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?
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.
