Missing Terminology
I discovered that the agile methods that I know well (XP, Scrum, Lean) have no word or term for an important part of their process!
I’m working with an organization that is trying out 2-day long iterations (why is a whole other story). In order to track their work effectively, we are going to be doing brief status checks to update a burndown chart every hour. What is the period of time called between those status checks?
In most agile methods, that period of time is always 24 hours in duration - daily. Therefore it is easy to talk about without a special name for it…
But if the period of time between status checks is longer or shorter than a day, then it becomes more awkward to talk about it. So, I’ve decided to give it a name:
Work Period
The team I am working with is using a 1 hour work periods inside a 2 day iteration. They have 10 work periods each iteration.
Scrum recommends a 24 hour work period inside a 30 day Sprint.
In my training classes, I run an agile simulation with a 10 minute work period inside a 50 minute iteration.
In the last work period, I completed my two form processing tasks. Next work period I will get the database code for the report completed. I have no obstacles to report from this last work period.
I like the term “work period” because it is simple and generic. It also evokes the term “periodic” and the idea of a concentrated effort on the task at hand.
Thoughts? Any agile methods that _do_ have a term to refer to this period of time between status meetings?
Tags: Ideas