Make sure you didn't miss anything with this list of the Best of the Week in the Agile Zone (December 12 - December 19). Here they are, in order of popularity:

1. Don't Estimate Stories In Sprint Planning

• I don’t estimate stories in sprint planning. Nor do I re-estimate stories in sprint planning. I estimate stories in a separate estimating meeting and usually at least a couple sprints in advance, if not more. There are a few reasons why (re)estimating during sprint planning is a dangerous practice:

2. Agile in a Remote Workplace World

• How do you enable collaboration when team members are working from home? How do remote teams engage in stand up meetings, sprint planning sessions, retrospective meetings, and other Agile ceremonies?

3. On building teams: experience or talent?

• Obviously when you hire, you want to find a good mix of experience and talent. But a perfectly balanced straddle between the two is impossible. So when forced to choose between them, which do you choose: experience or talent?

4. Another Approach to the Diamond Kata

• I conclude that there are certainly many ways to approach a given problem. The way you conceive of the problem and approach the solution has a great effect on the result. If you think you need to think things out before you start coding, then you probably will, and that may affect the solution you achieve. Sometimes it’s hard to let go of our ideas and be open to the opportunities presented by the code.

5. How Can Suppliers Help Customers Understand Their Requirements Better

• In a previous post on the ReQtest blog, I listed the five worst requirements I have ever seen during my career and gave the reasons why these requirements and other like them are the curse of every tester. This article is a follow-up of sorts.