The Latest
How to Be Persuasive[article] Successfully persuading others to adopt your point of view is a matter of neither magic nor luck. It's a skill and like any skill, improvement takes know—how, opportunity, and practice. In this column, Naomi Karten offers pointers to help you strengthen your persuasion skills. |
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Lean Anti-Patterns and What to Do About Them[article] When attempting to adopt best practices we often can't see the forest for the trees. We can see what we are doing wrong, but how will that help us to see what to do right? In this article, we will discuss a few common Lean Anti-Patterns. Anti-Patterns are commonly recurring practices that are counter productive. We call them "Anti-Patterns" because these anti-patterns result from violating Lean principles. Lean principles form the basis for Scrum practices. Looking at how Lean Anti-Patterns violate lean principles gives us insight into how we need to modify our practices to be more effective. |
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People-Driven Software Development[article] Traditionally, we think about projects is in termsof scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, and risk. Thisway of thinking mainly originated in industries other than software development.It fits software development projects poorly, because these projects are mainlyabout people's abilities. |
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Why Compilers Miscalculate Floating Point Numbers: Piles of Sand, Redux[magazine] In this continuation of his June 2007 article on floating-point numbers, Chuck Allison explains why certain compilers miscalculate sin(x) for large arguments and why some get it right. He also divulges that floating-point spacing is the key to getting the most from numeric computations. |
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Extreme Programming Is People[magazine] Agile agents of change, listen up. Do you remember the Agile Manifesto? How about the part about valuing people over process? J.B. Rainsberger fears that as Extreme Programming becomes more widespread, teachers, consultants, and mentors are losing sight of one of agile’s most important components—teamwork. |
J.B. Rainsberger
August 1, 2007 |
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Kicking Off the Slow Software Movement[magazine] Do your team members jump into a project with both feet before they fully understand what problem they are trying to solve? We’ve all been convinced that for our customers faster is better. But is that really what they want? Jeff Patton thinks it’s time for us to slow down and focus on the quality of our products. |
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Games Stakeholders Play[magazine] Activity theory explores what is happening inside a person while he is acting. Find out how you can use it to make better decisions about what to build, create a motivation map, and ask what your stakeholders are thinking about besides using your system. |
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Small Releases Big Returns[magazine] Many teams work on several projects simultaneously, which is a mistake. By working on one project at a time and releasing early and often, you can achieve startling improvements in value for your stakeholders. |
James Shore
August 1, 2007 |
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Your Mom Doesn't Work Here: Cleaning up with Java Memory Management[magazine] For large-scale Java applications, understanding memory-related options might mean the difference between a wonderful user experience and recurring system slow downs. This article offers insight into the workings of Java memory management and shows how it cleans up after programmers, recovering memory associated with objects that are no longer being used. |
Alan Berg
August 1, 2007 |
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Getting Your Hands Dirty[magazine] One way to build quality in is to prevent defects from ever happening. Discover how you can avoid defects by figuring out how to test each feature or requirement before you begin to write the code. Clarke Ching offers up an easy, hands-on example you can put to use today. |
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Go with the Flow[magazine] Simplicity in testing is a worthy goal, but in reality it's a messy, complex world. Find out how to defocus your test strategy and use flow testing to follow a specific path through a system's functions, investigating circumstances in which it might fail. |
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When Trust Goes AWOL[article] Trust is invisible, but the symptoms of its absence are not. That is the theme of this column, in which Clarke Ching recounts the difficulty one of his clients went through to rebuild trust with a customer. The customer had long ago lost faith in the quality of the products provided by this client since every piece of software delivered seemed buggy. But both were determined to make the relationship work. That's when Clarke Ching stepped in and took an agile approach to relationship therapy. |
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Enough Is Enough: What Does Agile Software Development Mean?[magazine] Agile software delivery is about doing sufficient up-front analysis, design, and planning—and then deferring decisions to the appropriate time. But what does “enough” really mean? And why has the term "agile" become a cliché in development circles? Terms like "post-agile" or "pragmatic agile" have emerged as a response to this, but this is only a short-term fix. |
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Agile Addendums[magazine] Six years after the writing of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, agile is being used more often and more ambitiously. Looking back, there are two things Brian Marick would like to have added to the manifesto: habitability and joy. |
Brian Marick
July 2, 2007 |
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Drawing Out the Facts[magazine] A properly conducted discovery interview can lead to a wealth of information. Steven Smith explores some effective actions you can take before, during, and after the face-to-face interview to help you master the art of the interview process. |