Thoughts from a Thirsty Bear

Finally.... I have finished a full suit of Thirsty Bear Software Planning Poker cards: OK, it's still a prototype built from laminated pouches, inkjet printouts and a lot of patience, but they make a huge difference to the flow of a Planning Game. Even using a small subset (0, 1, 2, 3 and '?') has a significant impact by removing the "follow the leader" behaviour that conventional planning encourages. Now to find a printer that can supply a small run as "real" playing cards.....

I think I might have stumbled upon a better name for what I was originally calling " faux agile ". " Cargo Cult Agile " seems to convey the sentiment far better by linking it to the cargo cult religions around the world. In short, it's when a team/organisation blindly adopts agile practices without really understanding them in order to get benefit from them. I picked it up from an XP Day session description , but it has appeared elsewhere as well (drop me a line if you believe you invented the term, and I will attribute the source). I only wish I had thought of it.....