People & Teams

Articles

Snapshot: A Team’s First Steps into Shared Ownership
Karen Favazza Spencer writes of the time her team members had to modernize and expand the capabilities of their legacy system. In this situation, Karen took on the role of ScrumMaster, implemented several helpful agile techniques, and empowered the team to share leadership of the project with management.
How to Make Collocation Work for You
Gil Zilberfeld recounts his experience with collocation during his time at Typemock, and explains how collocation can benefit your team. In modern agile discussions, we struggle with how to work with distributed teams around the globe. The truth is that it’s easy to break stuff just by moving part of the team to the next room.
Getting the Most Out of Your Geographically Distributed Agile Team
Shane Hastie and Johanna Rothman explain the challenges that come with distance, be it cultural, social, linguistic, temporal, or geographic. If you work to reinforce your collaboration habits every day, your geographically distributed agile team will thank you.
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.

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Better Software Magazine

The Four Horsemen of the Testing Apocalypse
Much like the biblical horsemen of Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death, the "Four Horsemen of the Testing Apocalypse" ride into our lives and work bearing great challenges. If the software of tomorrow is to be better than the software of today, we must face these foes directly.
Don’t Bury the Survivors: The Value of Clear Communication
Whether you’re discussing software defects with your test team, analyzing requirements with your BA, or programming in your favorite new language, communication is essential. Lanette Creamer has some tips to help you communicate clearly with any audience.
Surprise! Making the Most Out of Your Most Surprising Moments
Lee Copeland explains that surprise is often an indicator that discovery, learning, or even delight may be just around the corner. The surprise itself can be amusing, enlightening, befuddling, disconcerting, or frightening, but surprise should not be the end of the experience; it should be the beginning. Analyze the surprise to learn why you didn't see it coming and what you gain from that.
The Software Development Game
Adapting your software development tools, practices, and processes can be difficult, even overwhelming. The authors have studied and applied game-like processes and behaviors to help provide structure to software development adaptation. They propose a process strategy called the software development game to help teams who are faced with change.

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Interviews

The Science of Yielding Productivity: An Interview with Mike DePaoli
Mike DePaoli sits down with us to discuss how project leaders, not unlike farmers, benefit from turning to science to give themselves the best chances at a bountiful harvest. We discuss how agile's preference for holistic approaches provides an organic opportunity for success across the enterprise.
Culturally Sound Leadership: An Interview with Pollyanna Pixton
Podcast
Pollyanna Pixton shares why crafting a healthy and productive agile culture is so difficult, and how it relies heavily on the shoulders of team leaders. She stresses the importance of leaders not providing their teams with answers—but giving them the ownership to solve problems on their own.
Innovation Courtesy of Inspiration: An Interview with Jim Elvidge
Jim Elvidge attributes the last thirty years of fun that he's had in his career to the same qualities teams should be built with today. Innovative products come from teams who are inspired to reach their full creative potential, and getting your employees there may be easier than you think.
Maintaining the Programming Mob: An Interview with Woody Zuill
Video
"Fun" and "kindness" aren't the first things that come to mind when thinking of the mob, but in software development—they're mandatory. Woody Zuill discusses how mob programming takes a very agile and collaborative effort at delivering great software on time, and with the respect of everyone on board.

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TechWell Stories
How Acknowledging Work Effort Increases Productivity and Motivation
To Estimate or Not to Estimate—That Is the Question
Removing Waste in Software Projects
Create a Vendor Contract While Keeping Agile
How Agile Teams Use DevOps for Deployment

Recommended Web Seminars

May 29 How to Integrate Performance Testing into Agile and Hybrid Environments
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Jun 18 Adopting Agile and Moving into the Future
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On Demand 7 Habits of Highly Effective Agile Teams

Featured Resources

» An Innovative Approach to Integration Testing | IBM Rational
» Improve Quality and Decrease Time to Market with Requirements Management | PTC
» Performance Testing in the Cloud | J9 Technologies
» Perfection Just Became Mobile: An Easy-to-Use Solution for Mobile App Testing | Micro Focus
» Improving Test Automation for Visual Studio Projects | LogiGear

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