Gost. It was about the importance of working software as the only valid measure of the progress and the commitment acquired to our customers. Big (and often uncomfortable) truths got surfaced
  • Software Craftsmanship with Enrique Comba. It was a quite interesting session, where it was described nicely the approach to software development as an activity closer to craftsmanship than to industrial production (even taking into account that the craftsmen manifested a preference for growing apart from what they called “Rugby people”)
  • Frameworks, yes or not?, with Xavi Gost and Roberto Canales. A discussion took place about the convenience of using frameworks for development. For my taste, the conversation derived too much into “philosophical” terms (I was hoping something more concrete or maybe more close to development with frameworks, rather than the “social” implications that can be derived). But nevertheless very interesting
  • Scrumban, proposed by Ángel Medinilla, Frogtek and Biko. A very convenient way of dealing with all that non-planned demand that tends to be the source of many problems during Scrum projects
  • Training and certification. This session was proposed by me, and during it we were talking about the available options for getting training and certification in the Agile world. We put special attention to the Professional Scrum Developer program from scrum.org, that I’ll explain around here soon
  • Slack (sorry, but I can’t remember the name of the person that proposed the session). We were talking about different ways of assuring a minimum time for relax during the day, which allows the team get to the necessary degree of concentration and make their work better
  • Retrospective. It consisted in several group activities intended to review what happened along the day, and potential improvements. To be honest, the first part, where the most relevant ideas were surfaced by means of a game involving post-its, was not very valuable for me. Mainly because each individual will have something more valuable for her, and does not have to match another’s vision, neither I find a lot of benefit in comparing it with the global vision. On the other hand, subsequent “tribes” game, intended for identifying improvements for future events, revealed itself as very interesting and fruitful for me

As the closing act for the event, we attended an additional session held at a quite different place, sharing dinner, drinks and conversation with a handful of the attendants to the event. Of course, it was at least as enriching as the rest of the sessions that took place during the day Smile

Congratulations to the organization crew, and hope to see you at the next Agile Open…

Plain Concepts, premio Microsoft ALM Inner Circle Western Europe 2010 (¡y van dos consecutivos!)

Plain Concepts ha recibido el premio ALM Inner Circle Western Europe 2010 de Microsoft, que reconoce el esfuerzo llevado a cabo en el área de ALM a nivel europeo, ayudando a nuestros clientes a trabajar mejor con las herramientas de Microsoft en el ámbito de la gestión del ciclo de vida de las aplicaciones. En la imagen podéis ver a Rodrigo recogiendo el premio en el evento de partners celebrado esta semana en Amberes, de manos de Julio Fernández Gayoso.

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Nuestros compañeros de Test House también fueron premiados, mi enhorabuena para ellos.

Es el segundo año consecutivo que recibimos el premio, lo cual unido a que somos el primer (y hasta el momento único) partner en España en conseguir la competencia ALM en Microsoft, demuestra el excelente desempeño del equipo de Plain Concepts.

Enhorabuena a todos los que nos dedicamos a esto en Plain Concepts, y por supuesto seguiremos trabajando para mantener el mismo nivel de calidad y compromiso.

 

Plain Concepts just got the Microsoft ALM Inner Circle Western Europe 2010 Award (twice in a row!)

Plain Concepts has just received the ALM Inner Circle Western Europe 2010 Award from Microsoft, which acknowledges the effort carried on for the ALM area in Europe, helping our customers to work better with Microsoft tools in the field of Application Lifecycle Management. In the photo below, you can see Rodrigo taking the Award at the partners event, which took place this week in Antwerp, from Julio Fernández Gayoso.

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Our fellows at Test House received the award too, congratulations for them!

This is the second consecutive year that we’ve been awarded, which in addition to the fact that we’re the first (and at the moment, the only) Spanish partner that has achieved the ALM  Competency at Microsoft, proves the outstanding performance of the Plain Concepts team.

My warmest congratulations to everyone devoted to ALM in Plain Concepts, and of course, we’ll keep on working in order to keep the same level of quality and commitment.

 

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Taller: Gestión de la configuración y compilación automatizada con TFS

El próximo jueves 21 de octubre estaré en el CIIN de Cantabria para dar un repaso a todo lo relacionado con gestión de la configuración y compilación automatizada. La idea es exprimir un poco el control de código fuente de TFS, y hacer unas cuantas builds 😉

Tenéis todos los detalles aquí.

Espero veros en el taller, un saludo!!!

Setting up the VS 2010 RTM virtual machine for VirtualBox

As you maybe already know, a new Visual Studio 2010 RTM virtual machine is available, so you can play around with VS, TFS, and the provided hands-on-labs.

