InfoQ Homepage Agile Content on InfoQ
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Agile/Scrum Retrospectives–Tips and Tricks
Retrospectives and feedback loops are at the heart of any successful Agile/Scrum implementation. They’re the tool we use to help teams improve. Yet in two day introduction to Agile classes they often get glossed over. Lacking time trainers (including this one) often race through the topic outlining only one simple type of retrospectives.
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Code is the Culprit! Always?
Multiple reasons can be quoted for the failure of software projects. Some projects fail because of bad requirements, others due to cost and schedule overrun and few simply due to bad management. If we do a root cause analysis, would all of the failed projects lead to bad code as the main culprit? Always?
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Is the Agile Retrospective Prime Directive Patronizing?
Angela Harms recently blogged about the Agile Retrospective Prime Directive. She discusses how the language of the prime directive around "everyone doing their best" could be seen as patronizing and insulting to team members. Other commentators who have discussed the intent of the Prime Directive include Esther Derby and George Dinwiddie. How useful is the Retrospective Prime Directive?
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How to Convince the Product Owner to Prioritize the Backlog?
Scrum works most effectively with a prioritized product backlog. Prioritizing the backlog is part of the product owner role, but what can you do when your product owner won't prioritize the backlog because he or she doesn't see the value in prioritization?
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Released: Aldon Agile Manager
Last week on December 1st Aldon released the Aldon Agile Manager and InfoQ spoke with Dan Magid, Chief Product Strategist of Aldon, about this new product. Agile Manager is a free agile project management tool meant to provide better planning, prioritization and collaboration.
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How To Pay Down Technical Debt
Technical debt can be difficult to connect directly to customer value, but delivering customer value is what Agile processes are all about. So how can we track and reduce technical debt in an Agile development environment?
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Get Back To Work!
Hitting a kanban limit introduces slack into an organization by temporarily stopping the work that feeds into a bottleneck. So how can you convince management that introducing a kanban limit (i.e. stopping work) could actually be a good thing?
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Working with Difficult People and Resistance in Scrum
How do you work with difficult and uncooperative people? People who are combative or unprofessional? People who seem actively opposed to the agenda?
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Scrum Training Exercises
Need to deliver some Scrum training? Exercises can be more effective than a dry presentation. These exercises teach Scrum principles and techniques.
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Game Theory and Agile Software Development
Game theory was initially developed in economics to understand behavior of firms, markets, consumers etc. Since then, its scope and use has expanded to various fields like politics, sociology, psychology and Agile software development.
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Do Use Cases Have a Place In Scrum?
In Scrum, requirements are commonly expressed as user stories. But is it OK to also make use of use cases in Scrum? And, if so, under what circumstances should you do so?
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Common Mistakes in Agile Adoptions
A number of commentators have written about common mistakes and antipatterns of Agile adoption. Factors range from over-reliance on tools to fixation with a particular process are commonly identified as inhibiting effective Agile adoption. The lists provide food for thought and advice on things to be wary of when implementing Agile.
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Effective Agile Meetings
Meetings are expensive. An all-day team meeting costs thousands of dollars, if we calculate the cost of all the people involved along with overheads. Hence, it is pragmatic to do a fair amount of preparation for the meeting to ensure that the Agile meetings are as effective as possible.
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What Agile Metrics Should We Report?
Good measurements support good management. So what metrics should be sent up through the management chain so management can best support Agile software development processes?
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Tobias Mayer on Scrum Alliance; Part 2
Tobias Mayer's career in Scrum includes becoming one of the earliest Certified Scrum Trainers, or "CST”, authorized to grant the Certified Scrum Master credential to students who attend his Scrum courses. His career also includes being banished from the Scrum Alliance and later reinstated by Ken Schwaber, the co-creator of the Scrum framework. This is the final segment of a very candid interview.