Articles

Is Test Automation a “Project”?

Test automation can turn into a real pain in the neck if a designated team is in charge of it or if the automators work on it as a separate project. In this article, Lisa Crispin seconds Bob Jones’s recent call for whole-team test automation and elaborates on the dangers of relegating test automation to an isolated project rather than integrating it into the overall software development process.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
Agile Lifecycles for Geographically Distributed Teams: Using a Project Manager with Kanban, Silo'd Teams

This is a product development organization with developers in Italy, testers in India, more developers in New York, product owners and project managers in California.

This organization first tried iterations, but the team could never get to done. The problem was that the stories were too large. Normally I suggest smaller iterations, but one of the developers suggested they move to kanban.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Once Upon A Retrospective

Children can teach us some extremely profound things--often when we least expect it. Jennitta Andrea shares sage advice about project retrospectives that she learned while perusing the well-known children's stories on her daughter's bookshelf. These insights will help improve the way you plan, facilitate, and participate in project retrospectives.

Jennitta Andrea's picture Jennitta Andrea
My Life as a Virtual Team Member: An Interview with Nanda Lankalapalli

Inspired by the Better Software magazine article, "Make Your Tele-team Work," I spoke in more detail with Nanda Lankalapalli about what it's like to be a virtual team member and what it took to create a "Virtual Nanda."

Heather Shanholtzer's picture Heather Shanholtzer
Empowering Agile Teams

Teams, when truly empowered, will always make better decisions than any one individual. Where can you empower teams as you adopt agile?

Jean Tabaka's picture Jean Tabaka
Project Portfolio Management: An Interview with Johanna Rothman

Johanna Rothman is a management consultant, regular StickyMinds.com columnist, and AgileConnection’s technical editor. Johanna talks about the year in software, the rise of project portfolio management, and whether we will continue to see organizations adopt agile in the new year.

Jonathan Vanian's picture Jonathan Vanian
Software Project Managers: Know Your Business Case

Many professionals in the software industry chose to pursue software to avoid business schools and MBAs. In this article, Payson explains that some of that "Business BS" can be useful both tactically and strategically to software project managers.

Payson Hall's picture Payson Hall
What If Quality Shouldn’t Be Job One?

We live in a consumer-oriented society, where we are taught to expect that everything that we buy or create must be the best. Clearly, quality is considered to be a top-selling feature in many of the products that we buy. But what if it shouldn’t be?

Howard Smallowitz George Stark
adzic cover Specification by Example: Collaborating on a Scope without High-Level Control

Understanding what the business users are trying to achieve can significantly help you focus the project on things that really matter. In this excerpt from Gojko Adzic's book Specification by Example, the author offers some tips for effectively collaborating on the project scope when you don’t have high-level control of the project.

Gojko Adzic's picture Gojko Adzic
Leadership, Management, Transitioning to Agile

Johanna Rothman has worked with several management teams who want her to train them or their project managers to take over the agile training. While on the surface this doesn't seem an unreasonable request, when one considers the self-managing, self-organizing nature of an agile team, the incongruity of this thinking begins to shine through.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman

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