Speakers | EmTech 2013 | MIT Technology Review: The technology and business leaders driving the new global economy are here.We’re tapping the rich diversity of the tech community to gather experts who’ll give you the inside track on the technologies and businesses that are disrupting industries, creating entirely new markets and changing society.
The 116-year-old WYVERN in a file photo. Photo: Stavanger Maritime Museum
The Norwegian sailing ship Wyvern, which sank in the Baltic Sea between the Swedish islands of Gotland and Öland on July 11, 2013, was salvaged this past weekend. The ship was emptied of hundreds of tons of water once it reached the surface of the water. Wyvern will be returned to her home port at Norway's Stavanger Maritime Museum where a homecoming party awaits her August 15 arrival.
"We really want to make a fuss of Wyvern. Therefore, we hope as many people as possible show up at Strandkaien when the ship arrives," said Lene Berge Førland, Communications Manager at Stavanger Maritime Museum.
Wyvern's Sinking
Swedish maritime authorities reported on July 11 that an historic Norwegian vessel home ported in Stavanger had started taking in water and later sank. Its Norwegian crew was rescued but one person was reported missing and later presumed to have gone down with the ship.
According to the website Views and News from Norway, the two-masted Wyvern, built as an exclusive 60-foot touring vessel in 1897, was sailing in this year's Tall Ships Races when it sent out an emergency call at 5:21 a.m. Thursday, July 11, that it was taking in water with 10 persons on board.
Sweden's air and sea rescue service sent helicopters to the scene from both Visby and Ronneby as several merchant vessels in the area also diverted course to offer assistance. Five of the Wyvern's 10 crew members were winched up from the sinking vessel by 6:42 a.m. and all were eventually rescued by 8 a.m. and flown to Kalmar on Sweden's east coast. The vessel sank at 9:37 a.m., according to the Swedish authorities.
The drama resumed, however, when rescue crews got word that three persons from the Dutch vessel Wylde Swan had voluntarily gone on board the Wyvern in an effort to pump out water and prevent it from sinking. Two of them were later plucked up by a rescue helicopter from the choppy waters in stormy conditions and flown to Visby but one remained missing. Emergency officials reported waves of three to four meters and strong winds in the area.
The search continued for the third man, who was said to be wearing a life vest and survival suit, with both helicopters and other vessels were taking part in the rescue efforts. Emergency authorities called off the search at 12:36 p.m. after it failed to yield any result and after witnesses said the man was bound to the vessel's rigging when it sunk. The stormy weather prevented divers from going down to the wreckage, which was believed to be lying at a depth of 50 meters. The rescue authorities then turned the case over to Swedish police.
The cause of the accident remained unclear and officials at the Stavanger Maritime Museum, which took over the vessel in 1984, said they couldn't understand how the accident could have occurred. It's a huge loss for the museum and the sailing enthusiasts who had fully restored the vessel.
"The vessel has been through much worse weather than this," Bitten Bakke, acting director of the museum told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). "And it was in very good technical condition, so we can't understand how this could have happened."
The Wyvern has sailed in several national and international regattas over the years and has won in both its class and for overall performance in previous Tall Ships Races, according to the Stavanger Maritime Museum's website. The vessel, designed by legendary designer Colin Archer, was originally built as a pleasure yacht for the wealthy British timber dealer Frederick Croft. He named it Wyvern after the mythological dragon that was featured on his family's shield.
Eventually sold to a series of owners who collectively crossed the Atlantic 12 times and circumnavigated the world in the late 1950s, Wyvernreturned to Norway after being found in bad shape in Ibiza in 1978. A group of oil industry executives financed the boat's full restoration a the vessel was given as a gift to the Stavanger Maritime Museum in 1984, officially handed over by then-Crown Prince Harald. It since had crossed the North Sea several times and taken part in five Tall Ships Races.
The finest sources of water in the world are gravity-fed mountain springs, accessed directly from where they emerge from the earth. This water is naturally filtered and structured by the earth itself, and even contains beneficial living organisms, like certain types of algae.
If you're up to the task, you can collect your own spring water to meet your drinking water needs. There is a Find a Springwebsite that helps you locate the spring nearest you. The website also allows you to add a spring that is not currently in the database. If you don't live near a mountain, don't despair, as just about any spring is better than all other available options.
