The Latest
Welcome to the Mainstream[presentation] As agile software development leaves the early adoption stage and moves solidly into the mainstream, Mary Poppendieck reminds us that fads in software development have come and gone before. What makes us think that agile is different? |
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Think Like a Tester[article] After more than thirty years in information technology, the last fourteen spent focused on testing and quality assurance, Dale Perry has come to believe everyone can benefit from thinking like a tester. In this article, Dale offers comical, yet serious, insight on how a tester views airport bathroom stall designs. |
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From The Editor[article] I wish there was a book entitled "How to Write Your First Letter as an Editor", unfortunately there is none that I am aware of, so please bear with me. As the new Editor-in-Chief of the Agile Journal, I would like to introduce myself and tell you a little about where we will be going with the Agile Journal over the next few months. |
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Finding the Steady State[article] With more and more scrum'ing and sprinting going on in agile development, let's reflect on the analogy made between Scrum and sports before we take a look at what misunderstandings it may cause within organizations transitioning to agile development practices, in particular Scrum.
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It's a Tough Job... but Somebody Has to be the Product Owner[article] With so many corporate developers and IT teams beating a path to Scrum adoption there seems to be a lot of ScrumMaster training (both certified and otherwise) as well as coaching going on these days. Putting aside any worries about people receiving just enough training to be dangerous (e.g. 2-3 day ScrumMaster training is available from many sources) for moment, most of us think this trend towards Scrum and Agile Development is a very positive one indeed. That said, what concerns me the most is what I perceive to be an oversight of the need for product owner selection, investment and support. |
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Writing Shippable Code[article] Software systems are being delivered to our customers at an ever-increasing rate. How can we keep up with the pace whilst still maintaining the quality of our code? I will demonstrate over a series of three articles how by focusing on the customer throughout our delivery cycle we can deliver reliable working software with confidence, reduce the number of defects, reduce our delivery timescales and ultimately save money. You may think this is nothing new, and that agile development has long since answered this question. However, even in the agile world there are loopholes which allow us to bypass the customer. Leading us to deliver what we think they want, rather than what they were expecting.
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Agile Using Offshore Development: The Costs and Risks[article] With today's economic pressures coupled with a highly competitive business environment, management is aggressively pursuing ways to increase effectiveness and efficiencies at the same time as they strive to improve customer services. For these reasons many organizations are trying to integrate offshore development into the Agile projects. Offshore development has seen tremendous growth in recent years. The efficiencies gained by combining these two methods could be significant, but there are some pot-holes on the road to success.
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Top 9 Challenges of Adopting Scrum: Product Owners, By the Book, and Organizational Issues[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 second article, we'll discuss Scrum product owners, Scrum by the book, and organizational issues. |
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How To Choose Quality Candidates/Consultants for Your Large Company Agile Initiative[article] We created this set of questions to help corporate managers select Agile-experienced consultants and candidate employees for project work. Assembling a team of qualified Agile people is one thing, but the fact that some Agile practices and principles mean different things to different people makes it even harder to succeed in staffing your initiatives.
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Agile 2008 - Johanna Rothman - Agile Portfolio Management and Agile 2008[article]
Podcast
Bob speaks with Johanna Rothman about Agile Portfolio Management at the Agile 2008 conference. |
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How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Prioritization[article] Managing an agile project based on uncensored "Very High," "High," and "Low Priority" user stories or backlog items used to induce stress on Jeff Patton. So he learned to implement a combination of prioritization techniques to get these lists--and the job--under control. In this week's column, find out how Jeff utilizes MoSCoW and business goals to make sense of prioritization. |
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Keys to Top-Notch Estimates[magazine] If the construction industry estimated projects as poorly as the IT industry does, we would still be living in mud huts. Yet inaccurate project estimates have become the norm in the software industry. Find out how you can turn your estimates into reasonable predictions of project performance. |
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Is ''Agile'' Distracting You?[magazine] If a process tool or service claims to be agile it must be good, right? Not necessarily. The term "agile" has become abused and, since we don't have a standard dictionary definition, it is open to interpretation. So, let's look beyond the label to what really matters—value. |
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A Culture of Trust[magazine] So, you've been asked to take over the leadership of a struggling, disconnected team. Now what? Create a culture where the building of trust between team members is fostered, flourishes, and thrives--where people who have not begun to trust each other can discover the possibility. |
Pollyanna Pixton
August 28, 2008 |
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From Here to Acceptance Test-Driven Development[magazine] Acceptance test-driven development (ATDD) means different things to different people based on their experiences—from "It's all about testing" to "It has nothing to do with testing,” and from "TDD, ATDD—it's all the same" to "TDD and ATDD are nothing alike." These nine landmarks will help you navigate ATDD no matter where you are coming from. |