The Latest
The Roof Is Going to Go[magazine] As one poor German tourist can attest, idioms don't translate. But Chuck Allison thinks programmers should become "native speakers" of the programming languages they use. This includes using and understanding them, idioms and all. |
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The Magic 8 Ball of Testing[magazine] Have you ever wished for a tool to help you define and refine requirements and make your programs more testable? OClear could be the tool you've been waiting for. |
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How Do You Think?[article] What are the attributes of a good tester—of a great tester? As every test manager knows, identifying the right people for a test team can be a struggle. In this column, Fiona Charles describes the qualities of mind she looks for in testers, and the interview questions she asks candidates so that she can evaluate how they think. |
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Lean Metrics for Agile Software Configuration Management[article] Taking an lean-agile slant on metrics for configuration management, the authors focus on ways to measure the value CM and SCM adds to the project and product and how to measure flow and waste. |
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Agile 2006 - Steve Adolph - Agility in the Art of War ... a dissertation[article]
Podcast
Steve Adolph talks about his research and finds some very interesting agile analogies in war fighting, traditional project success and cultures of success. |
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Agile 2006 - Barg Upender and David Kane - Agile Movie Making - Sell Your First Increment[article]
Podcast
This unique podcast shares a conversation held between Bob Payne, Barg Upender, and David Kane as they discuss agile movie making. Take a minute to learn one of the exciting ways that agile can be utilized outside of its traditional mediums. |
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Sharing the Vision[article] In this article, Michele Sliger discusses why sharing the vision with the project team is so important and how this knowledge helps the team in its delivery. With examples from Walt Disney and software development, Michele explains how bringing everyone together and getting team members on the same page allows for belief in and commitment to the project, which is a must for a successful outcome. |
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Agile Top-Down: Striking a Balance[article] Agile is being evangelized in executive boardrooms and introduced top-down with increasing frequency. Considering that Agile advocates self-management by the individual and within a team, what is the role of senior leadership? My experience from this top-down perspective has given me insight into attitudes and techniques that are successful and others that fail. I assert that there is an effective and appropriate stance for senior leadership that will improve the effectiveness of an Agile transformation. Key to my list of recommendations for making Agile work is the balanced involvement of both senior-level leaders and practitioners in the planning and executing the introduction of Agile practices. |
Bryan Stallings
March 13, 2007 |
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Using Agile Development To Build A Partnership Between IT and Business[article] The most significant hurdle in adopting agile development is often gaining the acceptance of the business leadership. Business leaders either believe that agile requires too much time, or they are generally apathetic towards the effort. But while business leaders may be difficult to get on board at the beginning, they can be the strongest supporters of the agile process once they see and understand it. Getting them to try it is the hardest part. This article addresses the typical barriers to involving the business side of the house in an agile development approach, and outlines the key steps that Digital Focus has found to be successful in overcoming these barriers. |
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The Agile-V Balanced Scorecard Metrics[article] Much has been written about the balanced scorecard methodology. Its goal is to measure desired outcomes and predict drivers of those outcomes. For a properly implemented agile team, this line-of-site measurement happens naturally and is controlled daily. This article suggests a simple and natural scorecard that provides accurate daily visibility of drivers and outcomes for an agile team focused on delivering business value to its clients. |
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Go For The Low Hanging Fruit![article] As professionals, we are always looking for ways to improve the way we work. We encounter ideas and methods that we start to implement, but often we fail. Does this sound familiar to you? How should you avoid this? You should focus on implementing the changes that have the highest benefit versus effort ratio for you and your team, or as the title of this article puts it, the low hanging fruit. To facilitate this, we suggest the following steps: Make a change backlog, Find your low hanging fruit, Establish a raiding party, Establish a success story, Go to war, Celebrate! And Start over. |
Odd Martin Solem
March 8, 2007 |
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Theory of Constraints, Lean, and Agile Software Development[article] Delivering More Business Value Where Needed Within the software development community, one of the biggest movements over the past decade has been Agile Development whereby teams adopt practices and attitudes consistent with the now famous Agile Manifesto. Additionally, there has been much discussion over the past four to five years about applying principles from the Theory of Constraints (ToC) and Lean Product Development (Lean) to software development. This has had a tendency to muddy the surrounding waters as teams question whether they should apply Agile, ToC, or Lean concepts. Are these three approaches mutually exclusive? Is there some hidden magic that can be unlocked by careful application of all three? Isn't it hard enough just trying to be Agile, without also trying to be Lean and ToC-ish? In this article we give an overview of Lean and ToC and show how they can be used in conjunction with Agile practices to focus on an organization's business value. By using elements of Lean, ToC, and Agile together more business value can be delivered with less effort. |
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RailsEdge 2007 - Dave Thomas - Monoculture, Music and Erlang...Oh My[article]
Podcast
One of the many wonderful things about agile is the number of areas that it can be expanded to, or introduced to, with just as much success as traditional software development. This podcast features a conversation between Bob Payne and Dave Thomas as they discuss everything from software to art. |
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The Death Spiral[magazine] Users don't have to be doomed to the nightmare of software fraught with defects that should have been fixed before release. Time spent testing now can save you from the Death Spiral later. Remember: If you don't have time to do it right, how will you have time to do it over . . . and over . . . and over? |
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The Exceptional Exception[magazine] So much more than a bucket for your errors, exceptions can be a valuable tool that lets you communicate to your clients not only that there is a problem but why and where the code failed. |