Two styles of Scope definition in Scrum

In every start of Sprint, we have Sprint Planning meeting. In this meeting each Scrum team member (Pigs as well as Chickens) agree upon stories to be completed in current Sprint. This is an ideal picture.

Do we live in ideal world?

Does we have picture perfect Scrum and Sprint? 

No.

There are at least two different styles of scope definitions.

First one where, day one during sprint planning, scope of whole of sprint is defined and then team race towards a fixed target.

In second approach, during sprint planning meeting, team agrees upon broad scope for sprint and keep on refining the scope with time. 

In my point of view, first approach is derivative of water fall model while second has blend of Kanban.

What do you think?

P.S.: Discussion about details of Burnout chart in second case if for some other time.

 

Book Review: Functional JavaScript: Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js

Book Review:  Functional JavaScript: Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js by Micheal Fogus: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-1449360726

Fogus tried presenting functional programming concepts in very lucid and straight forward fashion and he is successful in that. Though book uses Underscore.js extensively but has not discussed the same in depth.

If you are new to Functional programming but knows JavaScript, this book is for you. Certainly this book is not for green horns.

Functional JavaScript: Introducing Functional Programming with Underscore.js has dedicated chapters for First-Class Functions, Closures, High-Order Functions, Recursion, etc. Book is dense and packed with information. One need time and patience to read and grasp this book.

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

Further reading:
Functional Programming books:

• Functional Programming in Scala
• Functional Programming Using F#
• Functional Programming for Java Developers: Tools for Better Concurrency, Abstraction, and Agility
• The Functional Approach to Programming

Functional JavaScript libraries:

• Functional JavaScript Library
• wu.js: http://fitzgen.github.io/wu.js/

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Functional-JavaScript-Introducing-Programming-Underscore-js/dp/1449360726
2. Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028857.do
3. Underscore.js: http://underscorejs.org
4. Michael Fogus’s web presence: http://fogus.me

Book Review: Learning Java

Book Review:  Learning Java by Patrick Niemeyer and Daniel Leuck: Publisher- O'Reilly: ISBN- 13: 978-1-4493-2306-6

Learning Java (Fourth Edition) is book for Java practitioner as reference book. This covers lot of topics.  

This is an excellent book for someone who knows basics of programming. This book is not beginners. This book lacks examples and exercises which may disappoint few people.

Book has 24 chapters covering almost all of basic Java.  The chapter one talks about historical aspects. Second chapter is brief introduction of java but it assumes that reader is aware of programming, OOP, threading etc which is difficult for any beginner.  

Disclaimer: I did not get paid to review this book, and I do not stand to gain anything if you buy the book. I have no relationship with the publisher or the author. I got electronic format of book from publisher for review.

Further reading: 

There are several books on similar topic. Effective Java, Core Java Volume I--Fundamentals, Core Java, Volume II--Advanced Features, Head First Java, etc.

One can get more information about book and related topics from:

1. Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Java-Patrick-Niemeyer/dp/1449319246
2. Publisher -- Oreilly http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920023463.do