The Latest

Kent McDonald shares with us a story about decorating cakes and how that relates to doing agile the right way. To be truly effective, teams need to focus more on the need to reflect and adapt, and then figure out the best way to do that in their environment without worrying about whether they are doing it exactly right.

The iterative agile methodology provides a clearer vision, smaller time scale, and closer planning horizon. The authors look at approaches to estimation and planning, from product backlog grooming to task-estimating tables and more.

Kenneth Grant explains whether or not being agile is really as cheap for an organization as its proponents claim it to be. Agile’s relentless focus on business value and just-enough work can help teams identify waste—or poor return on investment (ROI) requirements—and gives them the opportunity to change it or leave it out all together.

Many professionals, while having expertise in their technical niche, are sometimes less than perfect at communicating effectively with colleagues from other departments. This can result in departments failing to work effectively together; these departments resemble silos more than a collaborative and cohesive organization. This article will help you identify and understand some of the reasons why teams operate in silos and what you can do to change that.

People often ask, “Can we apply agile to fields outside of software?” In this article from Marco Peredo-Saavedra, you can read how a construction project applied agile to its work with Marco as the product owner/customer. Take inspiration, and read his lessons. Then, go apply them!

A letter from the Better Software magazine editor.

In this installment of FAQ, SQE Trainer Claire Lohr answers one of the questions students ask her most often.