Pacing things out and burn down spreadsheets

As an introduction, I have been experimenting with running a ‘burn down’ spreadsheet.

If you are familiar with agile environments and methodology, you may be familiar with the ‘burn down’.  It could be in the form of a burn down chart or a burn down spreadsheet.

Last month, I created four iterations of the burn down spreadsheet.  Each iteration addressed a particular problem or scenario. Let’s infer, these are hypothetical and not all related to me, that Scenario A details a one-year full-time graduate school pathway, Scenario B details a six-month travelling, six-month internship-in-a-new-field-in-a-new-country plan and Scenario C is continuance of an existing career but with an exit plan of a vertical-upwards/horizontal move in the organization.  While these scenarios are different, we can infer that Scenario B is the one that is the most volatile or dynamic, Scenario A is the most stable and Scenario C is somewhere in-between.

So in the burn down chart for this current sprint so far (let’s say, 2 sprints per month so that a fortnight long spring), I would make a comment that I am making high velocity progress utilizing a good amount of effort.  The timing, not so much. I think that I have underestimated myself.  I thought that I would only reach 10-20 velocity points (5 points per reply) but it turned out that I am completely maxing out on 50 velocity points (1o replies).  I am maxing out, either because I’ve underestimated how much velocity I can actually drum up…..or how I am timing things is really bad.

I would measure Career Zoo as a 50 velocity point activity (researching companies, researching roles, following up with people, networking), which means that, I am not sure if I can take on board any new activity in the next few days and maybe rest of the month…

 

One thought on “Pacing things out and burn down spreadsheets”

Comments are closed.