The Latest
Little Scrum Pigs and the Big, Bad Wolf[article] While continuing to grow, the state of agile adoption seems to be plucked straight out of an Ayn Rand novel, where the acceptance of mediocrity has infected the masses like a plague. Half-hearted adoptions have led to half-hearted results (as in "we suck less") that in turn are leaving these organizations straddling a tipping point from which they more often than not slide backwards, rather than making the push over the top to high performance and exponential growth in ROI. |
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Simple Strategies to Keep Quality Visible[article] In most projects, testers are the keepers of quality. Sharing the vision of quality with the entire team helps everyone involved in a project play a more active role in determining the state of quality in a product. In this column, Jeff Patton shares several innovative ideas he's seen in practice lately that have helped an entire team own up to the quality of its software. |
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Agile 2008 - Emily and Geoff Bache - Programming with the Stars and the TextTest framework[article]
Podcast
Bob speaks with Emily and Geoff Bache at the Agile 2008 conference. |
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Getting Started with Agile SCM[article] A prerequisite to any of the Agile SCM practices, such as integration build, private build, unit tests, and the like, is being able to set up a developer’s private workspace with the right code and tools so that you can code, build and test. In this article, we discuss the important, and often overlooked process of creating a development workspace, which is to say, getting started. |
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Top 9 challenges of adopting Scrum: Meta-ScrumMaster Role, Cowboy Behavior, and Agile is Not Easy.[article] Introducing Scrum can be fun, but can also be quite a challenge. There are numerous hurdles to overcome, new practices to master and problems to solve. In this article, we will present some of the mistakes we have seen made, or made ourselves when introducing Scrum at various companies. In this last article, we'll discuss the meta-ScrumMaster role, cowboy behavior, and why agile is not easy. |
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Offshore and Agile - Real Scenarios[article] A lot of heated debate is going on topics such as "Can we develop software using an offshore model with agile methodologies?" This article is my humble attempt to give more insight on this question using a story to describe a real scenario with some assumptions and with not so real people. |
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Agile Testing: Asking the Right Questions[article] Good testers don't just question the final product. They question the product before work has even started and while it is being developed. And they also challenge the team itself. While this is true of many traditional testers, These lines of questioning to be more prevalent on agile teams because a "whole team" mentality is encouraged and quality is a team responsibility. |
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The Criteria for Choosing a Successful Scrum Pilot[article] Ask any Scrum trainer and they'll tell you the same thing: Adopting Scrum is hard. There are many reasons for this. Chief among them is that Scrum is so dramatically different—in terms of practices and principles—from traditional project management paradigms that it requires team members to truly reorient their attitudes and working behaviors. One common way to initiate a Scrum transformation is through a pilot project. But even then, how does a team that's never used Scrum before tell if a project is a strong candidate for a successful pilot? |
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Task Estimation: Do or Don't?[article] Lately I've noticed a fair amount of discussion surrounding the utility of task estimation. The question seems to be: is it really useful to estimate the time required to complete tasks, or is it unnecessary and counter productive to estimate such small units of work? If we're already using some form of estimation for stories, is task estimation really all that useful, or is it in fact thinly veiled micro-management? |
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The Invisible Project Manager[article] An Exercise in Agile Facilitation A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves. Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC). The project manager leads. The project manager directs. The project manager plans. The project manager manages. These are the expectations set upon, and sought out by those that take on the responsibility for delivering software projects to the Business. While unquestionably a critical role in the overall delivery mechanism, a project manager who becomes the central figure in the team can unnecessarily place the team in a position of risk. In fact, the project manager should approach the process with a less intrusive style, facilitating the team towards success from within and figuring out ways to develop systems that will survive any one person, themselves included. |
Mack Adams
November 12, 2008 |
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Agile: A Mantra for Extreme Change Fuels Successful User Driven Applications[article] What happens when your application software change cycle time shrinks from months to hours or days? Over the past four years, we have overseen the deployment of hundreds of Web business applications all following agile methods. During the course of these projects, we have faced many challenges and found some surprising benefits. This article describes some of the lessons we have learned and provides advice on how you might overcome some key challenges in your own agile projects. |
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Relearning to Program[article] Twenty years ago, Clarke Ching fell in love with programming. Then he got a job doing just that and fell out of love within five years. Fifteen years later, Clarke sought the help of a well-known programmer for advice on how to rekindle his dormant passion for programming. The advice Clarke received led to a greater discovery. |
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Five Tips for Retrospective Leaders and Meeting Moderators[article] Before you schedule or moderate another retrospective meeting, read this column by Esther Derby. Esther offers five tips that will help improve the productiveness of retrospective meetings. You'll also learn how letting the meeting participants run the conversation will solicit more feedback and ownership than traditional moderation methods. |
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Agile 2008 - Arlo Belshee - Naked Planning, Promiscuous Pairing and other Unmentionables[article]
Podcast
Bob speaks with Arlo Belshee about Naked Planning at the Agile 2008 conference. |
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agile 2008 -Jon Stahl - Sustainable Fun for Agile Development[article]
Podcast
Bob interviews Jon Stahl at the Agile 2008 conference. |