Gonzo is a freeware, opensource editor that generated markdown code and shows the html result during typing.

Advantages

• most useful markdown codes supported in the interface
• very simple user interface, codes also reachable with shortcuts (like ctrl+1 for heading 1)
• relatively intelligent: if you press ctrl+2 while a level 2 heading is selected, it does not add an extra code (##) for level 2
• shows wordcount
• multiple open files at the same time is possible (tabbed file interface)
• it generates markdown files that are picked up by Leanpub and produce a nicely formatted ebook.

Limitations

• bulleted lists and numbered lists not supported from the interface
• no support for tables
• no buttons in the interface: all commands can be reached with menu items or shortcuts only
• more complex markdown codes like images and hyperlinks are inserted as a template only; you have to fill in the blanks yourself

The game can be played with 3 to 6 players. If you want to play a competitive game, use two teams instead, each with their own deck of cards, and after each round, note points earned for each team.

Material

You need

• a deck of cards (normal playing cards)
• a piece of paper
• a pencil
• these game rules

Game preparation and the first round

Remove the jokers and any other special cards, shuffle the deck of cards and take one card for each player in the team. Put it face up on the table. These are the task cards.
Each player will now decide which cards he will try to score. He can choose to score on 1, 2 or 3 cards. Players tell each other what cards they will try to score this round.
Then hand three cards to each player, face down. These are the scoring cards. From the moment the scoring cards have been handed out, players cannot change their mind about what task cards to score on, neither change the number of task cards to score on.

Every player in turn will now put cards next to the task cards as follows:

• when the player announced one task card to score, he puts all three cards next to this task card.
• when the player announced two task cards to score, he puts two cards next to one of these task cards and the other scoring card next to the other.
• when the player announced three cards to score, he puts one scoring card next to each task card.

Players can see the faces of the scoring cards, so they can make decisions about what combinations would be best.
Also, players cannot give information about their cards or their strategy before it is their turn.

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The round score

After each player has put his cards on the table, the round score is calculated.

• If a task card has a face value between 1 and 5 (included), it needs one card from the same suit next to it to score.
• If a task card has a face value between 6 and 10 (included), it needs two cards from the same suit next to it to score.
• If a task card has a jack, queen or king as value, it needs three cards from the same suit next to it to score.

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After the round

After each round, count the score (one point per task card that can be removed) and remove the task cards and their scoring cards. Put the cards back to the deck, below the cards that were still there, if any.
Note the score and the total number of task cards for that round on paper.

Next, the players can vote whether to increase the number of task cards for the next round, to decrease, or to keep the same number.

Exception: the number of tasks for a given round cannot be below the number of task cards that were kept from the last round. For example, if no point was scored in a round with four task cards, participants cannot decide to decrease the number of task cards to three.

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The next round

The next round starts. Add task cards until the number agreed on is reached. Hand out three cards to each player and repeat the steps above.
Exception: if there are not enough cards in the deck to give every player three cards, hand out two cards (or one, if it is not possible to give each player two). During that round, players can score on only two (or one) cards.
Stop after round 10. Note down the total score and try to improve this score the next game. For the first games, you should be able to score about 7 points per player.

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The link with lean and Kanban

• Task cards are tasks: some are hard, some are easy, all must be done
• Scoring cards are people’s attention and energy
• The rounds are days
• The number of task cards on the table is the WiP limit

Despite the fact that use cases have been around for ages (in computer terms, that is) and that user stories already celebrated their tenth birthday, lots of confusion remains about what a user story is and how it relates to traditional use cases. In this presentation, I try to clarify to what extent use cases and user stories are similar, and how they are different.

Following topics are discussed:

• use cases and the “striped trousers” model
• why agile projects cannot always work with use cases
• the classical way of putting user stories (As a … I want to … so that I can …) – but remember, user stories are essentially free format!
• the INVEST checklist for user stories
• how user stories relate to the striped trousers of use cases
• user stories as a promise to talk
• how exceptions developers come up with are handled

not convinced that it was funny and valuable at the same time? Some examples:

• we played Fruit Estimation Poker and compared different countries for their population size (of course, this is just a toy example). We later looked up actual population sizes in Wikipedia and we had reached a perfect ordering…
• we played the spinning tops simulation game with a “pull” team and a “push” team. It turned our that the “push” team got stuck in the first round (though they could have restarted the production if they got some new raw materials) while the “pull” team was able to correctly identify the bottlenecks… in that same first round! More about the spinning tops game later…
• we had a discussion on how to get customer feedback. Conclusion: when you want to encourage people to give feedback, give feedback yourself… even about people’s feedback. Not the way some big software companies are doing it: they make it easy to report a bug, but then you never hear anything about it anymore. Also we got a few demos of companies doing this very well.
• we played the Evil Waterfall Sorcerer game to learn… uhm, actually, that was just for fun…

What is Fruit Estimation Poker?

