Using Metrics to Track the Efficiency of Agile Teams Choosing agile metrics that will be most effective in measuring application success is a challenge, and then tracking those metrics can be tricky as well. But with a good strategy, agile metrics can be a powerful tool for sharing the team’s progress and identifying existing and possible roadblocks. These meaningful metrics can reduce confusion and bring clarity throughout the application development cycle. |
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Embedding Security in a DevOps World Faster DevOps processes also create new challenges. It was difficult enough to add security into a traditional waterfall software development lifecycle with monthly or quarterly releases, but now software updates are released several times a day! What can developers do to build and maintain more secure applications? Here are some ways to encourage better security practices throughout the DevOps lifecycle. |
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Bringing Continuous Testing to Your Organization Continuous testing means all your tests are executing all the time, providing continuous feedback into the quality and health of your applications. In order to achieve continuous testing, you must first adopt the right test automation strategy. Understanding how to bring in all different types of test automation practices as efficiently as possible enables you to get started down the path of continuous testing. |
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Infrastructure as Code: The Foundation of Effective DevOps The absence of versioned infrastructure as code (IaC) and automated provisioning undermines one of the most important benefits of DevOps: the ability to version, manage, and control the servers and networking required to run software applications in development, testing, and production. Automating infrastructure setup and continuous monitoring helps keep system environments stable and less susceptible to outages. |
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Leveraging Agile in a Nearshore Software Development Environment Nearshore software development—or working with teams in similar time zones—have different challenges from teams that are collocated. They might find it easier to work in a traditional, hierarchical structure, but agile practices are actually still an ideal way to work through these challenges. Here's how an agile mindset can help nearshore development teams improve communication, organization, and processes. |
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Cultivating Sustainable Agile Development In agile development, we want to support a sustainable pace because we recognize that when we overwork ourselves, we tend to introduce defects that are more costly to repair than can be offset by any efficiencies we gain by putting in massive amounts of overtime. We should encourage a set of common standards and practices to help us build solutions that are more maintainable and extendable. |
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Agile Shu-Ha-Ri for Business Innovation The learning pattern Shu-Ha-Ri—originally from the Japanese martial art aikido—has been adapted to apply to agile adoption, with the three levels sometimes interpreted as imitate, assimilate, and innovate. However, it is easy to oversimplify Shu-Ha-Ri, which can slow or halt your agile adoption. Agile is not just another process—it requires changes to our mindsets. Here's how to approach this as a cycle of learning. |
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Creating Time for Collaboration with Distributed Teams and Agile Approaches Many of us have horrible experiences with distributed teams where we can find no possibility of collaboration, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Even if a team is distributed, those team members need collaborative opportunities and space. What’s important is the team’s time for collaboration, not time zones. Here are some ways you can visualize when your team works and create more quality collaboration time. |
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Learning the Skills of a Professional Software Developer We hire for programming language skills or framework experience, but these are the kinds of things that any developer should be able to pick up quickly. David Bernstein says we should be hiring based on talent instead, and mentoring developers to write code that can be maintained and extended more easily. These critical skills are best learned on the job, which is why mentoring is so valuable. |
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How Agile Reduces Product Risk With traditional software development methods, you are betting that end-of-lifecycle testing will let your team correct all risks, but experience has taught us that this seldom happens. With agile, you are incrementally reducing risk with every iteration and release you do, mitigating risks as you go. This article examines each of the value statements from the Agile Manifesto to illustrate how agile ultimately helps us reduce product risk. |
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