you say tomato, I say...
Pomodoro

In XP
user stories, planning game, iteration starts

Or Maybe Scrum
user stories, product backlog, sprint backlog,
sprint starts

then what?

“Tasks”
few hours, half a day, a few days

“Becoming” Anxiety
time flow is frustrating if not measurable
even a few hours are difficult to “feel”

Time Boxes
how long a time box should be?

Why 25 Minutes?
short
enough to avoid frustration of becoming
enough to always feel energized
long
enough for a consistent unit of work

Why 5 minutes?
short
enough to remember what’s the goal
long
enough to enable sustainable pace

Exercise
common registration process:
collect information from a form
validation and error handling
vend email with link
process registration confirmation
login welcome page

Rules
25 + 5 and 4 + 1
The Pomodoro Is Indivisible
If a Pomodoro Begins, It Has to Ring
Zero Pomodoro Rule
If More Than 5-7 Pomodoros, Break It Down
If Less Than One Pomodoro, Add It Up
The Next Pomodoro Will Go Better

Short Break
distraction forces re-prioritization of
thoughts for the next pomodoro

Longer Break
helps maintaining a sustainable pace

Protect the Pomodoro
inform, negotiate, reschedule
GTD anyone?

Benefits
feeling of accomplishment
actively fights the “bad days”
prevents yak shaving
learn about yourself

Pomodoro Evolution
description and timestamp
pomodoro metrics
tagging
pomodoro switch
standup preparation
user story elapsed time VS time spent
iteration retrospective
timetable

Tools
timers, soft or hard
paper or paperless
spreadsheet
omnioutliner and the alike
twitter db
keeptempo
easytracking

Tracking Exercise
start the timer
a pomodoro was spent
store pomodoro
break
restart

Team Pomodoro
yesterday’s pomodoros
pair rotations
your break is not necessarily everyone’s
the coach protects all pomodoros

Resources
the original paper http://www.tecnicadelpomodoro.it/docs/francesco-
cirillo/2007/ThePomodoroTechnique_v1-3.pdf
PT in XP Teams http://www.tecnicadelpomodoro.it/docs/conferences/gobbo-
vaccari-XP2008-camera-ready.pdf
easytracking http://www.myagileprojects.com/demo.html
keeptempo www.keeptempo.com