The Latest

Agile for Business Analysts[presentation]

A prevailing myth in the software industry is that business analysis requires a bloated requirements elicitation and documentation process.

Bob Hartman, Agile For All
Integrating Enterprise SOA Architecture with Scrum Development Methodology[presentation]

Many processes used to implement an enterprise architecture are in conflict with the agile development approach. An effective enterprise architecture framework represents the organization as it is today and as it is envisioned in the future.

Steven Driver, Airlines Reporting Corporation
What are they Doing Down There? A CIO's Perspective on Agile Software Development[presentation]

What are the factors critical to the success of a CIO? How can a CIO consistently deliver business value? Do development teams, in general, and agile teams, in particular, understand how to contribute to this success?

Niel Nickolaisen, Headwaters, Inc.
Test-Driven Everything[presentation]

When you hear people talk about test-first or test-driven, you probably think of testing the code. Test-driven practices help developers reduce defects and increase the value in the code and the designs they deliver.

David Hussman, DevJam
From Concept to Product Backlog: What Happens Before Iteration Zero[presentation]

Many agile methodologies start with a product owner walking into a room with a pile of money and a stack of prioritized story cards and then telling the development team to start building a system.

Gerard Meszaros, ClearStream Consulting
Are We There Yet? Defining "Done"[presentation]

"Are you done yet?" The answer to this question may sink your career, your team, and your project. If you respond with a "yes," you may be forced to take on additional work you can't handle.

Mitch Lacey, Mitch Lacey & Associates, Inc.
Overcoming the Pitfalls of Transitioning to Agile[presentation]

If you've been trying to change your organization so that your projects are more agile, you may have encountered several problems-one is that it's difficult to have product management, senior management, and functional managers work together

Johanna Rothman, Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.
Seven Years Later: What the Agile Manifesto Left Out[presentation]

Although the Agile Manifesto has worked well to help many organizations change the way they build software, the agile movement is now suffering from some backsliding, lots of overselling, and a resulting backlash.

Brian Marick, Exampler Consulting
Agile Ethics and Values[article]

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
An Evolutionary Path for Agile?[article]

While doing some research for an upcoming article, some thoughts gelled about where Agile Software Development lies on its evolutionary path. I was procrastinating somewhat, and while poking around some aviation-related sites I saw an image of a jet engine used on the current crop of regional jets.

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

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
Group Coherence for Project Teams - A Search for Hyper-Productivity[article]

Group characteristics and group dynamics are invisible to most of us. We are not trained to detect them, let alone manage them. Our work is influenced by much more than what we see. This can make project success (and failure) sometimes appear to be random.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Infrastructure Envisioning[article]

I have seen many Agile projects, particularly those focused on brand-new product lines, struggle with getting their infrastructure up and running. Much of the reason is the time and effort that is needed to get infrastructure established far exceeds the time it takes to start development using an Agile method, effectively the first iteration. Typically the approach used to establish infrastructure is ad hoc and often not always aligned with the needs of the project. Therefore, a task must be identified to establish infrastructure. The question then is, how to best approach the establishment of infrastructure for a project using Agile methods? We do not want to build excessive infrastructure that may constrain us in the future yet we want to establish enough to keep us stable and productive.

 

Mario  Moreira's picture Mario Moreira
The State of Scrum[article]

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
Lean Software Development: Leaning Against Perception[article]

The seven principles of Lean Software Development; eliminating waste, creating knowledge, respecting people, building quality in, deliver fast, optimizing the whole, and to defer commitment are concise principals that appeal to many developers and managers, as they are pivotal in achieving delivery of high quality software systems on time.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor

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