InfoQ Homepage Adopting Agile Content on InfoQ
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Organizations Going Agile: Tread with Caution
Most organizations hire Agile coaches to carry out an organization wide Agile transformation. The intention is to have a lean and fit organization by the time coaches walk out of the building. However, it is very difficult to achieve transformation that improves the end-to-end delivery process and is sustainable if the transformation just begins at the team level.
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The Lean Software & Systems Conference 2010 Underway In Atlanta
The Lean Software & Systems Conference kicked off Wednesday in Atlanta with a great diversity of exciting activities and talks by Don Reinertsen, Alan Chedalawada, Alan Shalloway, Mary Poppendieck, Joshua Kerievsky, the duo of James Shore and Arlo Belsheee, and many more
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Organizing Self-organizing Teams
Rashina Hoda is a PhD researcher who has been examining how self-organization actually happens on teams. She has studied teams in New Zealand and India and identified six distinct roles that emerge when teams effectively self-organize. She spoke to InfoQ about her research, which will be published at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE2010) to be held in Cape Town in May.
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Jim Shore Suggests Automated Acceptance Tests Are Not The Right Move
Much of the generally accepted agile literature will advise you that the best way to capture your user's needs is through examples encoded into automated tests - "automated acceptance tests". Thought-leader Jim Shore says maybe not, while others still challenge him.
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Repetitive Tasks an Agile Smell?
Is slicing stories in horizontal tasks an Agile Smell? Is this common habit used in Scrum/Agile Planning meetings - hurting a team's focus on customer value? What is being suggested instead?
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Making Change Stick
Making cultural change in an organisation is hard, and fraught with risk. Adopting Agile principles is a major cultural shift for many organisations. Management consultant and author Steve Denning has been researching what makes change stick, and provides some concrete advice for change agents.
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Agile in the Mainstream
Mainstream Agile is an idea whose time appears to have arrived. Larger consulting services firms are now touting "agility", with firms like IBM Global Business Services and Cap Gemini pitching Agile-related service offerings. Given this kind of sudden mainstream popularity, what does it mean for Agile in general? What does "mainstream" Agile look like? What's in mainstream Agile?
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An Alternative to Certifications
The Agile Skills project is a resource for establishing a baseline of skills that an Agile Developer needs. It provides an evolving repository and a place to start learning about these skills.
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The Open UP Debate
Following on from the discussion of the various flavours of Unified Process, there is some debate about the OpenUP process framework - is it Agile, or a reactionary result of the move to lighter processes?
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Agile Team Spaces: Do's and Don'ts
Many of us, who are new to Agile, would believe that putting an Agile team together in a room gets the job done. A few of us would actually pay attention to what makes a room a team room which can enhance productivity and motivation. Many Agile teams have already shared their perspective on what would make an ideal team room. Here are a few recent ones.
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Scrum/Agile Failings or the Theses of Uncle Bob Martin
In response to a question about the Inherit Shortcomings of Scrum/Agile - Uncle Bob Martin penned (in the spirit of Martin Luther), 7 theses: No Technical Practices, 30 Day Sprints are too long, Scrum Master sometimes turns into Project Manager, Scrum carries an anti-management undercurrent, and others.
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Daily Standup Tips - a Roundup
We often hear stories about daily standups that have become nothing more than long daily status meetings where team members tune out. What techniques do people have for avoiding this and other standup pitfalls?
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Opinion: Agile Success Is Not Dependent on Agile Techniques
The marvelous successes of Agile teams in the past, present, and future are fact. But so are the failures: the cases of 'fragile' adoption, 'we suck less' adoption, and many other cases where Agile teams fail to produce great software and/or fail to effect the organization as a whole. Is this something that can be addressed and 'fixed' or is Agile development only useful for a some teams?
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Adaptive Reuse - Lessons from civil engineering
Software engineers frequently take issue with the sequential development processes that are believed to be at the core of civil engineering – in answer to the “why can’t you build software like they build bridges” criticism sometimes levered at software development. The reality is that civil engineering projects frequently apply approaches that Agilists will recognise.
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Social Contracts Facilitate Team Commitment
Formalised social contracts provide a structure to help reduce the fear, uncertainty and doubt associated with organisational change, and can enable an Agile transition to go more smoothly. Israel Gat provides an example of the social contract he used at BMP Software.