The Latest

Returning to Agile: An Interview with Dan North [interview]

Dan North is presenting three sessions at the upcoming 2012 Better Software Conference East, including a keynote. Titled "Embracing Uncertainty: A Leap of Faith," Dan will discuss how embracing uncertainty is one of agile's core principles and how taking risks amidst diversity can result in resounding success.

Building Trust and Culture in Teams: An Interview with Scott Ross [interview]

Scott Ross is presenting a session named "Leveraging Core Values for Healthier, More Productive Teams" at the 2012 Better Software Conference East. Scott shared with us the importance of maintaining a positive culture around development teams in order to keep everyone happy, healthy, and productive.

Skipping Shortcuts: Convincing Clients to Take the Better Path [article]

Your clients may not understand why you follow certain practices as a project professional. They may encourage you to take shortcuts that they believe will save time, money, and difficulty. You know better, but how can you convince them?

Building a Team Through Feedback [article]

The ability to give honest, effective feedback to someone is important. Equally important is the ability to hear and understand that feedback. Learn how to use good feedback to build a stronger team.

Transition to Agile: Large Technical Debt, Small Project [article]

When you transition to agile and you have a reasonably size codebase, chances are quite good that you’ve been working on the product for a while. You certainly have legacy ways of thinking about the code and the tests. Now learn how to work yourself out of the technical debt you have accumulated.

Divide and Conquer: Find Solutions by Splitting Up [article]

With all of the choices available to software developers, it's easy to become overwhelmed not only by a problem but also by its many possible solutions. One approach that can help you and your team stay on track is to divide and conquer.

Globally Distributed Agile Development [article]

Today, application development frequently consists of multiple teams, located across the globe, collaborating on a software project. Alex Perec describes how to make teams more productive and efficient without hindering their natural workflow.

Testing Early and Often: An Interview with Matthew Bissett [interview]

Matthew Bissett recently shared with us his thoughts on the importance of early testing in order to rapidly speed up software releases. Matthew is delivering a session titled "Reduce Release Cycle Time: Nine Months to a Week - Nice!" at the 2012 Better Software Conference East in Orlando, Florida.

Coach New People to Success [article]

Johanna Rothman describes a hectic situation involving having to deal with four people and four different projects. The folks involved are in over their heads and Johanna can't even tell if these people are qualified for their job.

A Long View of the 'Short' Technology Career [article]

The prevailing wisdom is that software careers are short. Matthew Heusser suggests an alternative perspective—that the short life of a tech career creates additional options and, toward the end, may even be worth letting go of.