agile

Articles

Snapshot: A Team’s First Steps into Shared Ownership
Karen Favazza Spencer writes of the time her team members had to modernize and expand the capabilities of their legacy system. In this situation, Karen took on the role of ScrumMaster, implemented several helpful agile techniques, and empowered the team to share leadership of the project with management.
How to Make Collocation Work for You
Gil Zilberfeld recounts his experience with collocation during his time at Typemock, and explains how collocation can benefit your team. In modern agile discussions, we struggle with how to work with distributed teams around the globe. The truth is that it’s easy to break stuff just by moving part of the team to the next room.
Getting the Most Out of Your Geographically Distributed Agile Team
Shane Hastie and Johanna Rothman explain the challenges that come with distance, be it cultural, social, linguistic, temporal, or geographic. If you work to reinforce your collaboration habits every day, your geographically distributed agile team will thank you.
On Sumo, Architecture, and Enterprise Agile
In order to be successful in the ring, a sumo wrestler needs to maintain a heavy body weight and at the same time be in peak physical condition. Just as these Japanese athletes have to find the right balance through a well thought-out combination of diet and training regimen, software development organizations need a balanced approach to implementing application architecture on agile projects.

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Better Software Magazine

Lessons Learned from Ancient Wisdom
Lessons learned long ago from reviews and inspection can be effective today, particularly in collaboration within agile teams. Learn how an organization used review techniques as part of its agile collaboration, including the advantages and potential problems of this ancient wisdom.
Why Agile Works: Focus on the Details of Software Development
It's easy to overlook details when your focus is on the big picture. But, if you adjust your perspective, you may find new value in understanding why things work the way they do. Learn why agile works and how it can apply to both complex and simple projects.
Simplicity and Precision: Test Planning in Agile Projects
Test planning is often thought unnecessary in an agile project. However, if our mindset is on "planning" rather than "plans," we see that test-planning activities happen throughout the project, taking advantage of levels of precision, i.e., what is absolutely necessary at each level.
Creative Agility
Many new products being developed require the contribution of artists and other such "creatives," but artists often view the creative process as an organic thing that cannot be analyzed, dissected, or reduced to a set of defined practices without killing it. This article explores barriers such as these to the introduction of agile methods and how these barriers can be overcome.
Learning For Agile Testers, Part 2

In part one of our Learning for Agile Testers series, we addressed general "thinking" skills that go beyond technical competence and how learning these enhances the value you contribute. In part two, we discuss some specific technical skills that benefit testers and how to acquire them.

The Three Amigos
Analysts determine what needs to be created. Programmers create it. Testers find the holes in the work of both. That's one way to do it, but all three can collaborate to do these things better, and more easily, too.
When Software Smells Bad
Most software needs to be "maintainable" and have high "internal quality." But what does that mean in practical terms? Code smells form a vocabulary for discussing code quality and how well suited code might be to change. The smells also provide good indications as to what to refactor and how.

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Interviews

Culturally Sound Leadership: An Interview with Pollyanna Pixton
Podcast
Pollyanna Pixton shares why crafting a healthy and productive agile culture is so difficult, and how it relies heavily on the shoulders of team leaders. She stresses the importance of leaders not providing their teams with answers—but giving them the ownership to solve problems on their own.
Innovation Courtesy of Inspiration: An Interview with Jim Elvidge
Jim Elvidge attributes the last thirty years of fun that he's had in his career to the same qualities teams should be built with today. Innovative products come from teams who are inspired to reach their full creative potential, and getting your employees there may be easier than you think.
Ram Srinivasan on The Benefits of Gamification
Video
Agile coach Ram Srinivasan shares his views on why gamification is so enjoyable for users—and so effective and even profitable for businesses. Learn how social connectivity, increased engagement, and even fun all combine to produce an exciting time in software development.
A Firsthand Agile Transition Success Story: An Interview with Penny Wyatt
In this interview, Penny Wyatt speaks with us ahead of her Agile Development Conference West session, "Transform Your Agile Test Process to Ship Fast with High Quality," to share some of the ways she and her team achieved success, and how they—and you—can continue to develop and grow together.

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TechWell Stories
To Estimate or Not to Estimate—That Is the Question
Removing Waste in Software Projects
Create a Vendor Contract While Keeping Agile
How Agile Teams Use DevOps for Deployment
Build a List of Things—But Don't Call It Agile

Recommended Web Seminars

May 23 Key Principles to Mobile Performance Testing
May 29 How to Integrate Performance Testing into Agile and Hybrid Environments
Jun 11 Test Infrastructure Changes as Easy as Pressing Play
Jun 18 Adopting Agile and Moving into the Future
On Demand 7 Habits of Highly Effective Agile Teams

Featured Resources

» Skytap Automation Pack for Microsoft VS Team Foundation Server | Skytap
» An Innovative Approach to Integration Testing | IBM Rational
» Improve Quality and Decrease Time to Market with Requirements Management | PTC
» Cloud-Enabled Software Development and Testing | Skytap
» Perfection Just Became Mobile: An Easy-to-Use Solution for Mobile App Testing | Micro Focus

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