Typically, natural springs are monitored for contaminants by local municipalities and, best of all, most of these springs are FREE! You can easily store 10 five-gallon jugs in most cars, which can be purchased online. Glass is best, but it is heavy, so you want to use three-gallon glass jars instead. Just remember to wrap glass bottles with some blankets or towels so they don't bang against each other in your car, and break.
On Sunday, September 8th from 9:30am - 1pm, three different renowned professors will present our first ever half day event focused solely on Art, Music and Film. Each 60 minute lecture is summarized below...
I think you'll agree this will be a fascinating event! But only a limited amount of discount tickets are available - and since our last 2 events have all sold out, I urge you to sign up this week!
To register, simply CLICK HERE or call 800-300-3438. Use code PPAC99 this week to pay just $99 rather than full price of $149.
At the pinnacle of the modern art pantheon sits Pablo Picasso. With a career spanning most of the twentieth century, Picasso eclipses his nearest rivals in terms of ingenuity, productivity, and, perhaps most of all, personality. The unrepentant swagger and devastating wit; the dazzling lovers and ever-so-costly art; the bohemians friends and heroic stature-the mystery and myth of Picasso have come to define the modern artist. Accordingly, few lives have been recounted so thoroughly as that of Pablo Picasso. But perhaps the myth of the man has obscured the ingenuity of the work, which truly changed the course of modern art. In less than a decade, Picassochanged the very terms of modern art. Together, we will rediscover that artistic revolution.
MUSIC
What Makes Mozart Great? Craig Wright / Yale
When asked to provide a list of "geniuses" in Western cultural history, most respondents would include the name Mozart. Say the word "prodigy," and Mozart again immediately comes to mind. But what is it in Mozart's music that makes it among the most sublime ever written? What personal traits did Mozart possess that enabled him to create music of this extraordinary quality? Using live music and video clips from operas and films, we will explore the enormous diversity of Mozart's music. At the same time, by examining color photographs of his autograph manuscripts and draft sketches, we will witness Mozart's attention to the smallest detail. Turn finally to the enablers of Mozart's genius: genetic gifts, mentoring, motivation, concentration, self-confidence, and just plain luck. By the end of this session, participants will come to see that not only is Mozart's music great, but Mozart himself was unique, and arguably the most extraordinary creator ever to set foot on this planet.
FILM
What Makes Alfred Hitchcock Great? Joseph Luzzi / Bard
Over a career spanning more than half a century, Alfred Hitchcock fashioned for himself a distinctive and recognizable directorial style. He pioneered the use of a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person's gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a form of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximize anxiety, fear, or empathy, and used innovative film editing. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime, although many of the mysteries function as decoys or "MacGuffins" meant only to serve thematic elements in the film and the psychological examinations of the characters. Through his cameo appearances in his own films,interviews, film trailers, and the television program Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he became a cultural icon. Hitchcock directed more than fifty feature films in a career spanning six decades, and did more than any director to shape modern cinema, which would be utterly different without him.
As I mentioned earlier, to register, simply CLICK HERE or call 800 300 3438. Use code PPAC99 this week to pay just $99 rather than full price of $149. But hurry!
Time: 9:30am - 1:00pm Date: Sunday, September 8th, 2013 Location: Rhode Island Convention Center
Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing software projects and product or application development. Its focus is on "a flexible, holistic product development strategy where a development team works as a unit to reach a common goal" as opposed to a "traditional, sequential approach". Scrum enables the creation of self-organizing teams by encouraging co-location of all team members, and verbal communication between all team members and disciplines in the project.
A key principle of Scrum is its recognition that during a project the customers can change their minds about what they want and need (often called requirements churn), and that unpredicted challenges cannot be easily addressed in a traditional predictive or planned manner. As such, Scrum adopts an empirical approach—accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or defined, focusing instead on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements.
