By Stewart Nicholas, Owner and Lead Process Developer at Nik Systems

First, let me take a moment to say thank you for stopping in to discover what we’re up to this week. Your support means the world to us.
We’re looking at another beautiful week of productivity at Nik Systems. However, before we get into that, we decided to take a moment and touch on a change of direction for our company blog.
From the earliest stage of conceptual design at Nik Systems, our intent for this blog was to document the development of our company. We sought to provide a narrative account of our mission to help neighboring small businesses across the North Country achieve their full potential. Through this effort we hope to give you a front row seat to the creative process, and disciplined effort, required to launch and get our young startup to take flight.
Experience is a great teacher, and what it taught us over the last 20 years, is that you’re only as a good as the last great thing you did. We’re keenly aware, being the new kids on the block, that we’ve got a long way to go before we can develop the prospective market confidence we’ll need to sustain our brand; and to get there we’re going to have to lead from the front. How? By exercising a great deal of humility, that’s how.
Nik Systems was founded on the belief that we were opening our doors to serve a market full of smart business teams, who are experts in their field and know how to get things done. We’re not here to pretend that we know your business better than you do. Nobody does. We’re here to become a valued extension of your team. We want to help you see how your business operates, identify ways to improve, and perform better. To succeed at our mission, we’re steadfast in our commitment to building positive relationships with business leaders throughout our service area.
Trust being the cornerstone of any good relationship, we made the decision early on to be bravely transparent about the growth of our company and the way we operate. Because we realize that influence and respect are rarely given but always earned, we are providing our readers privileged access to the building of our company, to demonstrate successful implementation of the approach and methods we hope to apply in making their businesses stronger.
Nik Systems is an agile company that extensively applies the Scrum framework to identifying and resolving problems unique to our product development space. If your unfamiliar with the Scrum framework, you’ll probably benefit from a little primer in Scrum terminology as it will help you understand the information being provided in this and future post at Nik Systems. For simplicity we’ll provide some explanation in the body below which should serve as a digestive aid reading through this material. Later installments will focus less on the basics and more on application of principle. Still, we’ll establish a foundation as we move along.
The Scrum Guide defines Scrum as a “…framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value” (Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, 2017). At this stage of growth at Nik Systems we tend to define our “product” attributes in terms of any way a potential customer encounters or interacts with our brand. The bulk of our product development effort focuses on those things appearing on the near-term horizon while strategic items appearing on the far horizon remain more abstract until the situation calls for us taking a closer look at them, or priorities change.
Product Backlog
In Scrum a Product Backlog is a list of features or work to be done on a product. Items appearing on the Product Backlog are called Product Backlog Items (PBIs). Currently there are a total number of 112 PBI appearing on our Product Backlog. 65 of those PBI have been completed. 47 are outstanding. However, here’s the thing to remember about the Product Backlog. The total number of items appearing on the Product Backlog is constantly in flux. New items are added as the team identifies new features or value-added work to be done to the product. Old items are held in abeyance or perhaps cut completely as the perceived value of a feature goes down.
Items appearing on the Product Backlog often appear in the form of a User Story. A User Story is structured in the following format, As a < type of user >, I want < some goal > so that < some reason >. The basic format of the User Story comes from the Scrum framework’s emphasis on delivering value to the customer. At times, an item appearing on a Product Backlog will not appear in User Story format; frequently this is the case with some rear-facing items that are critical to the team but not the customer (such as the PBI dealing with procedural development appearing below).
As it stands, we’re addressing the following items on the Product Backlog during this Sprint:
The total number of Story Points allocated to this Sprint is 4.5 Story Points.
A Sprint Defined
In Scrum a Sprint is a time-box event, of one month or less, in which a team seeks to complete development of a potentially releasable Product Increment. A Product Increment being defined as a useable, valuable, change, or added feature, to a product.
As it stands Nik Systems is practicing product development in one-week Sprints.
Sprint Goal
A Sprint Goal is simply the overarching objective of a Sprint. It’s what the team is hoping to achieve in the Increment to be released.
The central objective of this Sprint is to draft and publish a version of our brand summary to tell the story of our brand on the company Facebook Page.
Sprint Backlog
Like a Product Backlog, a Sprint Backlog contains several items, in this case designated tasks, to be complete in pursuit of a Sprint Goal. Items appearing on the Sprint Backlog are estimated not in terms of Story Points, but in terms of the rough number of hours a task may take to complete. At the start of this Sprint our Sprint Backlog contains the following items:
Sprint Forecast
This increment is scheduled for release on August 21, 2020. Don’t forget to check back to see the results of the Sprint. As always, we’re open to fielding any questions or hearing any feedback you may have. Don’t hesitate to contact us today!
About the Author
Stewart Nicholas is a U.S. Army combat-veteran who served as a team leader with the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) on Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan. After leaving the military, he went on to provide over a decade of service to the non-profit industry and founded Nik Systems, a community minded business consultancy located in Northern New York. He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from SUNY Empire State College and is a Certified ScrumMaster (SCM) through Scrum Alliance.
We’re looking at another beautiful week of productivity at Nik Systems. However, before we get into that, we decided to take a moment and touch on a change of direction for our company blog.
From the earliest stage of conceptual design at Nik Systems, our intent for this blog was to document the development of our company. We sought to provide a narrative account of our mission to help neighboring small businesses across the North Country achieve their full potential. Through this effort we hope to give you a front row seat to the creative process, and disciplined effort, required to launch and get our young startup to take flight.
