There’s a certain tactile appreciation I have for doing this sort of thing on paper, but of course there are disadvantages, too. So up ’til now, my team and I have been doing this all on paper. The benefit, of course, is that it’s pretty obvious pretty quickly if you’ve bit off more than you can chew. This is nothing more complex than a simple graph that depicts how much work you bit off and how far along trying to chew it you actually are. That’s why one of my favorite things about Scrum is the burn down chart. I find working without an accurate awareness of the situation at large very disorienting, and software and web development are notorious for being circumstances that change rapidly. Most of that enjoyment is due to a sense of visibility, of knowing what’s going on. Ever since I was introduced to the Scrum methodology of software development, I’ve enjoyed my work so much more than before.