What did we learn in 100 sprints?

This week marks the 100th Sprint on Eclipse Virgo! That includes the precursor project, SpringSource dm Server. What have we learned about scrum? Well, obviously, it's pretty good otherwise we would have ditched it long ago (and believe me I've been tempted a couple of times). But specifically...


Firstly, that one week sprints are by far the easiest to manage, both in terms of planning effort, but also psychologically. Even in a two week sprint, it's easy to put off unpleasant tasks until it's too late.


Secondly, that the main value of scrum is to keep the team focussed on specific tasks during a sprint and enable progress to be shared easily at daily stand-up meetings.


Thirdly, that story points are more effort than they are worth, so it's more effective to go with gut feel.


Fourthly, that you have to take a relaxed attitude towards planning design work as it's almost impossible to predict the effort up front. Spikes are ok for small items, but sometimes you just need plenty of time to get your head round a large area.