Experience is a great teacher, and what it taught us over the last 20 years, is that you’re only as a good as the last great thing you did. We’re keenly aware, being the new kids on the block, that we’ve got a long way to go before we can develop the prospective market confidence we’ll need to sustain our brand; and to get there we’re going to have to lead from the front. How? By exercising a great deal of humility, that’s how.
Nik Systems was founded on the belief that we were opening our doors to serve a market full of smart business teams, who are experts in their field and know how to get things done. We’re not here to pretend that we know your business better than you do. Nobody does. We’re here to become a valued extension of your team. We want to help you see how your business operates, identify ways to improve, and perform better. To succeed at our mission, we’re steadfast in our commitment to building positive relationships with business leaders throughout our service area.
Trust being the cornerstone of any good relationship, we made the decision early on to be bravely transparent about the growth of our company and the way we operate. Because we realize that influence and respect are rarely given but always earned, we are providing our readers privileged access to the building of our company, to demonstrate successful implementation of the approach and methods we hope to apply in making their businesses stronger.
Nik Systems is an agile company that extensively applies the Scrum framework to identifying and resolving problems unique to our product development space. If your unfamiliar with the Scrum framework, you’ll probably benefit from a little primer in Scrum terminology as it will help you understand the information being provided in this and future post at Nik Systems. For simplicity we’ll provide some explanation in the body below which should serve as a digestive aid reading through this material. Later installments will focus less on the basics and more on application of principle. Still, we’ll establish a foundation as we move along.
The Scrum Guide defines Scrum as a “…framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value” (Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland, 2017). At this stage of growth at Nik Systems we tend to define our “product” attributes in terms of any way a potential customer encounters or interacts with our brand. The bulk of our product development effort focuses on those things appearing on the near-term horizon while strategic items appearing on the far horizon remain more abstract until the situation calls for us taking a closer look at them, or priorities change.
Product Backlog
In Scrum a Product Backlog is a list of features or work to be done on a product. Items appearing on the Product Backlog are called Product Backlog Items (PBIs). Currently there are a total number of 112 PBI appearing on our Product Backlog. 65 of those PBI have been completed. 47 are outstanding. However, here’s the thing to remember about the Product Backlog. The total number of items appearing on the Product Backlog is constantly in flux. New items are added as the team identifies new features or value-added work to be done to the product. Old items are held in abeyance or perhaps cut completely as the perceived value of a feature goes down.
Items appearing on the Product Backlog often appear in the form of a User Story. A User Story is structured in the following format, As a < type of user >, I want < some goal > so that < some reason >. The basic format of the User Story comes from the Scrum framework’s emphasis on delivering value to the customer. At times, an item appearing on a Product Backlog will not appear in User Story format; frequently this is the case with some rear-facing items that are critical to the team but not the customer (such as the PBI dealing with procedural development appearing below).
As it stands, we’re addressing the following items on the Product Backlog during this Sprint:
- As a visitor to Nik Systems’ blog, I want a short Author Biography, so that I can understand the perspective and credibility of the person writing the post
- As a potential customer visiting Nik Systems’ Facebook page, I want to see a brand summary, so that I can easily connect with the brand
- As a visitor to Nik Systems’ blog, I want a blog post on Sprint Planning for development of Nik Systems Brand Summary, so that I can understand the process and features associated with development of the brands story
- As a visitor to Nik Systems’ blog, I want a blog post covering the Sprint Review process associated with development of the company’s Brand Summary, so that I can understand the process and thought that went into development of the brands story
- Update Nik Systems’ Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs); Integrate a Release Communications Procedure
The total number of Story Points allocated to this Sprint is 4.5 Story Points.
A Sprint Defined
In Scrum a Sprint is a time-box event, of one month or less, in which a team seeks to complete development of a potentially releasable Product Increment. A Product Increment being defined as a useable, valuable, change, or added feature, to a product.
As it stands Nik Systems is practicing product development in one-week Sprints.
Sprint Goal
A Sprint Goal is simply the overarching objective of a Sprint. It’s what the team is hoping to achieve in the Increment to be released.
The central objective of this Sprint is to draft and publish a version of our brand summary to tell the story of our brand on the company Facebook Page.
Sprint Backlog
Like a Product Backlog, a Sprint Backlog contains several items, in this case designated tasks, to be complete in pursuit of a Sprint Goal. Items appearing on the Sprint Backlog are estimated not in terms of Story Points, but in terms of the rough number of hours a task may take to complete. At the start of this Sprint our Sprint Backlog contains the following items:
- Draft a short author bio for the blog
- Draft a Sprint Planning blog post, on development of the brand story
- Publish the Sprint Planning blog post to Nik Systems blog
- Push the Sprint Planning blog post to Facebook
- Push the Sprint Planning blog post to LinkedIn
- Conduct a Sprint Review
- Draft a Sprint Review blog post, on development of the brand story
- Publish the Sprint Review blog post to Nik Systems blog
- Push the Sprint Review blog post to Facebook
- Push the Sprint Review blog post to LinkedIn
- Update Nik Systems’ Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs); Integrate a Release Communications Procedure
Sprint Forecast
This increment is scheduled for release on August 21, 2020. Don’t forget to check back to see the results of the Sprint. As always, we’re open to fielding any questions or hearing any feedback you may have. Don’t hesitate to contact us today!
About the Author
Stewart Nicholas is a U.S. Army combat-veteran who served as a team leader with the 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry) on Operation Enduring Freedom-Afghanistan. After leaving the military, he went on to provide over a decade of service to the non-profit industry and founded Nik Systems, a community minded business consultancy located in Northern New York. He holds a B.S. in Information Systems from SUNY Empire State College and is a Certified ScrumMaster (SCM) through Scrum Alliance.