Home Articles Previous Editions
Agile vs. agile - March 2006
Welcome to the Agile Journal - CM Crossroads is excited to bring you a new journal dedicated to helping developers use Agile techniques and technologies to deliver successful software solutions. No other publication or industry portal is providing such substantive vendor-neutral content for Agile teams. In the Agile Journal, you’ll receive thought leadership and pragmatic advice from a wide range of industry experts, as well as direct feedback from hands-on developers and project managers.
read more>>
| From the Editor |
|
|
“Agile” Versus “agile” Development
There's no question that "agile" is the buzzword of the times for software developers, ISVs, consultants, and businesses, in general. As with most buzzwords, the term is often over-used and mis-used, especially by those trying to portray their products or services in a new light. In the world of software development, the term "agile" is applied to a wide variety of processes, techniques, tools, projects, and phases of the development life cycle. It's important, therefore, to set out some basic definitions and context for the use of the term "agile," especially as it will be used in articles throughout this journal.
Read More >> |
|
|
| Metrics and Management |
|
|
Agile Processes: Making Metrics Simple
IT organizations, and in particular application development departments, are increasingly under pressure to provide performance and compliance metrics to justify annual spend. Unfortunately, many metrics campaigns collapse under their own weight: there's no shortage of things to measure, the scope is greater than first appears, measurement needs to happen frequently, and collection is a distraction to traditional software delivery operations. By comparison, Agile processes are uniquely well suited to metrics, providing measurements transparently and consistently as an extension of day-to-day operations. Framed in a scorecard, information collected during an Agile project provides a comprehensive analysis of delivery excellence at the project, program and department levels.
Read More >> |
|
|
| Tools and Integration |
|
|
Turning the Fragile into the Agile
Tool integrations are notoriously fragile; how can we fix this problem once and for all?
The first sign of trouble is the unusually long time it takes for your IDE to start one morning. Maybe you can't access the trouble tickets any more or the team members cannot build their applications or run the automated test suite.
Read More >> |
|
CM Crossroads is excited to bring you a new journal dedicated to helping developers use Agile techniques and technologies to deliver successful software solutions. No other publication or industry portal is providing such substantive vendor-neutral content for Agile teams. In the Agile Journal, you'll receive thought leadership and pragmatic advice from a wide range of industry experts, as well as direct feedback from hands-on developers and project managers.
... Read More >> |
| |
|
|
Seven Agile Team Practices That Scale (Part I of II )
The benefits of agile software methods, including faster time to market, better responsiveness to changing customer requirements and higher application quality are undeniable to those who have mastered these practices. Agile practices, however, have been defined and recommended primarily to small team environments where co-location, ready access to interactive customers and small team size are the defining rule. Are the benefits of agility to be denied to those larger software enterprise... Read More >> |
| |
|
|
 | Make SOA Governance A High Priority
Today's enterprises face growing regulatory pressures with legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, HIPAA, the Patriot Act and others. As a result, corporate and IT governance - the processes, controls and reporting infrastructure over business and IT activities, respectively - are becoming progressively more pervasive as a means for providing the compliance infrastructure necessary to satisfy this list of complex regulations. Combine this increased pressure ... Read More >> |
| |
|
|
 | Generating Real Value From Your Service Oriented Architecture
The question is no longer how best to automate business systems, but rather how to improve what's already been automated. We are nearly finished with the initial wave of IT adoption and most of what can be automated already has been. This means that the essential set of features and functions required to run a business already exists in some form. The trick is how to reuse and repurpose existing investments for additional value.
Read More >> |
| |
|
|
 | FEATURED BOOK: Agile Project Management with Scrum - by Ken Schwaber
Scrum is one of the most widely used Agile processes in the US and around the world. Why is this? First of all, Scrum is easy to adopt because it makes sense to development teams and empowers them to deliver value through software products. And, it's also a very practical approach in that it does not prescribe specific development techniques and so it can be adopted by companies with a range of legacy processes and tools in place. From software vendors to corporate IT organizations to offs... Read More >> |
| |
|
|
 | And The Agile Survey Says…
In planning the launch of the Agile Journal, CM Crossroads polled its subscribers on their attitudes towards Agile development and to see how the subscribers' values fit with the priorities for the upcoming journal. In February 2006, over 400 IT professionals representing 25 different industries responded to a short online survey. The results showed a very high level of interest in Agile processes and the recognition that responding to changing business requirements and delivering value ar... Read More >> |
| |
|
|
 | CASE STUDY: Learning.com
Portland, Oregon-based Learning.com is a fast-growing software company providing online services to students and teachers to help integrate computer technology and education into their curricula. With a user base of over 30,000 teachers and over 1.5 million students accessing its subscription-based hosted products, Learning.com must continue to innovate and meet market needs while continuing to provide robust and scalable products.
... Read More >> |
| |
|
|
|
|
Latest Issues of Agile Journal
Coming Up - Editorial Calendar
- August 13 - Quality Agile Development
- September 10 - Agile News
- October 08 - Valuable Agile Practices
- November 12 - Introducing Agile to the Organization
- December 10 - The State of the Agile Community
See the full 2008 Editorial Calendar >
|