We have 3999 guests online

Video Spotlight

Home
Agile Journal

Agile Journal is an online magazine and e-newsletter focused on providing readers with the need-to-know information and resources they need to develop software for an agile business. For over three years Agile Journal has delivered thought leadership and pragmatic advice from a wide range of industry experts, as well as direct feedback from hands-on developers and project managers.

Review Previous Editions | Subscribe | Contact the Editors --  Read the Current Edition Below

Last Responsible Moment - Jan 2009 january-09-coversmallFirst of all, happy holidays to all of our readers.  I hope you had a very restful vacation; I know I did.  At the Agile Journal, we're kicking off the new year with one of our most diverse issues so far. 

Our lead article this month is not an article at all, but a comic strip.  Chris Matts, of the Real Options community, has written an engaging description of how to calculate the last responsible moment.  The last responsible moment is one of the primary thinking tools in an Agilist's tool belt and can be used on everything from keeping away from Big Upfront Design decisions, to deciding when stories should be played on a backlog, to figuring out when to leave the pub to get home without missing your ride.

Next, Accelerating Agile Development through Software Reuse describes a tool that excites my inner developer.  The authors describe how those of us who already write our tests first can use those tests to run a code search and locate existing code that not only matches our interface, but passes the tests we've written!  I expect that this tool to be on thousands of developer's machines in 2009.

Lyssa Adkins has written another of her wonderful articles on coaching teams, and this time she tells us about conflicts that don't go away.  Evidently, since Agile teams tend to last longer, they encounter this type of problem more often than traditional teams.  Read this article for some strategies that will help your team navigate perpetual conflicts.

Tathagat Varma gives us a new perspective on why Agile teams succeed through the lens of addressing the 5 dysfunctions of a team.  Perhaps this viewpoint will be useful to share with the executive you are trying to convince to give Agile a try?

Joanna Zweig and César Idrovo continue sharing their insights into hyper-productive teams.  This month they dig into an essential ingredient of hyper-productive teams, namely common purpose.  Furthermore, they describe the lack of common purpose in many decisions made at a typical organization.  If you are at an organization that has a few successful Agile projects under its belt, you will find the suggestions in this article very thought-provoking.

Juan Alvarado and Anh Kuhn de Chizelle have written side-by-side articles describing the same Scrum pilot from two different vantage points.  Juan tells us about the successes and failures of the Scrum team from within, and Anh shares her viewpoint from the program office.

The last article in this issue, by yours truly, is a software development satire based on C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters.  In this first letter, Screwdisk tells Virus how he can undermine an Agile team during its formation.

Finally, we are in the final phases of rebuilding the Agile Journal's website and would love your opinion.  As always, we welcome and encourage all of our readers to give us feedback and let us know how we are doing.  If some of these articles, topics, and/or formats are particularly good, then let us know.  If there are things that are annoying, confusing, or just don't work for you also let us know.  And, as always, thanks for reading!

Amr Elssamadisy
Editor in Chief
Agile Journal
Featured articles...
Last Responsible Moment
CLICK HERE to Download a PDF Version of this Article > We have all heard of "the last responsible moment," but how do you calculate it, or rather them? The Real Option community offers this interesting insight.
Read More >>
  
Accelerating Agile Development through Software Reuse
One of the main attractions of agile methods over traditional heavyweight approaches to software engineering is their ability to accelerate the software development process. By minimizing superfluous activities and artefacts such as models and documentation and focusing developers' efforts on coding, agile methods increase productivity and reduce overall development time. However, this focus on coding also has a down side - it means that new applications are typically written entirely from scrat...
Read More >>
  
Unsolvable Conflict on Agile Teams
Do you ever get the feeling that some conflict just can't be solved?  The team members in conflict address the issue, it seems to go away but then it comes back.  Maybe all dressed up in a new situation or with a different level of intensity, but the conflict is somehow familiar and you know that it has undoubtedly returned.  If the team uses humor as a stress-reliever, you may even hear the conflict turned into a sarcastic half-joke, "OK team, just to put you on notice. Julie hates me again....
Read More >>

