“After years of discussing estimation/sizing of the effort needed to bring a user story from vague ideas to proven value – it seems that as a community we are not any closer to agreeing on even the basics. Not that it is a goal to agree, but it would be nice to at least send a roughly similar message to our dear clients and co-workers, who are constantly the “victims” of our ongoing process experiments. What bothers me the most about many of the traditional Agile ways of doing estimation is that both the process of doing estimates and the way they are used seem to be imposing and constraining the process rather than supporting it.”

tags: agile

Stop wasting time trying to get estimates right! – and what to do instead | Agile Upgrade

He believes that the priority of the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, is to “keep Ukraine bubbling,” no matter the financial costs. Mr. Pomerantsev fears that the financial pressures and Western sanctions, instead of compelling Mr. Putin to change course, are likely to make Russia more closed and dictatorial.

tags: russia

A Russian TV Insider Describes a Modern Propaganda Machine

Product is important, absolutely, but don’t just pivot without also thinking about quality, pricing, marketing, and how they all fit together.

tags: startups

Olark – The First Three Years