Agile Zone | Software Methodologies for Development Managers

Jared Richardson08/25/10
11641 views
4 replies

Test Behavior, Not State

Many developers and testers write automated tests. Sometimes they're unit tests, other times package level, and occasionally integration. There are many different types of tests, but there are a few characteristics of great tests. Today let's look at one...

Mitch Pronschinske08/25/10
4076 views
0 replies

Agile Sherpa: A Gentle Guide to the Agile Landscape

There's tons of resources on agile and lean practices out there, but the hard part is finding a great site where agile beginners and advanced knowledge-seekers can find lots of useful information and community events or training. Agile tool-vending veteran...

Bob Hartman08/25/10
2291 views
1 replies

Your Agile isn’t my Agile!

Have you ever had the feeling someone REALLY didn’t get it? I had that feeling recently when reading this article about the supposed weaknesses of agile. Some of the 10 points make a bit of sense, but what seems to be missing is what happens in a...

Mitch Pronschinske08/24/10
7473 views
0 replies

Jonathan Lindo on Agile Architecture, DevOps, and Patents

The software industry is constantly trying to find the next-generation tools and methods that can make development, testing, and production more efficient. It's a core part of the developer's inner drive to try and envision how things could be better. At...

Peter Schuh08/24/10
1853 views
0 replies

Yes, Your Ego IS in the Way: On Humility and Management

One thing that makes me happy about my current gig is the managers whom I work alongside. I’ve been in environments that were not nearly so healthy. One in specific where the egos of my fellow managers were matched only by the thinness of their skins....

Matt Stine08/23/10
14161 views
1 replies

Waste #2: Extra Features

Welcome to episode three of our series "The Seven Wastes of Software Development." In episode one, we introduced the concept of eliminating waste from our software development efforts. Waste elimination can be traced all the way back to the the...

Mitch Pronschinske08/23/10
2655 views
0 replies

TinyPM, Big Release

TinyPM is a perfect tool (free for 5 users or less) for small to medium-sized agile projects with easy-to-use utilities for managing iterations, even in distributed development environments. If you're moving away from paper and spreadsheets, or just trying...

Zviki Cohen08/23/10
6891 views
2 replies

People are willing to work for less

Last week, I wrote a post about my experience with oDesk. The purpose of the post was to share my experience, so other entrepreneurs can learn from it, and provide feedback to oDesk and contractors in general. While some people found the value, I got...

Mike Cottmeyer08/23/10
912 views
1 replies

How Big Is Your Bucket?

A few posts back, I asked if an agile team should be expected to call their shots. In other words, should we expect that over time, an agile team should be able to accurately predict what they'll be able to deliver at the end of the iteration? My...

Gil Fink08/21/10
7350 views
0 replies

EFProf – Profiler Tool for Entity Framework

One of the important tools in your tool arsenal when you develop with an ORM tool is a profiler. Like SQL profiler to a SQL Server DBA an Entity Framework profiler is a must have tool to Entity Framework developer.

Matt Stine08/20/10
19588 views
1 replies

Waste #1: Partially Done Work

Welcome to episode two of our series "The Seven Wastes of Software Development." In episode one, we introduced the concept of eliminating waste from our software development efforts. Waste elimination can be traced all the way back to the the...

Kelly Waters08/20/10
3384 views
0 replies

7 Key Principles of Lean Software Development

I haven't blogged much about lean development. I'm not an expert on lean, but agile development is a great example of lean thinking in action. So I thought it might be interesting to blog a bit about lean software development, and how I see it...Before...

David Bland08/19/10
2466 views
5 replies

7 Ways to Humanize the Distributed Team Experience

If you are involved in a distributed software team, chances are you know just how difficult it is to create personal connections. This is especially true in larger organizations where team members are geographically dispersed around the world and rarely...

Jared Richardson08/18/10
11404 views
4 replies

Planning Meetings Are Essential

Planning meetings, done right, are one of the best communication tools your team can use. It gets the right people in the room and forces the discussion down the right paths. If you skip this meeting, you're asking for trouble.What does it mean to do a...

Lyssa Adkins08/18/10
14857 views
1 replies

Navigating the Five Levels of Conflict - The Agile Way

Working together day after day is an intense human experience, with all the glories and warts that emerge from constant interaction between these astonishing, disappointing, challenging, infuriating, magnificent, normal human beings we call team...