Like other agile development methodologies, Scrum can be implemented through a wide range of tools. Many companies use universal tools, such as spreadsheets to build and maintain artifacts such as the sprint backlog. There are also open-source and proprietary packages dedicated to management of products under the Scrum process. Other organizations implement Scrum without the use of any tools, and maintain their artifacts in hard-copy forms such as paper, whiteboards, and sticky notes.[1]
History
Scrum was first defined as "a flexible, holistic product development strategy where a development team works as a unit to reach a common goal" as opposed to a "traditional, sequential approach" in 1986 by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in the "New New Product Development Game".[2] Takeuchi and Nonaka later argued in "The Knowledge Creating Company"[3] that it is a form of "organizational knowledge creation, [...] especially good at bringing about innovation continuously, incrementally and spirally".
The authors described a new approach to commercial product development that would increase speed and flexibility, based on case studies from manufacturing firms in the automotive, photocopier and printer industries.[4] They called this the holistic or rugby approach, as the whole process is performed by one cross-functional team across multiple overlapping phases, where the team "tries to go the distance as a unit, passing the ball back and forth".[4]
In rugby football, a scrum refers to the manner of restarting the game after a minor infraction. In the early 1990s, Ken Schwaber used what would become Scrum at his company, Advanced Development Methods, and Jeff Sutherland, with John Scumniotales and Jeff McKenna, developed a similar approach at Easel Corporation, and were the first to refer to it using the single word Scrum.[5]
In 1995, Sutherland and Schwaber jointly presented a paper describing the Scrum methodology at the Business Object Design and Implementation Workshop held as part of Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications '95 (OOPSLA '95) in Austin, Texas, its first public presentation.[6] Schwaber and Sutherland collaborated during the following years to merge the above writings, their experiences, and industry best practices into what is now known as Scrum.
In 2001, Schwaber worked with Mike Beedle to describe the method in the book Agile Software Development with Scrum.[7]
Its approach to planning and managing projects is by bringing decision-making authority to the level of operation properties and certainties.[8]
Although the word is not an acronym, some companies implementing the process have been known to spell it with capital letters as SCRUM. This may be due to one of Ken Schwaber's early papers, which capitalized SCRUM in the title.[8]
According to the 7th Annual State of Agile Development Survey, scrum or variants of scrum are still the most popular agile methodologies used. Out of the 4,048 software professionals that responded, 72% are practicing scrum or some kind of hybrid.[9] Hybridization of scrum is common as scrum does not cover the whole product development lifecycle; therefore, organizations find the need to add in additional processes to create a more comprehensive implementation. For example, at the start of the project, organizations commonly add process guidance on requirements gathering and prioritization, initial high-level design, and budget and schedule forecasting.
Roles
There are three core roles[10] and a range of ancillary roles—core roles are often referred to as pigs and ancillary roles as chickens (after the story The Chicken and the Pig).
The core roles are those committed to the project in the Scrum process—they are the ones producing the product (objective of the project). They represent the scrum team.
Product Owner
The Product Owner represents the stakeholders and is the voice of the customer. He or she is accountable for ensuring that the team delivers value to the business. The Product Owner writes (or has the team write) customer-centric items (typically user stories), ranks and prioritizes them, and adds them to the product backlog. Scrum teams should have one Product Owner, and while they may also be a member of the development team, this role should not be combined with that of the Scrum Master. In an enterprise environment, though, the Product Owner is often combined with the role of Project Manager as they have the best visibility regarding the scope of work (products).
Team
The Team is responsible for delivering potentially shippable product increments at the end of each Sprint (the Sprint Goal). A Team is made up of 7 +/- 2 individuals with cross-functional skills who do the actual work (analyse, design, develop, test, technical communication, document, etc.). The Team in Scrum is self-organizing, even though there may be some level of interface with project management organizations (PMOs).
Scrum Master
Scrum is facilitated by a Scrum Master, who is accountable for removing impediments to the ability of the team to deliver the sprint goal/deliverables. The Scrum Master is not the team leader, but acts as a buffer between the team and any distracting influences. The Scrum Master ensures that the Scrum process is used as intended. The Scrum Master is the enforcer of the rules of Scrum, often chairs key meetings, and challenges the team to improve. The role has also been referred to as a servant-leader to reinforce these dual perspectives. The Scrum Master differs from a Project Manager in that the latter may have people management responsibilities unrelated to the role of Scrum Master. The Scrum Master role excludes any such additional people responsibilities.