There are versions available for Hyper-V, Windows Virtual PC and Virtual PC 2007. But if for any reason you do want to use VirtualBox (I’ll not deal with the reasons for choosing a virtualization platform here 😉 ), you can run into problems when trying to start the virtual machine.

I downloaded the Virtual PC 2007 version with the idea of creating a new VirtualBox machine and attaching the .vhd to it. But after setting up the machine with the standard configuration, during booting process, it a blue screen appears with a “STOP 0x0000007B” error message.

It seems that the issue is related to the fact that the installed operating system is configured for an IDE controller (the one used in Virtual PC 2007), while the VirtualBox configuration wizard leaves the .vhd attached to a SATA controller.

The fix consists simply on taking away the SATA controller and attaching the .vhd to the IDE controller. After doing it, the virtual machine should manage to boot, and from that point you’d be ready to install the VirtualBox guest additions and start having fun!

This is how the working configuration looks for me (Spanish interface here, but it’d be straightforward to figure it out for other languages):

 

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70-512 Exam: TFS 2010 Administration

A little more than two weeks have gone since 70-512 exam is available, which qualifies for MCTS certification in TFS 2010 administration. It’s the successor of 70-510, which covered TFS 2005. In fact, five years and two versions later seem a bit of too much time from my point of view, but at least the exam has been made available short after the new TFS 2010 bits were released. This is an important point, since 2010 means a dramatic evolution from former versions, thus there are many new features in 70-512 that were not covered in 70-510.

Whishing to renew my certification, last June 24th I passed the exam, just after my fellow Ibon who took me over only by a day; as you can see, here at Plain Concepts we’re a bit of impatient, and when we want something we want it delivered right now!!! 😉

The exam was a bit more difficult for me than 70-510, because there’re many more things to take into account, and the time to gain the required experience has been much shorter. But I think it’d be not so difficult if you have been working deploying and administering TFS 2010, and even less if you’ve worked with former versions.

In many aspects, TFS administration has been simplified with the release of tools like the administration console or TFSConfig.exe.

But without any doubt, there are other areas where complexity has grown much more: high availability for application tier, build agents and controllers, process templates changes, and an endless bunch of new details. And even more if you take into account that monster, from the point of view of administration, which is Lab Manager. Of course, all of these things and many more are evaluated during the exam.

Another problem that arises is that, as you can see at the exam’s site, preparation materials are not quite abundant; for example, there’s not any book available, so TFS installation and administration guides are the best tools that you can rely on.

Nevertheless, as I said before, I think that if you’ve been into working with TFS, and giving a thorough read to the administration guide, there’d be not any problem to pass it. So go for it!!!

LEGO + Scrum: freak out!

When I found, while reading Agile Spain mailing list, that someone had the idea of using LEGO as an aid for Scrum Coaching, I thought that it could be a very enjoyable way of reinforcing some concepts that are addressed during the training.

But after using it during several sessions, I only can confirm what I suspected. Not only we enjoyed it like little Childs, but even more, I think that it was much easier for everyone to begin to get in touch with all the learned issues.

 IMAG0076 Digimax A50 / KENOX Q2

Simply put, the idea consists on going through a handful of Sprints, where the Team tries to build a LEGO town, committing to a backlog that has been proposed by me (as the product owner), and that has been estimated and prioritized by all the attendants working together (as members of the different Teams). As you can imagine, people gets fascinated when you show them the pile of LEGO bricks and you ask them for getting to work ;-). The process I followed, with some minor modifications, is the one described in the link which I included at the beginning of the post.

 IMAG0073 Digimax A50 / KENOX Q2

Following you can find my retrospective, based on the experience gained during several sessions carried out with different teams.

Things that went well

  • You can play the game no matter which is the technology or the kind of projects in which the Team is involved
  • Concepts are quickly settled down because of the practical approach
  • People get involved immediately
  • Lots of fun!!!

Things that didn’t go so well

  • Usually time gets too short to finish it properly
  • It’s a bit confusing to find out the tasks for the Sprint Backlog
  • There are several key concepts in Scrum that you can’t cover quite well, because the lack of time or the difficulty to carry them out; for example, Daily Scrum. But it’s always possible to complement this game with other related ones
  • If you are not careful, sometimes people pays more attention to playing with the bricks than to learning the process

Improvement actions

  • Better adjustment of Sprint length and cadence
  • Include essential Scrum practices not covered yet
  • Buy more LEGO bricks (ok, I don’t really need them, but this is the perfect excuse… you never can get enough LEGO bricks)

 Digimax A50 / KENOX Q2 Digimax A50 / KENOX Q2