More articles...
Group Coherence for Project Teams - Common Purpose Group Coherence for Project Teams - Common Purpose
In our continuing search for Hyper-Productivity, we have observed that a strong and highly adaptable shared sense of Common Purpose can increase the group's ability to execute on the project vision or enterprise strategy.Agile teams apply several methods that support this. They self-organize around a common goal agreed with the customer. This goal is most often embodied in the set of stories or tasks to be included in the next iteration. A shared definition of "done," a "living" and dynamic back...
Read More >>
How Agile Practices Address the Five Dysfunctions of a Team How Agile Practices Address the Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Since times immemorial, ideas, objects and experiences of grand stature and lasting economic, social and emotional value have been created by men and women working together in teams. Granted that some extraordinary work in the fields of arts, philosophy and sciences was done by truly exceptional individuals, apparently working alone, I suspect that they too were ably supported by other selfless and unsung individuals (in the backoffice, perhaps) who all worked together as a team. Right from the ...
Read More >>
A Journey into Agile - Scrum Implementation at a Mature Organization - Part 1 A Journey into Agile - Scrum Implementation at a Mature Organization - Part 1
Part 1 The Project Team's Experience A Journey Begins Midway through 2006, members of a small software development group at an engineering center for an oil field services company began having informal conversations about the nature of their work. Among other things, they pondered whether software development is an engineering discipline or a craft; and where to focus improvement efforts. These discussions sparked the interest of many on the team. They searched and came across the Agile Manife...
Read More >>
The State of Scrum The State of Scrum
In the software development industry and beyond, the term "agile" is everywhere. But, much like the "organic" food craze, the rise of agile has also been accompanied by considerable head-scratching. What does it mean to be agile? Certainly, not all of the organizations boasting of agile practices can actually be agile? Unfortunately, there isn't a concise definition to encompass the myriad meanings packed into the term. In fact, the definition of agile is so loose that it hardly helps in assessi...
Read More >>
Software Development Screwtape Letter Software Development Screwtape Letter
This is the first of many letters from Screwdisk to his protégé Virus[1]. I make no claims to the authenticity or accuracy of these letters, other than they ring true with what I have seen in the field over the last 10 years. Some of what you will read may sound a bit too familiar. It has me wondering if I have ever unknowingly been on a team with Screwdisk or Virus. I have never been able to find out who Virus and Screwdisk really are, but from what I've seen they could have been at many diff...
Read More >>

Agile Marketplace - Announcements and Special Offers

Webcast:  Moving Build and Code Quality Upstream
This interactive panel discussion moderated by Bob Aiello, Editor-in-Chief fo the CM Journal brings industry experts Anders Wallgren, CTO of Electric Cloud and Gwyn Fisher, CTO of Klocwork together for a candid discussion of the cost savings, productivity and quality benefits that can be achieved by stabilizing builds and code quality as early in the development cycle as possible.
Register Now!

Collabnet -TeamForge 5.3
CollabNet TeamForge 5.3 includes Dynamic Planning—providing flexibility to model release scope and timeline in a single view. Now, you can easily manipulate/adjust release data.
Download Your Free Trial

Requirements-based testing (RBT) can help to ensure comprehensive test coverage, reducing the risk of failure and improving software quality. This white paper details how application lifecycle management can be used to more effectively implement RBT processes, offering greater collaboration, traceability and control.can help you increase efficiency, reduce project risk, and improve overall software quality. Learn how MKS Integrity for application lifecycle management enables RBT, delivering full lifecycle traceability to help ensure that project requirements have complete test planning and execution coverage.
Download the Requirements-Based Testing whitepaper

PureCM –SCM for Agile Teams
PureCM helps you to manage development in short iterations: keeping track of changes, supporting automated builds and preserving frequent snapshots of your projects.
Get the free trial now