The ancillary roles outside of Scrum are those with no formal role and infrequent involvement in the Scrum process—but nonetheless, they should be taken into account, particularly in enterprise environments. In PRINCE2 project management terms, these encompass:
Project Manager
The individual responsible for the success of the project.
The Project Executive and Project Board
Those accountable for the project, particularly where issues and impediments need escalating outside of the Scrum team.
Project Assurance
The individuals with whom the Scrum team will consult in order to achieve their Sprint Goal, and with whom the Product Owner engages to understand what the ranked order of product backlog items should take in order to deliver enterprise value. The Project Assurance group consist of representatives of the Senior Supplier, Senior User and the Project Executive.
Managers
People who control the work environment.
Stakeholders
The individuals, not mentioned above, that often interface both with the Project Assurance group and with the Scrum Team. The stakeholders are sometimes customers, end-users, and vendors. They are people who enable the project and for whom the project produces the agreed-upon benefit[s] that justify its production. They may be involved in the Scrum process during the Sprint Review.
Sprint
A sprint is the basic unit of development in Scrum. The sprint is a "timeboxed" effort, i.e. it is restricted to a specific duration.[11] The duration is fixed in advance for each sprint and is normally between one week and one month.[8]
Each sprint is preceded by a planning meeting, where the tasks for the sprint are identified and an estimated commitment for the sprint goal is made, and followed by a review or retrospective meeting,[5] where the progress is reviewed and lessons for the next sprint are identified.
Meetings
Daily Scrum
Each day during the sprint, a project team communication meeting occurs. This is called a daily scrum, or the daily standup. This meeting has specific guidelines:
All members of the development team come prepared with the updates for the meeting.
The meeting starts precisely on time even if some development team members are missing.
The meeting should happen at the same location and same time every day.
The meeting length is set (timeboxed) to 15 minutes.
All are welcome, but normally only the core roles speak.
During the meeting, each team member answers three questions:[12]
What have you done since yesterday?
What are you planning to do today?
Any impediments/stumbling blocks? Any impediment/stumbling block identified in this meeting is documented by the Scrum Master and worked towards resolution outside of this meeting. No detailed discussions shall happen in this meeting.
Backlog refinement (grooming)
This is the process of creating stories, decomposing stories into smaller ones when they are too large, refining the acceptance criteria for individual stories, prioritizing stories on the product backlog and sizing the existing stories in the product backlog using effort/points. During each sprint the team should spend time doing product backlog refinement to keep a pool of stories ready for the next sprint.
Meetings should not be longer than an hour.
Meeting does not include breaking stories into tasks.
The team can decide how many meetings are needed per week.
Though everything can be done in a single meeting, these are commonly broken into two types of meetings for efficiency:
The refinement meeting, when the product owner and stakeholders create and refine stories on the product backlog.
The planning poker meeting, when the team sizes the stories on the product backlog to make them ready for the next sprint.
Scrum of Scrums
Each day normally after the Daily Scrum:
These meetings allow clusters of teams to discuss their work, focusing especially on areas of overlap and integration.
A designated person from each team attends.
The agenda will be the same as the Daily Scrum, plus the following four questions:
What has your team done since we last met?
What will your team do before we meet again?
Is anything slowing your team down or getting in their way?
Are you about to put something in another team's way?
Sprint planning meeting
At the beginning of the sprint cycle (every 7–30 days), a "Sprint planning meeting" is held:[11][13]
Select what work is to be done
Prepare the Sprint Backlog that details the time it will take to do that work, with the entire team
Identify and communicate how much of the work is likely to be done during the current sprint
Eight-hour time limit
(1st four hours) Entire team:[14] dialog for prioritizing the Product Backlog
(2nd four hours) Development Team:[15] hashing out a plan for the Sprint, resulting in the Sprint Backlog
End of cycle
At the end of a sprint cycle, two meetings are held: the "Sprint Review Meeting" and the "Sprint Retrospective".
