[nfbcs] [Accessible Scrum tool

Sat Oct 17 07:46:31 UTC 2015

Thinking about this, it won't matter what your team uses if you use 
org-mode.  First of all, in org-mode outline items can get categories 
and properties which a user can assign and the user gets to select what 
each are called depending on the particular application for which 
org-mode is being used.  Once that gets done, it's possible to search 
based on those properties and categories.  The other good thing about 
org-mode once you learn to do the format correctly is that the output is 
ascii text files with the org extension.  It is possible to use latex 
and babel inside of org-mode for fancy reports and source code as well. 
So an item is a blocker, put it in the blocker category or give it a 
blocker property then document it however you need.  The org-mode 
package can do tables and spreadsheets as well if those are needed and 
has a support email list which is high volume and high signal to noise 
too.  I would be really surprised if noone on that email list hasn't 
already used org-mode to manage scrum for a team or themselves yet, but 
I can ask and post whatever comes back in terms of responses here if you 
like.  The emacs system works on mac windows and linux and even dos if 
you have to go that low these days.

On Fri, 16 Oct 2015, Bryan Duarte wrote:

> Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2015 19:51:12
> From: Bryan Duarte <bjduarte at asu.edu>
> To: Jim Barbour <jbar at barcore.com>
> Cc: Jude DaShiell <jdashiel at panix.com>,
>     Jim Barbour via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] [Accessible Scrum tool
> 
> Jim you again make a very good point and solid argument! Thank you for that harsh reality...
>
> Go Devils!
>
> Bryan Duarte
> Software Engineering Graduate student
> ASU Fulton Engineering College
> QwikEyes CEO
>
>> On Oct 16, 2015, at 4:50 PM, Jim Barbour <jbar at barcore.com> wrote:
>>
>> Yeah, but Bryan I think you're focused on the wrong part of this problem.
>>
>> Let's pretend that you found a perfectly good, accessible, scrum
>> tool.  Let's also pretend that you got your team to agree to switch to
>> it.  That gets you through this project,
>>
>> But, what happens when you get employed somewhere that doesn't use this tool?  You'll likely not convince your team to use a one off tool just for you, and you'll likely not convince the company to switch tools, at least not right away.  You're much better off if you learn how to survive in environments where the tools you are required to deal with aren't necessarily accessible.
>>
>> You might be able to convince your employer to switch tools eventually, but not before you've had to complete a scrum or two using the inaccessible tool.
>>
>> Knowing how to survive in technologically unfriendly environments is a very important skill for a bind person to have.
>>
>> Take care,
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 04:39:02PM -0700, Bryan Duarte wrote:
>>>
>>> Thank you Jim for this feedback. I have talked with my team and they are all willing to do this for me as you stated. It just gets more and more difficult the more I learn, do, and am a partpart of and still am having to figure out half ass work arounds. I have searched for, downloaded, and tried probably 10 to 15 different scrum tools and not a single one was accessible and this upsets me. Worst case scenario I do as you suggested once again, but I am not going to give up the search. Thank you sir
>>>
>>> Go Devils!
>>>
>>> Bryan Duarte
>>> Software Engineering Graduate student
>>> ASU Fulton Engineering College
>>> QwikEyes CEO
>>>
>>>> On Oct 16, 2015, at 4:37 PM, Jim Barbour <jbar at barcore.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Bryan,
>>>>
>>>> I really believe that your best bet is going to be to use your
>>>> teammates as your interface to the scrub board.r
>>>>
>>>> At the beginning of each sprint, get someone to let you know what your
>>>> tasks are.
>>>>
>>>> Once a day, or however is comfortable, email your scrum master with
>>>> updates for your items and ask them to put them in.  You should
>>>> probably check with them first, but I'm betting they won't mind.
>>>>
>>>> Before the sprint retrospective, ask someone to mark your completed items as done.  Or, just have the scrum master do it during the retrospective.
>>>>
>>>> You'll need to get comfortable with the idea of getting help to manage these tools, and this seems like a good opportunity to do that.
>>>>
>>>> Hope this helps,
>>>>
>>>> Jim
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 04:29:17PM -0700, Bryan Duarte wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> In my opinion I have always had to and been able to find work arounds but there is a lot of disconnect between my team and I when I am unable to independently access the tools being used by the rest of the team. When doing agile programming it is very important that the team is on the same page and constantly referring to and updating the scrum board as development moves forward. Last year I used the work around of Trello as a scrum board and although it was functional for a time there were features that a real scrum tool could give that we were unable to use in our team and we paid the price for it in the end. I would truly like to locate a scrum tool that my team and I can use but so far have come up empty in my search. Thanks all for your feedback so far...
>>>>>
>>>>> Go Devils!
>>>>>
>>>>> Bryan Duarte
>>>>> Software Engineering Graduate student
>>>>> ASU Fulton Engineering College
>>>>> QwikEyes CEO
