Articles

Architectural Envisioning on Agile Projects

In this article, Scott Ambler makes a strong case for the need for architectural envisioning and modeling on agile projects. By taking the time up front to create a solid architecture, your team can reap benefits like improved communication, increased productivity, and even reduced development time.

Retrospectives: A Case Study on Techniques for Incremental Improvement

In this article we describe our work with teams that were spread between the US and India, and with the unavoidable cultural difference. We used a facilitated retrospective to discover the most challenging issues in the process and, just as important, to build a team and increase trust between team members. In later work with the teams, we noticed the immediate positive impacts on the people and the process.

Software Architecture Challenges and Significance in an Agile World

At the core of all software solutions are underlying software architectures. The architectures reflect initial assumptions about how products fit together, which features are of value to customers, what are the expected integration points, with which related technologies. As software products find acceptance among customers, and technologies continue to evolve, the creators (vendors) of these solutions eventually find the need to adapt underlying architectures. Agile provides a means of doing this early in the product lifecycle and with continual review that provides the creator with the ability to adapt quickly and effectively to changes is the marketplace.

Test Automation in Data Warehouse Projects

This paper can help you in deciding how to leverage test automation, especially in data warehouse projects.

Could the Software Engineering Institute be Wrong About Statistical Process Control?

Statistical Process Control (SPC)-is it appropriate for a software development organization? If you're asking yourself this question, you're not alone. The application of SPC has a great track record in the arena of physical product manufacturing, but are these concepts as portable to engineering and digital product manufacturing processes as much published literature, and many consultants, would have us believe? This presentation will discuss a profound realization made during the road to CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated) maturity level 5 which was attained in October, 2005 at Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems and Solutions (IS&S). The presentation will also provide guidance on how to determine whether SPC is appropriate for a given process or not.

Opening the Door to Better Open Door Policies

Many managers claim to have an open-door policy. They want to be available to their employees. But do they really have an open-door policy, or is it a handy name for a commendable intention? Naomi Karten describes the flaws in open-door policies and offers suggestions for making them work.

Project Negotiations and the Iron Triangle

Negotiation skills are useful in life and essential for professional success. This week, Payson Hall provides a short tutorial on project negotiations that includes a technique to help you look for solutions. The use of motivation and the "Iron Triangle" is a good starting point.

A ''D'' in Programming, Part 1

In certain company, the topic of favorite programming languages can elicit the same response as other taboo subjects, such as religion and politics. But, Chuck's going out on a limb to discuss his new favorite language, D, and some of its best features, such as its being strongly typed and compiling to native code, yet it is garbage collected.

Six Tips for Quickening Software Releases

Many of us have experienced projects that drag on much longer than expected and cost more than planned. Most times, this is caused either from inadequate planning (requirement collection and design) or from an inordinate number of defects found during the testing cycle. A major ingredient to reducing development life cycle time is to eliminate defects before they happen. By reducing the number of defects that are found during your quality assurance testing cycle, your team can greatly reduce the time it takes to implement your software project. This article provides 6 tips to aid in reducing software defects and to quicken your software releases.

Lessons Learned About Starting a Development Group in India, Part 3

In this closing segment of a three-part series, Peter Clark explains how he and his company took lessons learned from their first failed attempt at establishing a software development group in India and developed a new and successful plan the second time around.