At the Sprint Review Meeting:[16]
Review the work that was completed and not completed
Present the completed work to the stakeholders (a.k.a. "the demo")
Incomplete work cannot be demonstrated
Four-hour time limit
At the Sprint Retrospective:[17]
All team members reflect on the past sprint
Make continuous process improvements
Two main questions are asked in the sprint retrospective: What went well during the sprint? What could be improved in the next sprint?
Three-hour time limit
This meeting is facilitated by the Scrum Master
Artifacts
Product Backlog
The product backlog is an ordered list of "requirements" that is maintained for a product. It consists of features, bug fixes, non-functional requirements, etc. - whatever needs to be done in order to successfully deliver a working software system.[18] The items are ordered by the Product Owner based on considerations like risk, business value, dependencies, date needed, etc. The features added to the backlog are commonly written in story format (See terminology below). The product backlog is the "What" that will be built, sorted in the relative order in which it should be built. It is open and editable by anyone, but the Product Owner is ultimately responsible for ordering the stories on the backlog for the Development Team. The product backlog contains rough estimates of both business value and development effort, these values are often stated in story points using a rounded Fibonacci sequence. Those estimates help the Product Owner to gauge the timeline and may influence ordering of backlog items. For example, if the "add spellcheck" and "add table support" features have the same business value, the one with the smallest development effort will probably have higher priority, because the ROI (Return on Investment) is higher.
The Product Backlog and business value of each listed item is the responsibility of the Product Owner. The estimated effort to complete each backlog item is, however, determined by the Development Team. The team contributes by estimating Items and User-Stories, either in Story-points or in estimated hours.
Sprint Backlog
The sprint backlog is the list of work the Development Team must address during the next sprint. The list is derived by selecting stories/features from the top of the product backlog until the Development Team feels it has enough work to fill the sprint. This is done by the Development Team asking "Can we also do this?" and adding stories/features to the sprint backlog. The Development Team should keep in mind the velocity of its previous Sprints (total story points completed from each of the last sprint's stories) when selecting stories/features for the new sprint, and use this number as a guide line of how much "effort" they can complete.
The stories/features are broken down into tasks by the Development Team, which, as a best practice, should normally be between four and sixteen hours of work. With this level of detail the Development Team understands exactly what to do, and potentially, anyone can pick a task from the list. Tasks on the sprint backlog are never assigned; rather, tasks are signed up for by the team members as needed during the daily scrum, according to the set priority and the Development Team member skills. This promotes self-organization of the Development Team, and developer buy-in.
The sprint backlog is the property of the Development Team, and all included estimates are provided by the Development Team. Often an accompanying task board is used to see and change the state of the tasks of the current sprint, like "to do", "in progress" and "done".
Once a Sprint's Product Backlog is committed, no additional functionality can be added to the Sprint except by the team. Once a Sprint has been delivered, the Product Backlog is analyzed and reprioritized, if necessary, and the next set of functionality is selected for the next Sprint.[18]
Increment
The increment is the sum of all the Product Backlog Items completed during a sprint and all previous sprints. At the end of a sprint, the Increment must be done according to the Scrum Team's definition of done. The increment must be in usable condition regardless of whether the Product Owner decides to actually release it.
The sprint burn down chart is a publicly displayed chart showing remaining work in the sprint backlog. Updated every day, it gives a simple view of the sprint progress. It also provides quick visualizations for reference. There are also other types of burndown, for example the release burndown chart that shows the amount of work left to complete the target commitment for a Product Release (normally spanning through multiple iterations) and the alternative release burndown chart,[19] which basically does the same, but clearly shows scope changes to Release Content, by resetting the baseline.
The person responsible for maintaining the Product Backlog by representing the interests of the stakeholders, and ensuring the value of the work the Development Team does.
Scrum Master
The person responsible for the Scrum process, making sure it is used correctly and maximizing its benefits.
Development Team
A cross-functional group of people responsible for delivering potentially shippable increments of Product at the end of every Sprint.
Sprint burn down chart
Daily progress for a Sprint over the sprint's length.
Release burn down chart
Sprint level progress of completed stories in the Product Backlog.
Product backlog
A prioritized list of high-level requirements.
Sprint backlog
A prioritized list of tasks to be completed during the sprint.
