Blog entries

Julie & Julia meet Scrum

Christen McLemore — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:40:04 +0100

I sit at my desk for almost the last time today. I've been in this seat for about ten years. During those ten years, there were times it was so uncomfortable that I'd rather be tearing out my toenails one at a time than do it another day and sometimes I woke up early just to get back in this seat. I guess that's how work goes; when you have a bad one you suffer and moan and maybe get up the courage to get a new one and when you find a great one, you don't want to leave, you ...

You think you can Multitask but... really?

Christen McLemore — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:31:58 +0100

Sometimes we spend more time getting back to the work we already started than getting the work done the first time we started. Check out my blog from earlier this year.

The Beginning of my Scrum Journey

Christen McLemore — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:00:00 +0100

Over the past few years, I've transitioned project teams from their traditional Waterfall ways to a more Agile approach using various techniques at first and then decisively moving toward a single methodology. My preference is the Agile model presented in Scrum. With my old PMO baggage, I struggled through the potholes and roadblocks that are typical when you attempt to change the way people have always done things. As the more senior Scrum practitioners advised, it took abou...

(Mis)understanding Scrum

Michael Mallete — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 00:58:40 +0100

You go to a swimming class.

You were thought to do proper frog kicks. You get certified for doing frog kicks.

Being a certified frog-kicker, you had the courage to be thrown to the water, 20kms away from the seashore. What are your chances of surviving?

-scene change-

You go to a swimming class.

You were thought to do proper frog kicks.

You were th...

How Unique is Software Development?

Bhupinder Singh — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:38:55 +0100

In a recent short discussion on "3 common mistakes a project manager makes' over at Linkedin, I mentioned that the three most common mistakes are: 1. Rely on his or her instinct and not measurable parameters 2. Manage people and not activities/ deliverables 3. Not set expectations with all stakeholders The set of what one perceives to be the most common mistakes is likely to vary from person to person. Nevertheless, the second point came in for a sharp retort at...

Agile Risk Management

rakesh — Mon, 24 May 2010 18:17:31 +0100

Hello every one,

i am doing my masters dissertation, topic is agile risk management. i just reading some resources on agile risk management. i am reading the risks involved in the agile projects development process.

I have some doubts in this topic can any one help me out from this

How agile risk management is different from tradition managment
what are the risks involved in the project before going to start project
why agile doesn...

What software development should NOT learn from manufacturing

Udayan Banerjee — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:59:35 +0100

In software engineering there have always been two schools of thought. One school feels that there is a lot to learn from manufacturing. The other school thinks that they are entirely different.

There have been 3 distinct phases in this debate:

CMM Phase: Manufacturing has transitioned from craftsmanship to mass production – productivity and quality has improved many-fold. Software development can also benefit from such transition. CMM movement was born from this thought...

Agile Methodology and Emergence

Udayan Banerjee — Tue, 18 May 2010 00:13:43 +0100

What is Emergence?

“It is the behavior of a system that is not explicitly described by the behavior of the components of the system, and is therefore unexpected to a designer or observer” - Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc.

“…emergence is the way complex systems and patterns arise out of a multiplicity of relatively simple interactions” - Wikipedia

In short: The principle of emerge...

Thinking about Agile adoption

Sara Medhat — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 08:50:01 +0100

IT companies nowadays think about the decision of moving to Agile, is it the right step for us? Will it succeed? What is the risk? Is Agile suitable for us as a small company/big company? and many questions that are flying around in every company thinking about Agile adoption.

When it is announced in a company that “Our company is going AGILE” these are the magical words that make everyone in the room spinning and looking...

IT Executives are forced to adapt to an even faster-paced environment

Lonnie McRorey — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 18:55:15 +0100

Bringing ERP to IT Departments

In today's ever changing market place IT and Application initiatives are being developed at breakneck speeds . IT Executives are forced to adapt to an even faster-paced environment while keeping an eye on over all progress within their departments.

The Kanban board

amehrabian@portofinosolutions.com — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:19:51 +0100

This is the third part of the Lean-Kanban post based on a training class I recently attended by David Anderson (aka @agilemanager) and some additional reading on the same subject. I will admit that I now favor this method of collaboration far more than Scrum and one of those reasons is Kanban’s explicit limitation of work made visible and enforceable through the Kanban board.

In Part 1 I covered some of my takeaways from the training and basic tenets of Kanban. ...

New Group for Agile Coaching

Patrick Egan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:46:33 +0100

Agile Coaching is all about working with people to create great agile teams. In order to facilitate this idea we have created a new social media group group in the Agile Community at Agile Journal. It is a great place to discuss ideas about how to transition from agile practitioner to agile coach. We need a moderator for this group. Interested? Let me know.

Check out the new Agile Coaching Group at http://www.agilejournal.com/community/groups/viewgroup/43...

2010 Calendar - Call for Topics!

Bob Aiello — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:00:11 +0100

Hey everyone, Russell Panonne and I are working on putting together the calendar for 2010. We would really like to get your input on which topics you would like to see us cover in the coming year. Even better what topics would you like to help write about?

The Agile Journal has some of the leading experts in Agile writing and sharing best practices. We also welcome input from Agile enthusiasts who may not have published their first book just yet. So if you are in the trenches imple...

Build Smarter, Not Harder: an Agile Developer’s Guide to Build Avoidance

Craig Karpovich — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:31:39 +0100

Webcast Next Week - http://www.agilejournal.com/webcasts/2520

Broadcast Date: Thursday, December 17, 2009
Time: 10:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM CT / 1:00 PM ET
Duration: One hour

Speakers:
Scott Castle, Senior Product Management, Electric Cloud
Bob Aiello, Editor-in-Chief, CM Journal

Agile developers know that a quick build is a necessity to maintain short development cycles.&n...

Follow Agile Journal on Twitter

Patrick Egan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:35:49 +0100

Follow us on twitter and you can get up to the minute updates on new articles, blogs, events and comments from other agile business professionals. twitter@agilejournal

Kruchten, Ambler, MacIsaac - A Virtual Panel Discussion on the Future of the Unified Process

Carson Holmes — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:10:06 +0100

The Global Rational User Group Proudly Presents:

The Future of the Unified Process

A Virtual Panel Discussion with

Philippe Kruchten

Scott Ambler

Bruce MacIsaac

December 1st, 2009

12pm - 1pm EST - Moderat...

Articles for Agile Journal

Bob Aiello — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:36:32 +0100

I am working on editing the articles submitted for the next issue of the Agile Journal.
The topic is "Fun Driven Development: Agile In Games"

What fun!

Bob

Agile Teamwork - Are you ready for it?

Rowan McCann — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:16:12 +0100

Back in the 90’s self-managed teams were gaining popularity, but they had a high rate of failure mainly because team members lacked people skills. These ideas of self-managed teams were borrowed by the Agile movement when in 2001 they formulated a ‘new’ way of working, based on Agile principles. These principles value individuals and interactions over processes and tools; working software over comprehensive documentation; customer collaboration over contract negotiati...

The Hang of It

jonie — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:35:25 +0100

Farm Frenzy, Burger Rush, Wedding Dash, Little Shop of Treasures - these are the games I usually play off line. Well, I like these games more than the on-line games like DOTA, Flyff and alike. You could say that I'm old school but I like them. I just do gaming if I have a little spare time on my tight schedule.

But hey, don't get me wrong, I also play D...

Working, Working...and Working! Stop and Think to You Health!

Jhoan Meriza — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:04:04 +0100

photo credit: myaktinephotography.com

When you sit in an office and business seat for a a lot of period of time, you run the risk of causing low spinal pain or even causing more damage to an already exis...