InfoQ Homepage Agile Content on InfoQ
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Why 1994 and 1998 CHAOS Stats Differ Widely
Jim Johnson, creator of the CHAOS Chronicles on project failure, answers a question outstanding after our August interview: How does he explain the amazing change in cost overrun from 189% in 1994 to 69% in 1998? Apparently Standish planned to publish a CHAOS report in 1996 but held it back due to these unexpected results. Johnson shares what their research revealed happened.
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Opinion: Take Agile Off Your Resume
Yesterday Steve Yegge blogged about development practices under the title "Good Agile, Bad Agile". He wrote about "Good Agile" at Google, "Bad Agile" almost everywhere else, and offered consultants and job hunters some professional advice: drop the name.
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FishEye 1.2: Enhancing Version Control
Cenqua has released FishEye 1.2, a commercial version control exploration tool supporting CVS and Subversion. The new version improves Subversion support, adds new visualizations, email feeds, user preferences, and administration features.
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Practical Advice for Implementing Scrum
As Scrum continues to gain momentum, it's not surprising to hear the call for practical help for these many novice teams. Mike Vizdos, a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile coach with experience in both small and large enterprises, has responded with a site called "Implementing Scrum", using cartoons and straight talk to lay out the basics.
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Dangers of Agile Adoption
Siddharta Govindaraj has been noticing what happens as Agile is adopted by more mainstream enterprises. He outlines five points that companies need to watch for when adopting agile processes - and what to do about them.
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Catching up with Selenium: Testing Ajax, v0.8 Released
Selenium is a web app functional testing tool that uses JavaScript and Iframes to embed a test automation engine in your browser, allowing Selenium to execute in any JavaScript-enabled browser. InfoQ spoke to core developer Jeff Xiong to find out more about the recent 0.8 release of Selenium core. Also, InfoQ is hosting a new article showing how to use Selenium to test Ajax apps.
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VersionOne Publishes Agile Tool Evaluator's Guide
VersionOne, a provider of Agile project and lifecycle management tools has recently published an Agile Tool Evaluator Guide intended to help organizations in choosing software to support their Agile teams and processes. InfoQ interviewed VP Michael Leeds about how the featureset in this guide was compiled.
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Practitioners Adapt Agile to Local Constraints
Some people think they can only be Agile with small, co-located teams and full management support, but most teams aren't that lucky. So, should they should give up on Agile techniques? Scott Ambler's answer is a resounding "No!" His Dr. Dobbs article "Imperfectly Agile: You Too Can Be Agile!" outlines how Agilists overcome common challenges that others use as excuses for not being Agile.
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Presentation: Jeff Sutherland on The Roots of Scrum
Jeff Sutherland, an Agile Manifesto signatory, ran the first Scrum at Easel Corp. in 1993. At JAOO 2005 he covered the history of Scrum from its inception to its impact at Easel, Fuji-Xerox, Honda, WildCard, Lexus, Google. Along the way Sutherland shared interesting stories & looked at Scrum types A, B, and "all at once" type C, reminding listeners that cultural change is the hard part of Scrum.
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New Book on Lean Software Offers Practical Advice
In 2003 Mary and Tom Poppendieck adapted the revolutionary principles of Lean manufacturing for software development. Their new book offers a blend of history, theory, and practice, drawing on their experience optimizing the software "value stream". They present the right questions to ask, the key issues to focus on, and techniques proven to work for those implementing a lean software process.
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Opinion: Time for an Agile Certification Program
Pete Behrens, trainer and organizational Agility consultant, recently blogged about the contentious topic of certification. He noted that both Scrum and FDD have 2-day basic certification programs, while "XP has remained silent on the topic," and called on the Agile community to begin looking at a true Agile Certification Process.
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Survey: Leaders Say Agile Has "Crossed the Chasm"
Diana Larsen leads a lot of retrospectives... So, it's not surprising that, when she asked herself "Where is Agile going now?" her response was to run a retrospective of her own. She found that leaders in our community are convinced: Agile methods have "crossed the chasm" to become a respectable alternative for managing and working in software projects. InfoQ brings you this exclusive article.
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Opinion: Putting Overtime in Perspective
Agile work, when done in a disciplined, creative way, tends to be very intense, so Agile leaders encourage balanced lives for team members and promote "sustainable pace". Mitch Lacey, a Microsoft Program Manager, recently blogged about his emerging understanding of how to use this XP practice appropriately.
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Presentation: Agile Project Management Planning and Budgetting
What happens to planning when teams "self organize"? Agile methods are empirical: plan it, do it, evaluate, plan again. David Hussman reviews practices for planning a project, release, iteration.
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Holacracy - The Self-Organizing Enterprise
The fit between Agile teams and traditional enterprises can be challenging. Agile may highlight or exacerbate pre-existent dysfunctions, in areas a project manager may not be well-placed to address, so those involved in Agile roll-outs are thinking about alternate ways to organize the enterprise. Holacracy, created at Ternary Software, suggests that self-organization can extend outside IT.