Articles

Agile and Federal Governance—A Look at Contracts and Earned Value Management

Richard Cheng explores whether or not federal governance controls are ready for agile implementations. If the federal government continues to implement agile without losing agile’s fundamental concepts, contractors and the government will grow in their understanding and ability to implement effective projects and deliver value iteratively and incrementally.

Identifying and Improving Bad User Stories

A written user story is a very short narrative—a sentence or two—describing some small piece of functionality that has business value. User stories are intended to foster collaboration and communication, but writing these short narratives poorly can negate agile’s flexibility. Charles Suscheck and Andrew Fuqua explain some common failure patterns that will help you focus on the right role, value, and business functionality when writing stories.

Top Twelve Myths of Agile Development

When it comes to agile development, Allan Kelly has noticed a lot of misinformation is being passed off as fact. In this article, Allan takes a closer look at twelve of the most common agile myths he has encountered while training new agile teams.

Book Review: The Human Side of Agile

Being agile is difficult. Not only are there technical and organizational challenges, but the very nature of the way agile methods work brings the assumptions, context, and fears of team members to the foreground. These people issues are explored in Gil Broza’s book, The Human Side of Agile.

A Product Owner’s First Glimpse of Agile

Kent McDonald introduces us to Arthur, a middle manager and product owner in a medium-sized insurance company who has been assigned to take on an agile project. For those unfamiliar with agile, the terminology and techniques of agile approaches can seem strange and often a little silly when not accompanied with an explanation as to why those techniques exist. Kent explains the challenges product owners like Arthur face and how to make product owners understand agile better.

Agile 2012 - Bob Martin - Clean Coders and Clean Code
Podcast

Bob Martin and Bob Payne site down for a discussion about the importance of clean code on any project. Bob Martin is responsible for the CleanCoders.com video series, and in this podcast, the two Bobs get together to discuss the evolution of clean code's role in software development.

ADP West 2012 - Jonathan Chashper - Product Management Consultant
Podcast

In this podcast, Bob Payne speaks with Jonathan Chashper about a variety of topics in the world of product management consulting. Jonathan brings a wealth of knowledge to companies of all sizes, in hopes of boosting revenues on any project.

Take A Hike: Death March Projects And The Ice Age Wilderness Trail

Dave and his friend Bob hiked Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail and returned home with more than just sore legs and hiking experience. Learn some of the project management tips Dave picked up while adventuring in the wilderness.

Software Testing Is a Game

Skilled testing—an important part of creating valuable technology—is under attack. We need to rethink the problem, analyze why people resist testing, and create approaches to make it more engaging. Gamification provides one model to help us improve our approach.

Six Steps for Implementing Agile across the Organization

After facing difficulties attempting to transform a group of twelve skilled people into a self-organized agile team, Ove Holmberg learned some valuable lessons on what it takes to implement agile within an organization. In this article, Ove presents six steps for a successful agile implementation.

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