Using Slack as a synchronous communication tool like Instant Messenger has plenty of downsides. Slack can be a source of constant interruption and context switching. How do you mitigate this?
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The latest from Alley’s team of experts. Filter By Topic: Agile and Scrum
At Alley, we use Scrum to coordinate teams, projects, and the company. We work in one-week sprints so we have frequent demos and a tight feedback loop. We’re Agile partners with our clients, some of whom also use Scrum, and also evangelists and contributors to the broader Scrum community. We maintain Helperbot, a free Scrum estimation tool for teams that use Slack, and publish the podcast Two Scrums Up.
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At Alley, working as a distributed team while solving complex challenges for large-scale digital publishers has required us to scale our company practices accordingly — and embrace the opportunities created for continual positive change.
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In this article, we’ll go through some of the reasons why you should increase your productivity with pair coding – working towards a solution with one other person – and swarming – working towards a solution with multiple people.
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On August 21, 2017, something of great cosmological significance occurred. Yes, sure, there was a total solar eclipse over wide swaths of the United States, but we’re talking about something life-changing here. On that fateful day, Alleybot quoted his first-ever message. What does that mean? Let’s discuss.
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If you’ve suddenly found yourself working remotely due to COVID-19 precautions, how do you handle all the normal day-to-day things like meetings, tracking tasks, and basic communication? Team norms don’t need to be complicated just because everyone’s remote. Being a fully distributed company ourselves, we have learned a lot over the years that helps us keep our teams running smoothly.
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My favorite Scrum event is the Daily Scrum. While often overshadowed by its flashier siblings — the dramatic demos of the Sprint Review or iterative improvements from a productive Retrospective — the Daily Scrum is essential for a Scrum team’s successful delivery of their Sprint commitments. Previously known as the exclusionary Daily Standup (not everyone…
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Though Scrum was originally created for software development, its basic principles can be applied to nearly any type of work across an array of markets and disciplines. With a little creativity and a solid understanding of the fundamentals, you can make Scrum work for you and your team.
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One of the many joys of working from home is avoiding rush hour headaches. But commutes to work have a purpose — they are cues that your work day is beginning or ending, and provide a clear separation between home and the office. How can you recreate this when working remotely?
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How do you approach marketing on a small budget and tight timeline? Create an MVP for marketing just like you do for product development!
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Minimum Viable Product is a great agile concept. Here’s how we applied it to our Helperbot product development process.
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Understand the story behind Helperbot, our asynchronous Scrum solution for distributed and co-located teams – built by the Alley team.
