InfoQ Homepage Agile Content on InfoQ

Articles

RSS Feed

Newer Older

Culture & Methods

Distributed Version Control Systems: A Not-So-Quick Guide Through

Since Linus Torvalds presentation at Google about git in May 2007, the adoption and interest for Distributed Version Control Systems has been constantly rising. We will introduce the concept of Distributed Version Control, see when to use it, why it can be better, and have a look at three actors in the area: git, Mercurial and Bazaar.

Sebastien Auvray
on May 07, 2008
Software Development Lessons Learned from Poker

There is no silver bullet. We know it, but don't act like it. Your language, tool or process is better, right? Jay Fields says: "It depends". The right choices varies with context, people, and more. This article touches upon how a lot of things must impact a choice; learning culture, skill levels, teamwork, incomplete information, metrics - and context.

Jay Fields
on Apr 26, 2008
Improvement, Success and Failure: Scrum Adoption in China

This recent inquiry, by InfoQ China editor Jacky Li, picked 5 very different cases of Scrum adoption in China, which got different results, and asked: Why did you use Scrum? How did you adopt it? What problems did you encounter, and why did it succeed or fail? Despite the small sample size, it's an interesting comparison, pointing out that improvement doesn't ensure success.

Jacky (Jian) Li translated by Jacky (Jian) Li
on Apr 16, 2008
Development

Key Takeaway Points and Lessons Learned from QCon London 2008

This article presents the main takeway points as seen by the many attendees who blogged about QCon. Comments are organized by tracks and sessions: Keynotes, Architectures you've always wondered about, The Cloud as the New Middleware Platform, SOA, REST and the Web, Evolving Java, Banking, Agile in Practice, Programming Languages of Tomorrow, Effective Design, .NET, The Rise of Ruby.

Ryan Slobojan
on Apr 09, 2008
Development

Version Control for Multiple Agile Teams

When several agile development teams work on the same codebase, how do we minimize chaos, and ensure there's a clean, releasable version at the end of every iteration? Here Henrik Kniberg outlines the scheme used in "Scrum and XP from the Trenches". This paper is not so much for version control experts as for the rest of us, who just want to learn simple and useful ways to collaborate.

Henrik Kniberg
on Mar 31, 2008
Help Your Teams Trade Cubicles for Communication Skills

The Agile “self organising team” paradigm demands new skills of team members – including the people skills for which they may once have depended upon their Project Managers. Far from being redundant, management can now play an important role in helping teams learn new ways to communicate and collaborate. This article proposes some strategies for imparting new skills and suggests some resources.

Deborah Hartmann Preuss
on Mar 24, 2008
Better Best Practices

Organizations often introduce Best Practices as part of a change program or quality initiative. These can take a number of forms, from cheat sheets to full-blown consultant-led methodologies, complete with the requisite auditing and accreditation. In this article, Dan North shows how best practices can not only fail to help, but even have a severe negative impact on your top performers.

Dan North
on Mar 11, 2008
The Three M's - The Lean Triad

The discussion of applying lean principles to software development has largely focused on identifying and eliminating waste (in Japanese: muda). Lean Thinking equally aims to remove overburden (muri) and unnecessary variation (mura). Roman Pichler discusses the relationship of the "three M's" and proposes to eliminate overburden as the first step toward a leaner process.

Roman Pichler
on Feb 27, 2008
Questioning the Retrospective Prime Directive

The 'Retrospective Prime Directive' is a practice used by many teams as part of their continuous improvement cycle. As outlined in Norm Kerth's book, it is intended to foster the deep learning that is the heart of a retrospective. This article is an enlightening conversation, captured by Linda Rising, between senior practitioners on the benefits and the challenges of using this practice.

Linda Rising
on Feb 14, 2008
Interview and Book Excerpt: Nicolai Josuttis, "SOA in Practice"

Today, InfoQ publishes a sample chapter from Nicolai Josuttis' "SOA in Practice". On this occasion, InfoQ's Stefan Tilkov had a chance to sit down with Nicolai to ask about his views on SOA, the main industry misconceptions about it, key success factors and a recommendation for how to approach it.

Stefan Tilkov
on Jan 15, 2008
Kanban Applied to Software Development: from Agile to Lean

In this InfoQ article Kenji Hiranabe applies lessons learned while working with Japanese manufacturers. While many Agile teams are optimizing only a portion of the value stream, Hiranabe proposes a simple way to adapt lessons from Lean Manufacturing's "Kanban" visual tracking system to make process visible to more of the organization, for better communication and process improvement.

Kenji Hiranabe
on Jan 14, 2008
The "Consulting" Contract

Coach Michael Spayd tells us that both contractors and permanent employees can play a "consultant" role, and should think about developing consulting contracts or "designed partnerships" with their clients - not about the exchange of money, but to help create stellar results for the client while working in a manner that adheres to their own values and preferences.

Michael K. Spayd
on Dec 30, 2007