Sprint
A time period (typically 1–4 weeks) in which development occurs on a set of backlog items that the team has committed to. Also commonly referred to as a Time-box or iteration.
(User) Story
A feature that is added to the backlog is commonly referred to as a story and has a specific suggested structure. The structure of a story is: "As a <user type> I want to <do some action> so that <desired result>" This is done so that the development team can identify the user, action and required result in a request and is a simple way of writing requests that anyone can understand. Example: As a wiki user I want a tools menu on the edit screen so that I can easily apply font formatting. A story is an independent, negotiable, valuable, estimable, small, testable requirement ("INVEST"). Despite being independent, i.e., they have no direct dependencies with other requirements, stories may be clustered into epics when represented on a product roadmap or further down in the backlog.
Theme
A theme is a top-level objective that may span projects and products. Themes may be broken down into sub-themes, which are more likely to be product-specific. Themes can be used at both program and project level to drive strategic alignment and communicate a clear direction.
Epic
An epic is a group of related stories, mainly used in product roadmaps and the backlog for features that have not yet been analyzed enough to break down into component stories, which should be done before bringing it into a sprint so to reduce uncertainty. Epics can also be used at a both program and project level.
Spike
A time boxed period used to research a concept and/or create a simple prototype. Spikes can either be planned to take place in between sprints or, for larger teams, a spike might be accepted as one of many sprint delivery objectives. Spikes are often introduced before the delivery of large epics or user stories in order to secure budget, expand knowledge, and/or produce a proof of concept. The duration and objective(s) of a spike will be agreed between the Product Owner and Delivery Team before the start. Unlike sprint commitments, spikes may or may not deliver tangible, shippable, valuable functionality. For example, the objective of a spike might be to successfully reach a decision on a course of action. The spike is over when the time is up, not necessarily when the objective has been delivered.
Tracer Bullet
The tracer bullet is a spike with the current architecture, current technology set, current set of best practices which results in production quality code. It might just be a very narrow implementation of the functionality but is not throw away code. It is of production quality and the rest of the iterations can build on this code. The name has military origins as ammunition that makes the path of the weapon visible, allowing for corrections. Often these implementations are a 'quick shot' through all layers of an application, such as connecting a single form's input field to the back-end, to prove the layers will connect as expected.
Point Scale/Effort/Story points
Relates to an abstract point system, used to discuss the difficulty of the story, without assigning actual hours. The most common scale used is a rounded Fibonacci sequence (1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,100), although some teams use linear scale (1,2,3,4...), powers of two (1,2,4,8...), and clothes size (XS, S, M, L, XL).[21]
Tasks
Added to the story at the beginning of a sprint and broken down into hours. Each task should not exceed 12 hours, but it's common for teams to insist that a task take no more than a day to finish.
Definition of Done (DoD)
The exit-criteria to determine whether a product backlog item is complete. In many cases the DoD requires that all regression tests should be successful.
Velocity
The total effort a team is capable of in a sprint. The number is derived by evaluating the story points completed from the last few sprint's stories/features. This is a guideline for the team and assists them in understanding how many stories they can do in a future sprint.
Impediment
Anything that prevents a team member from performing work as efficiently as possible.[22]
Sashimi
A report that something is "done". The definition of "done" may vary from one Scrum team to another, but must be consistent within one team.
Abnormal Termination
The Product Owner can cancel a Sprint if necessary.[23] The Product Owner may do so with input from the team, Scrum Master or management. For instance, management may wish to cancel a sprint if external circumstances negate the value of the sprint goal. If a sprint is abnormally terminated, the next step is to conduct a new Sprint planning meeting, where the reason for the termination is reviewed.
