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An Agile Approach to Scheduling

When we schedule too many variables, things start to slip and soon the schedule is out the window. Paying attention to your project's constraints can help you set realistic scheduling goals that you will actually be able to stick to.

Carlos Sirias
Raising the Bar with Test-Driven Development and Continuous Integration

A hallmark of truly agile teams is an unquenchable desire to continually find new and better ways of developing software. These teams believe that there really are no "best" practices, only practices which work better or worse for them. This line of thinking is even apparent in the first line of the agile manifesto stating "we are uncovering better ways of developing." In this article I will explore two of the most widely accepted agile development practices, test-driven development and continuous integration, and question how these practices can be made better with continuous testing.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Group Coherence for Project Teams - Collaborative Interaction

The hyper-productive teams we have observed apply high rates of practical collaboration. We believe that fostering Collaborative Interaction leads to increases in productivity, yet performance is recognized at the individual rather than team level. In environments where collaboration is required, managers should avoid assigning project work and accountability to individuals. Inappropriate rewards for individuals are additional distractions from their collaborative project duties.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Requirements Come Second

Despite our best efforts we need to know what we are going to code before we write the code. And as much as we might like to test before we write the code we can't really run tests until we have some code. Agile overlaps requirements discovery and implementation so coding can start with minimal or outline requirements but there is still a sequence.

Allan Kelly's picture Allan Kelly
Organizational Challenges

The following article is an excerpt from "Agile Testing" by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory.

Part II

Organizational Challenges

When software development organizations implement agile development, the testing or QA team often takes the longest to make the transition. Independent QA teams have become entrenched in many organizations. When they start to adapt to a new agile organization, they encounter cultural differences that are difficult for them to accept. In Part II, we talk about introducing change and some of the barriers you might encounter when transitioning to agile. Training is a big part of what organizations making the transition need, and it's often forgotten. It's also hard to see how existing processes such as audits and process improvement frameworks will work in the agile environment. Going from an independent QA team to an integrated agile team is a huge change.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Tips and Advice - Manifesto for Agile Software Development
Podcast

Bob interviews George Dinwiddie about the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.

Bob Payne's picture Bob Payne
Agile 2008 - Adrian Mowat - Naked Agelist Podcast, Fitnesse, Big Batch Processing
Podcast

Adrian Mowat and Bob Payne recorded this insightful podcast at Agile 2008, and discussed a wonderful variety of topics, including Scrum, technical practices, and Adrian's experience using Fitnesse.

Bob Payne's picture Bob Payne
Agile Ethics and Values

Why use agile methods? You've already heard enough about how agile allows software development organizations to do more with less. In this column, Michele Sliger offers a completely different reason—one that's often overlooked but nevertheless critical.

Michele Sliger's picture Michele Sliger
The State of Scrum

In the software development industry and beyond, the term "agile" is everywhere. But, much like the "organic" food craze, the rise of agile has also been accompanied by considerable head-scratching. What does it mean to be agile? Certainly, not all of the organizations boasting of agile practices can actually be agile? Unfortunately, there isn't a concise definition to encompass the myriad meanings packed into the term. In fact, the definition of agile is so loose that it hardly helps in assessing which organizations are using practices that are truly agile and which are just calling traditional methods by a new name. In part, agile's fuzzy definition has to do with the fact that it is, by definition, an umbrella term: Scrum, XP, DSDM, Crystal and other agile methods have emerged as subsets of the broader "agile." But, even then, those subsets seldom include the concrete processes a team needs when adopting a new management paradigm. In that sense, the term agile has become bankrupt of meaning: It serves more as a marketing buzz word than a defined set of processes. Because organizations require those processes-as a kind of roadmap to management success-Scrum has become the most popular of the agile management methods. But before further discussing how Scrum and its iterative, incremental approach to project management have appealed to teams and organizations alike, it's worth first considering where it came from.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Handling Conflict on Agile Teams: What to Do When a Team Member Complains

You've probably seen it on Agile teams: conflict seething just below the surface. Barely disguised disregard, sidelong glances, rolling eyes, words that halt conversation for an eternal heartbeat while people think, "Was that meant to be a put down? Did she really just say that?"

Lyssa Adkins's picture Lyssa Adkins

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