I just uploaded the slides from my talk at Microsoft on orders of magnitude in test automation. The talk is based on the article I wrote with the same name. In the talk, I use Marick's framework for agile testing to help frame where some of this automation fits on agile teams. I was really happy with the number of questions that I recieved after giving the presentation. Lots of good discussion on leveraging the heuristic at large companies, on legacy projects, and looking at the changing role of the tester. 

In a post from January (I'm just getting to the RSS backlog), Geekpreneur posted some tips for setting your freelance client workload . It's a good post. Not only is it pragmatic advice for an independent, but as I read it I immediately started to think of what we do in sprint planning (capacity planning, story selection, etc...) and task out (breaking down stories into smaller parts, prioritizing, scheduling, etc...). I think you'll see the parallels.

I've noticed that some of the biggest areas people working on sprint teams struggle with are the topics covered in this post. It's interesting to me how that parallels the work that independent's do. It would appear effective time management (in two contexts where you're responsible for your own time), is a must have for those working alone or in agile teams. I'm not so sure how important it is on projects where you have 500 line project plans with three people telling you what to do and when. I'm certain it still matters, but it matters much less.