Meetup Roundup: London Scrum Usergroup (#LSUG) March 2012

The London Scrum Usergroup (LSUG) has had a bit of resurgence relatively recently. Most people who undergo some kind of Scrum Alliance training in London usually get encouraged top become part of the community, and often LSUG and the Scrum Alliance Google group are rolled out as options. I recently went along to the latest meetup.

Trying a different relative estimation approach

At TagMan, we use frameworks that facilitate the Agile mindset as much as possible. Some teams are currently using Scrum, while others are taking a more Kanban-like pull/flow approach. We are still learning both, and constantly look at how we can understand the outcomes of the frameworks, so that we can make them effective in the context of our particular environment.

One of the teams planning their next sprint with their Product Owner

Estimation in general is a double-edged sword. When you have a system that starts to flow well, it actually can become a form of waste. However, while we are still learning it's a useful means to allow us to understand our throughput each development sprint, and to better understand differences in complexity. From a scheduling point of view the main benefit of estimation is really just to allow you to plan releases effectively when you are using an iterative approach.

We have recently adapted our estimation approach to see if it makes the planning process more effective and enjoyable, and wanted to share our experiences with you!

Welcome to the Techblog

TagMan is the global leader for tag management, allowing customers around the world to manage their digital marketing assets more easily, efficiently and powerfully than ever before. This doesn't happen by magic: since TagMan was founded in 2007 we have been driven by the knowledge that true innovation in software is a creative discipline. Ultimately this comes down to great people with great ideas and great execution.

To introduce this new blog I first need to start with a small story: As we grow, we attract attention from some very innovative and well-respected people. I had the pleasure of talking to one of these people who works for one of the most well-known technology brands in the world. As we were discussing various topics he made the very interesting comment that if someone asked him to name the top company in the UK leading the way in cool product and technical innovation, he wouldn't be able to do so.

This intrigued and concerned me: Is the UK that far behind in applying its amazing software talent pool that no one company has been able to utilise that amazing source of creativity to become a name to rival Google, Apple, Facebook, etc.? Or is it the case that UK companies are simply far too modest in their skills, talent and achievements? I think the latter is more likely.

That's what this blog is all about. At TagMan we want to share our technical adventures with you. What works for us, and what doesn't. How we have tackled unique challenges and created interesting solutions. We want to share all of this with others in the software and marketing communities.

Most of all, our continued success relies on the people we have, will have, and want to have. It's about expanding our culture where we constantly push ourselves to improve and where work is about creativity, fun and overcoming challenges. Welcome to our world.

Paul Cook, Founder and CEO, TagMan