Comments on: Doing Agile in a Team of One

By: Jeff Miles

Jeff Miles — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 14:22:56 +0000

Thank you very much for this article. I have been discussing implementing Agile with a friend of mine who runs a state government IT shop, but didn't know how it would scale for a team of one since I run my own business. After reading your article, I am going to give it a try on one of my upcoming projects and if it works, start using it for all projects.

I have created this spreadsheet to use as a replacement for my scrum board (http://www.twomilessolutions.com/downloads/Agil...) feel free to download it and give it a try. The idea is that the far right column is used to color code projects I am working on and I use cut and paste to move things from column to column. The colors will be used instead of different color sticky notes to differentiate projects.

Let me know what you think.

By: AndrewWoody

AndrewWoody — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:32:49 +0000

No withdrawls at all, was actually a very enjoyable day. But I know day 2 of the sprint will bring in some unit testing so I have something to look forward to

By: Eric Shupps

Eric Shupps — Mon, 18 May 2009 19:55:57 +0000

Great post, mate. What's good about this thought process is that it applies equally well to teams of 1 or 100. The larger teams just have more oversight but otherwise it's the same. I hear all the time that Agile/Scrum is only for big teams. Hogwash. Everyone can do it.

The really amazing part is that you got through day one without writing any test fixtures. Did you have withdrawls at the end of the day?

By: Matt Taylor

Matt Taylor — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:34:25 +0000

I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of devs out there like me who work projects on their own much of the time. I have been sat on the agile fence for literally years because of my assumption that it doesn't scale down to smaller teams and definitely not to a one-man-band. I'm really impressed that you picked up on this area of the market and really appreciate the time you've taken to document your experience so far. I hope you get time to document the outcome otherwise I guess we could discuss it further over a pint or two

By: spacescape

spacescape — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:48:49 +0000

Good effort - I've been thinking of how to apply our agile process to a couple of project ideas of my own. I guess it should be pretty simple to translate the process for a team of one but it's good to see an example of how to go about it

look forward to seeing how it goes. And yeah - wish I'd kept hold of my old whiteboard too now, how about this as an alternative? http://www.magicwhiteboard.co.uk/

By: jamesafisk

jamesafisk — Sat, 16 May 2009 16:29:54 +0000

Wow,

I'm suitable inspired. I too have found myself start a project with much gusto, only to then leave in the graveyard of doomed projects. You're right there is no excuse of laying best practices to one side only because you are a one man band.

All I need now is a whiteboard.