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Oct 16, 2015, at 4:27 PM, Jim Barbour <jbar at barcore.com> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I don't agree that outlining is a good way to do this.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Most people want a tool that understands, and correctly visualizes, dependencies, blockers, timelines, etc.  You can force these concepts on top of org-mode, but there are tools that are built for this purpose.  Unfortunately, it's unclear if any of them are accessible.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Put differently, if I'm a blind scrum master, I might use org-mode and just ask everyone to put up with the way it looks.  If I'm not the scrum master, I'm not likely to convince the scrum master to use an outlining tool instead of a scrum tool.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Jim
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 07:02:49PM -0400, Jude DaShiell wrote:
>>>>>>> Very probably org-mode inside any modern emacs could be used for this
>>>>>>> project management work.  Each sprint would just be a level down on the
>>>>>>> outline.  The website is http://www.org-mode.org/ and there's lots of
>>>>>>> tutorials available along with 3rd party extra applications that can be
>>>>>>> installed to make org-mode do even more.  The org-mode tool isn't bad at
>>>>>>> exporting web pages either.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Fri, 16 Oct 2015, Jim Barbour via nfbcs wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2015 18:29:29
>>>>>>>> From: Jim Barbour via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>>>>>>> To: Bryan Duarte <bjduarte at asu.edu>
>>>>>>>> Cc: Jim Barbour <jbar at barcore.com>,
>>>>>>>> NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] [Accessible Scrum tool
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hey Bryan,
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> No, sorry.  Jira is all we've been using.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Jim
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 03:14:55PM -0700, Bryan Duarte wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Jim,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> have you used any free scrum tools? Jira wants $10 a month for their tool.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Go Devils!
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Bryan Duarte
>>>>>>>>> Software Engineering Graduate student
>>>>>>>>> ASU Fulton Engineering College
>>>>>>>>> QwikEyes CEO
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Oct 16, 2015, at 3:12 PM, Jim Barbour via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Scrum, part of the agile development process.  Often described as the management and execution of a set of sprints designed to complete a particular project. A sprint is a set of tasks to complete within a given period of time, usually a week or two.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Jim
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Fri, Oct 16, 2015 at 05:03:52PM -0500, Todor Fassl via nfbcs wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>> Scrub? As in wipe? Meaning wipe the data off a hard drive?  I don't know how
>>>>>>>>>>> to do this with a Mac. But on PC hardware, I use a live linux distro called
>>>>>>>>>>> grml. Then I use the dd command thusly:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4096
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> if= the imput file. In this case, a device that generates zeros. It's built
>>>>>>>>>>> into the linux kernel.
>>>>>>>>>>> of= output file. In this case, /dev/sda will be your harddisk.
>>>>>>>>>>> bs= the buffer size. 4096 is the sector size of most disks.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> You can also use /dev/random for the input file and it will write random
>>>>>>>>>>> numbers to the disk. That makes it less likely that someone with a magnetic
>>>>>>>>>>> scanner can resurrect the drive. Supposedly, if you write random numbers to
>>>>>>>>>>> the disk like a dozen times even the CIA can't get the data back. It would
>>>>>>>>>>> take forever though.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> For purposes of your class, you might be able to us the example command I
>>>>>>>>>>> gave above.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> On 10/16/2015 04:39 PM, Bryan Duarte via nfbcs wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I am a senior in Software Engineering at Arizona State. I am wondering if anyone out there knows of an accessible scrum tool? I am on a project team with three other developers and they are planning to use scrumwise which is completely inaccessible for me.
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> I am using Mac osX with voiceover if you have any feedback on an accessible scrum tool. Thanks
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Go Devils!
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Bryan Duarte
>>>>>>>>>>>> Software Engineering Graduate student
>>>>>>>>>>>> ASU Fulton Engineering College
>>>>>>>>>>>> QwikEyes CEO
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>>>> nfbcs mailing list
>>>>>>>>>>>> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
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>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>>> nfbcs mailing list
>>>>>>>>>>> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
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>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>> nfbcs mailing list
>>>>>>>>>> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
>>>>>>>>>> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
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>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> nfbcs mailing list
>>>>>>>> nfbcs at nfbnet.org
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>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>
>

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