Planning Poker
In the Sprint Planning Meeting, the team sits down to estimate its effort for the stories in the backlog. The Product Owner needs these estimates, so that he or she is empowered to effectively prioritize items in the backlog and, as a result, forecast releases based on the team's velocity.[21]
ScrumBut
A ScrumBut (or Scrum But) is an exception to the "pure" Scrum methodology, where a team has changed the methodology to adapt it to their own needs.[24][25]
Scrum-ban
Scrum-ban is a software production model based on Scrum and Kanban. Scrum-ban is especially suited for maintenance projects or (system) projects with frequent and unexpected user stories or programming errors. In such cases the time-limited sprints of the Scrum model are of no appreciable use, but Scrum's daily meetings and other practices can be applied, depending on the team and the situation at hand. Visualization of the work stages and limitations for simultaneous unfinished user stories and defects are familiar from the Kanban model. Using these methods, the team's workflow is directed in a way that allows for minimum completion time for each user story or programming error, and on the other hand ensures each team member is constantly employed.[26]
To illustrate each stage of work, teams working in the same space often use post-it notes or a large whiteboard.[27] In the case of decentralized teams, stage-illustration such as Assembla, ScrumWorks, Rational Team Concert or JIRA in combination with GreenHopper can be used to visualize each team's user stories, defects and tasks divided into separate phases.
In their simplest, the tasks or usage stories are categorized into the work stages:
Unstarted
Ongoing
Completed
If desired, though, the teams can add more stages of work (such as "defined", "designed", "tested" or "delivered"). These additional phases can be of assistance if a certain part of the work becomes a bottleneck and the limiting values of the unfinished work cannot be raised. A more specific task division also makes it possible for employees to specialize in a certain phase of work.[28]
There are no set limiting values for unfinished work. Instead, each team has to define them individually by trial and error; a value too small results in workers standing idle for lack of work, whereas values too high tend to accumulate large amounts of unfinished work, which in turn hinders completion times.[29] A rule of thumb worth bearing in mind is that no team member should have more than two simultaneous selected tasks, and that on the other hand not all team members should have two tasks simultaneously.[28]
The major differences between Scrum and Kanban are derived from the fact that, in Scrum, work is divided into sprints that last a certain amount of time, whereas in Kanban the workflow is continuous. This is visible in work stage tables, which in Scrum are emptied after each sprint. In Kanban all tasks are marked on the same table. Scrum focuses on teams with multifaceted know-how, whereas Kanban makes specialized, functional teams possible.[30]
Since Scrum-ban is such a new development model, there is not much reference material. Kanban, on the other hand, has been applied by Microsoft and Corbis.[31]
Project management tools that support scrum
Tools that support Scrum include:
Agilo for Trac - Open Source & Commercial (Pro) Variants.
In the largest review of research into lifestyle and breast cancer, the American Institute of Cancer Research estimated that about 40 percent of US breast cancer cases could be prevented if people made wiser lifestyle choices.12, 13 I believe these estimates are far too low, and it is more likely that 75 percent to 90 percent of breast cancers could be avoided by strictly applying the recommendations below.
Improve your insulin receptor sensitivity. The best way to do this is by avoiding sugar and grains and making sure you are exercising, especially with Peak Fitness.
Avoid carbohydrates and sugar. Reduce or eliminate processed foods, sugar/fructose and grain-based foods from your diet. This applies to whole unprocessed organic grains as well, as they tend to rapidly break down and drive up your insulin level. The evidence is quite clear that if you want to avoid cancer, or you currently have cancer, you absolutely MUST avoid all forms of sugar, especially fructose, which feeds cancer cells and promotes their growth.
Reduce protein and increase fat. Consider reducing your protein levels to one gram per kilogram of lean body weight. It would be unusual for most adults to need more than 100 grams of protein and most likely close to half of that amount. Replace excess protein with high quality fats, such as organic eggs from pastured hens, high quality meats, avocados, and coconut oil.
Drink a half to whole quart of organic green vegetable juice daily. Please review my juicing instructions for more detailed information.
Avoid GMOs. Avoid genetically engineered foods as they are typically treated with herbicides such as Roundup (glyphosate), which are likely to be carcinogenic. A French research team that has extensively studied Roundup concluded it's toxic to human cells, and likely carcinogenic to humans. Choose fresh, organic, preferably locally growth foods.
Avoid unfermented soy products. Unfermented soy is high in plant estrogens, or phytoestrogens, also known as isoflavones. In some studies, soy appears to work in concert with human estrogen to increase breast cell proliferation, which increases the chances for mutations and cancerous cells.
Normalize your omega-3 to omega-6 fats ratio. Normalize your ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fats by taking a high-quality krill oil and reducing your intake of processed vegetable oils.