Compare it to planning poker, but with fruit instead of Fibonacci numbers. Also, instead of 13 cards (0,1,2,3,5,8,13,20,40,100,?,coffee cup) we have only nine:

• Cherry: really small.
• Strawberry: small. Used as the yardstick.
• Kiwi: medium
• Orange: bit bigger than medium.
• Grapefruit: rather large.
• Melon: very large. Please slice it.
• Fruit blender: could contain anything. Please clarify the item before you make me estimate it.
• Toilet paper: enough fruit! Please give me a break.

How to play Fruit Estimation Poker?

But then how can you determine how many items to tackle in a sprint?

• For the first sprint, like with planning poker, use gut feeling. Start with the low hanging fruit  (if any) and keep adding items to the selected product backlog until you feel you can just eat it all in one sprint.
• Keep a list of “reference fruit” and consumed hours: for every fruit type except melon, have a low, normal and high number of hours that were actually consumed by this fruit type. For example, for your team, strawberry can mean 4h – 8h – 14h. Continually update this list and use the actual figures and the capacity estimate for a sprint to determine how much fruit to put in the basket. You can then even make strong commitments for some items (“yeah, we’re pretty sure we can do these three oranges and the kiwi, and we think we’ll be able to fit in the grapefruit as well, while we know that it is very unlikely that we will finish this kiwi as well”).
• Of course you could also switch to an agile method that does not prescribe sprints, like Kanban…You could then track lead times per fruit size, for example.

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Download Fruit Estimation Poker

Fruit Estimation Poker can be downloaded here for free. The zip file consists of 10 png files, each with a different color so as to keep the cards apart for every participant. Print the files, glue them to heavy paper, plastify, cut them out and play! If you like Fruit Estimation Poker and you want to share it with others, please link to this website.

Those who are familiar with the Open Space concept will know that the motto is “Prepare to be surprised”. This year, it’s the first time we will work with a theme. As a first theme, we chose “agile games” because we believe games are the best way to teach about agile concepts. The XP Game, the Business Value Game, the Frog Factory, Werewolf,… games like and more will be played, analysed and reviewed during the two-day meeting.

Be sure to bring your own!

Of course, since the Agile Open is an Open Space meeting, there is room for other topics too!

All information on http://www.agileopen.net/agile-open-belgium-2011

The XP Days 2010 are over, but these two video’s will tell the story forever.

The movie

XP Days 2010 part 1 – day one

XP Days 2010 part 2 – day two

Sven and I presented the Frog Factory to an audience of 25 agilists. We’re happy to hear feedback from you all! Please use the feedback button at the bottom of this page.

PS. For those who like the game of werewolf, I can assure you it’s even better when played via email. Some of the articles on this site are in English, some in Dutch. Apologies to non-Dutch speakers. Topics of interest include werewolf rules, werewolf via email, werewolf probability and variations on the rules.

To win the contest, I need you to vote for me. So if you consider me a friend, or you find this blog useful, or you simple need something from me (wink, wink), please vote for us before 2010, June 14th (the Monday after the elections here – hope you are not bored of voting by then).

Here’s how to do it:

• If you don’t already have one: make a YouTube account: www.youtube.com. Wait for the confirmation email, then activate your account.
• Log in and surf to the PMI Agile Group: www.youtube.com/group/pmiagile. Make yourself a member of this group. Wait a few moments and refresh with F5. Don’t continue until you see you’re a member of this group.
• Click on the video Agile @ SD Worx and watch it (if you’re into agile, it’s fun and you’ll probably learn something)
• Click “I love it” and refresh. If you did not see the counter increase, vote again.

Thanks!

Update: we came in second and our entry has been published.

je krijgt meer dan 2 GB gratis webruimte die zich in de achtergrond synchroniseert met de computers waarop je werkt.

De voordelen zijn niet moeilijk te raden maar wel vérstrekkend:

• Je hoeft geen mails meer naar jezelf te sturen om een bestand op meerdere computers te hebben. Bovendien werk je altijd met de juiste versie
• Je kan heel gemakkelijk folders delen met anderen. Handig als je in groep aan iets werkt.
• Je kan ook individuele bestanden delen.
• Er is een foto-modus: gewoon wat foto’s naar de map kopiëren en de link doorsturen.
• Je hebt als het ware een gratis backup, want alle bestanden worden gesynchroniseerd op meerdere computers.
• Zolang je netwerktoegang hebt, heb je geen USB-sticks meer nodig.
• Stel: je bent op reis. Dan kan je bv in een internetcafé foto’s opladen en je geheugenkaart vrijmaken. Of bestanden raadplegen die je in je dropbox hebt gestopt.
• Best van al: dropbox gedraagt zich als een gewone map op je computer. Je moet dus niet inloggen en dergelijke om van de service gebruik te maken, dat gebeurt allemaal in de achtergrond.
• Je kan ook kiezen om Dropbox niet op je computer te zetten, maar om enkel van de webdienst gebruik te maken.
• Je moet geen persoonlijke informatie prijsgeven. Gewoon een username en paswoord volstaan.

Dropbox is snel, functioneel, gratis en rechttoe-rechtaan. Zoals ik het graag heb.

→ Intekenen kan op https://www.dropbox.com