InfoQ Homepage Agile Content on InfoQ
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Sowing Organic Change
Kevin Rutherford blogged recently on fostering change, rather than imposing it, this latter strategy being more likely to backfire. He's provided three tools useful to get the ball rolling and keep it moving.
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InfoQ.com Officially Launched!
InfoQ has officially launched today, having previously been in unlaunched/testing mode since May 17th. InfoQ is a new Enterprise Software Development Community serving Java, .NET, Ruby, SOA, and Agile. Interest so far has been high, with over 19,249 unique visitors to the site. Today's launch presents version 0.7 of the site. Thank you to our members, sponsors, and authors!
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Watir Adds Support for Modal Dialogs
Watir is a very popular testing tool for web apps. The newest release adds support for Internet Explorer modal dialogs, which are common in enterprise applications.
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Should We Manage Both Features and Tasks?
Although it keeps people busy, managing tasks is neither interesting nor useful. Managing value created provides greater leverage and greater risk management. Jon Kern blogged last week on creating good features (rather than tasks) by focusing on value and testability. But do we sometimes need to manage tasks, too? David Anderson used the Theory of Constraints to back an unexpected answer.
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RubyConf 2006 Call for Proposals
David Black of Ruby Central announced this week that the call for proposals for RubyConf 2006 is now open. There has been strong representation from the Agile community at this event in previous years.
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Ivar Jacobson Reveals Essential Unified Process (Ess UP) Vision
Ivar Jacobson, father of use cases and the Unified Process (UP) as well as one of the original "Three Amigos" of UML fame, describes his vision for a streamlined version of the UP which is published on a collection of cards instead of as HTML pages.
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Collaborative Technologies Conference, Boston, June 19-22
How much technology is really needed in the Agile world of "do the simplest thing that could possibly work"? For those needing improved technological support for their collaborative teams, the Collaborative Technologies Conference features thought leaders and technology innovators, including Google and 37 Signals, who will explore both the power of collaboration and its potential pitfalls.
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Dangling the Right "Carrot" in Changing Times
For organizations heavily dependent on software development, the shift to Agile affects core aspects of the business. Eventually there will be ripples felt in the HR domain of incentives, performance and remuneration. Wharton University brings us an article on Employee Incentive Systems: Why, and When, They Are So Hard to Change. Examples are cited from Kodak, Accenture, Microsoft.
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Ron Jeffries Overviews Financial Implications of 80-20 Rule
Pareto's rule, also known as the 80-20 rule, tells us that we can acheive 80% of the benefits from 20% of the software. The implication is that we might want to stop at that 80% level whenever possible.
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Keep those Stand Up Meetings Short and Sweet
Keeping the daily Scrum, or standup meeting, short is a challenge. Many of us are familiar with the "Talking Stick" used by some indigenous peoples to run run well organized tribal meetings. It's an elegantly simple way to keep a group focused and respectful. Kane Mar, a west coast XP coach has blogged about how a number of teams have adapted this idea. But seriously - using a Pig?!
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Microsoft Motion Light: Rapid Business Architecture Techniques
Microsoft Motion is a dynamic and systematic approach to decomposing a businesss into discreet capabilities. It organizes, measures and evaluates these capabilities and is a compliment to process mapping.
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Imagine the End, to Begin Well
Agile trainer and coach Andy Pols has reported that at SPA2006, retrospectives guru Norm Kerth described the practice of "Kick-Off Retrospectives", which ask participants to imagine how they will answer at a future retrospective: "What was so good about this project that you'd like to repeat it on future projects?" This can set expectations and inform the team's planning for collaboration.
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"Simple Ain't Easy"
The idea of simplicity has recently been explored in relation to subjects such as charity, time management, and home design. In concert with this movement, simplicity also surfaced in 2001 in the Agile Manifesto. But the term is deceptive - surely simplicity should be, well, simple? Brad Appleton has blogged at length on the subject, exploring "Myths and Misunderstandings about Simplicity".
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SirsiDynix Case Study: Jeff Sutherland on Highly Productive Distributed Scrum
Scrum co-creator Jeff Sutherland has just finished a paper on the SirsiDynix project, which he calls the most productive large Java project ever documented. The project used Distributed Scrum and some XP practices. Although distributed teams are often expected to experience reduced productivity, this team's productivity level matched that measured by Cohn on a co-located team!
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Where Did All the Positions Go?
How can existing, experienced IT professionals fit into an Agile project? By being flexible, open minded, and willing to change.