Optimize your gut flora. Optimizing your gut flora will reduce inflammation and strengthen your immune response. Researchers have found a microbe-dependent mechanism through which some cancers mount an inflammatory response that fuels their development and growth. They suggest that inhibiting inflammatory cytokines might slow cancer progression and improve the response to chemotherapy.
Adding naturally fermented food to your daily diet is an easy way to prevent cancer or speed recovery. You can always add a high quality probiotic supplement as well, but naturally fermented foods are the best.
Exercise regularly. Exercise lowers insulin levels, which creates a low sugar environment that discourages the growth and spread of cancer cells. In a three-month study, exercise was found to alter immune cells into a more potent disease-fighting form in cancer survivors who had just completed chemotherapy.
Researchers and cancer organizations increasingly recommend making regular exercise a priority in order to reduce your risk of cancer, and help improve cancer outcomes. Research has also found evidence suggesting exercise can help trigger apoptosis (programmed cell death) in cancer cells. Ideally, your exercise program should include balance, strength, flexibility, high intensity interval training (HIIT). For help getting started, refer to my Peak Fitness Program.
Optimize your vitamin D level. There is scientific evidence you can decrease your risk of cancer by more than halfsimply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with appropriate sun exposure. Your serum level should hold steady at 50-70 ng/ml, but if you are being treated for cancer, it should be closer to 80-90 ng/ml for optimal benefit.
If you take oral vitamin D and have cancer, it would be very prudent to monitor your vitamin D blood levels regularly, as well as supplementing your vitamin K2, as K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity. To learn more, please see my previous article: What You Need to Know About Vitamin K2, D and Calcium.
Get plenty of natural vitamin A. There is evidence that vitamin A also plays a role in helping prevent breast cancer.14It's best to obtain it from vitamin A-rich foods, rather than a supplement. Your best sources are organic egg yolks,15 raw butter, raw whole milk, and beef or chicken liver.
Consider curcumin. This is the active ingredient in turmeric and in high concentrations can be very useful adjunct in the treatment of breast cancer. It shows immense therapeutic potential in preventing breast cancer metastasis.16 It's important to know that curcumin is generally not absorbed that well, so I've provided several absorption tips here.
Optimize your sleep. Make sure you are getting enough restorative sleep. Poor sleep can interfere with your melatonin production, which is associated with an increased risk of insulin resistance and weight gain, both of which contribute to cancer's virility.
Limit your exposure to toxins. Reduce your exposure to environmental toxins like pesticides, herbicides, household chemical cleaners, synthetic air fresheners and toxic cosmetics. Avoid BPA, phthalates and other xenoestrogens.These are estrogen-like compounds that have been linked to increased breast cancer risk.
Limit your exposure to radiation. Limit your exposure and protect yourself from radiation produced by cell phones, towers, base stations, and Wi-Fi stations, as well as minimizing your exposure from radiation-based medical scans, including dental x-rays, CT scans, and mammograms.
Avoid synthetic hormone replacement therapy. Breast cancer is an estrogen-related cancer, and according to a study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer rates for women dropped in tandem with decreased use of hormone replacement therapy. (There are similar risks for younger women who use oral contraceptives. Birth control pills, which are also comprised of synthetic hormones, have been linked to cervical and breast cancers.)
Make sure you're not iodine deficient, as there's compelling evidence linking iodine deficiency with breast cancer. Dr. David Brownstein,17 author of the book Iodine: Why You Need It, Why You Can't Live Without It, is a proponent of iodine for breast cancer. It actually has potent anticancer properties and has been shown to cause cell death in breast and thyroid cancer cells.
For more information, I recommend reading Dr. Brownstein's book. I have been researching iodine for some time ever since I interviewed Dr. Brownstein as I do believe that the bulk of what he states is spot on. However, I am not convinced that his dosage recommendations are correct. I believe they are too high.
Stress Management. Stress from all causes is a major contributor to disease. Even the CDC states that 85 percent of disease is driven by emotional factors. It is likely that stress and unresolved emotional issues may be more important than the physical ones, so make sure this is addressed. My favorite tool for resolving emotional challenges is Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).
