defining users

With the next release closing in, and a new one to think about, I want to be better prepared with a release backlog.  Since last release focus was getting everyone familiar and up to speed with scrum, some things fell to the wayside.  Now that the teams are familiar with the general rhythm of a sprint cycle, I want to focus my efforts on having a better 6-month plan, in addition to fine-tuning some other aspects.

The book User Stories Applied by Mike Cohn has some great info on user role modeling gathering stories.  I read this a few months back but I think I need to brush up on it in order to prepare and be better organized for the next release.  I will spend some time outlining a plan for the next release and perhaps have a few sprints of better understanding our users and defining some stories around them.

I should have thought of this sooner

While attending the Emerging Technology for the Enterprise conference yesterday, I was talking with a former co-worker of my woes at my current position as a scrum master.  I've been feeling nothing but frustrations and fighting an uphill battle for the past few months since I've been hired at a company as a project manager to implement scrum to a company that was no using any formal methodology.  He suggested rather than feel frustrated or defeated, think of it as an opportunity to learn and grow.  And, he suggested, you should blog about it too.  Blog?! I thought...hmmm...wow..what a great idea! To go public and publish what I've been trying and learning; this would help me two-fold.  First it would allow me to journal my trials and errors, frustrations, success etc.  Second, in addition to helping me, I hope that I can help others that may be in the same situation that  I am in.

Anyway, just wanted to get this started.  Background info on myself and where I am now on the next few posts.  But for now...must think about dinner.