agile

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Erasing debt on a page Paying Off the Technical Debt in Your Agile Projects

Just as you should not take out a financial loan without having a plan to pay it back, you should also have a plan when incurring technical debt. The most important thing is to have transparency—adequate tracking and visibility of the debt. Armed with the knowledge of these pending tasks, the team can devise a strategy for when and how to “pay off” technical debt.

Nishi Grover's picture Nishi Grover
Evaluation with "Excellent" checked Are You Agile? An Assessment Can Tell You

Plenty of companies want to be agile and go through the motions but are not really agile. An agile assessment allows you to evaluate how teams or even organizations are doing in their agile journey. But like any useful tool, there is no shortage of assessment options available. Here are the acceptance criteria to look for and a framework for using an agile assessment.

Joel Bancroft-Connors's picture Joel Bancroft-Connors
Code on a computer screen Code Health Kaizen: Self-Organizing for Agile Improvement

People at Ben Kopel's organization were interested in improving their code health. It was something the engineers had control over and leadership didn't need to be involved, so code health was a great candidate for a self-organized initiative. Ben details the meeting they held, their discussions and plans, and how an agile team empowered themselves to improve.

Ben Kopel's picture Ben Kopel
Continuous improvement How Businesses Stay Agile: The Art of Being Retrospective

The greatest use for agile in business is in changing how you tackle problems and projects. Rather than defining the whole project and setting a “way forward,” an agile approach takes things much more iteratively. That means meeting as a team on a frequent and regular basis to share problems and successes, then making improvements as needed—being retrospective.

Ivan Seselj's picture Ivan Seselj
Man surrounded by sticky notes Streamline Your Agile Requirements by Avoiding Bloated Backlogs

In agile development, a bloated backlog results from teams accumulating huge lists of requirements, usually in the form of user stories. Retaining every possible story for building the product weighs down the backlog while squeezing (or obscuring) the highest-value stories. The best way to help minimize this risk is to optimize the time spent defining and refining the product priorities.

Michelina DiNunno's picture Michelina DiNunno
Model airplane Build One before Building Many: Learning from Agile Feedback

When you're working on a project and are presented with a big story or requirement, resist the urge to treat it as a single piece of work. One of the principles of the Agile Manifesto is to deliver working software frequently. This allows you to learn from what you built and make adjustments. See if you can break down the request and find a small piece of work within the big.

Allan Kelly's picture Allan Kelly
Leader on a team 7 Lessons Agile Can Teach Us about Leadership

The Agile Manifesto contains values to guide teams toward developing better software. But its directives are also about leadership—influencing culture and creating an organization where people can collaborate to meet the needs of their customers. Here are seven lessons the Agile Manifesto can teach us about leadership.

Ryan Ripley's picture Ryan Ripley
Woman designing software architecture An Agile Approach to Software Architecture

For an organization transitioning to agile development, creating software architecture isn’t incompatible with your new processes. Consider the principles in the Agile Manifesto, involve team members who will be using the architecture in its development, and reflect and adapt often, and you will end up with an architecture that meets the needs of your team and your enterprise.

Gene Gotimer's picture Gene Gotimer
Jeffery Payne A New Leader to Guide AgileConnection Forward

AgileConnection has a new technical editor! Jeffery Payne has years of experience in the agile community, and he's excited to take the helm. The site will still be a home for software professionals to learn and talk about the latest agile development and methodology practices, but Jeff also has plans to start covering DevOps more and to recruit new writers.

Jeffery Payne's picture Jeffery Payne
Six steps 6 Steps to a Successful DevOps Adoption

Implementing DevOps practices can significantly accelerate software releases while still assuring applications meet quality objectives. But DevOps can’t be bought, bolted on, or just declared. If you’re considering a move to a DevOps delivery model, here are six approaches for ensuring a successful DevOps adoption within an organization.

Alan Crouch's picture Alan Crouch

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