Articles

Management Myth #8: I Can Still Do Significant Technical Work

The temptation can be incredibly strong for managers—especially new ones—to step in when a technical problem arises. But, that isn’t a very good show of faith in one’s team members. Johanna Rothman writes that as a manager, you have to delegate a problem and leave it delegated.

Changing Iteration Contents Mid-Sprint

Johanna Rothman writes on how she facilitated a project management clinic in which she overheard this statement: "We have a product owner who persists in changing the contents of the sprint during the sprint. This is difficult for us. It costs us to change the content." To Johanna, this is a huge pain and it is similar to multitasking.

The Independent Tester

Has the agile world’s insistence on collaboration blown away the need for testers to be independent? What do we mean by “independence,” anyway? Consultant Fiona Charles argues that tester independence is essential, but that it is a state of mind that can thrive only when the whole organizational culture supports it.

Livestock Improvement Goes Agile

Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) is one of the largest integrated herd-improvement organizations in the world. This is the story of how LIC transitioned from a successful, traditional development process to one with hyper-productive agile teams that produce software faster, better, and cheaper.

ADPEast 2011: Tom Paider and Dustin Potts—Going Big with Agile, Lean, and CMMI at Nationwide

Podcast

Bob Payne speaks with Tom and Dustin regarding the work they have done to roll out agile within Nationwide.

Testing Tradeoffs and Project Risk: A Case Study

Between extreme opinions of what is testing “overkill” and what is “essential,” there sometimes exists a reasonable middle path. In this field report, Payson identifies an example of risk mitigation and the evolution of the analysis that brought him there.

The Homegrown Tools Syndrome

Test management is a generic process, yet much effort goes into developing tools in house to do this work. Learn the reasons for this phenomenon and suggestions for avoiding it.

A for Agile, A for Aristotle

Badri Srinivasan explains the link between Aristotle and agile software development methodologies and how agile allows for a higher probability of successful customer delivery.

For Programs, Short Is Beautiful

Johanna Rothman describes that for programs, since you have many teams, you want shorter iterations and small stories in order to make sure you have as many interconnection points with the rest of the feature teams as possible.

Driving Efficiency and Effectiveness with Web Analytics and Risk-Based Testing

Web analytics can help you deduce, reduce, and prioritize your testing efforts. Learn how to gather and use qualitative and quantitative information about your users and the risks that can threaten your software's success.