InfoQ Homepage Agile Techniques Content on InfoQ
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Article: Where To Now With Build Automation
Most developers nowadays are familiar with the basic tenets of Continuous Integration, but arguably only a small proportion of these are fully benefiting from an optimized CI set up. This article, by John Smart of Atlassian, discusses Continuous Integration practices that can take CI beyond merely being a glorified cron job and make it an effective, productivity-enhancing hub for development.
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Interview: Jeff Patton on Embracing Uncertainty
In this interview with Jeff Patton at Agile 2008, he talks about three strategies that can help product owners do their job more effectively by embracing the inherent uncertainty in all software development. Namely they are understanding the ultimate goals of the project, delaying decisions until the last responsible moment, and scaling up by building quality.
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Comparing Kanban To Scrum
Kanban has been gaining serious interest as a valid approach to implementing agile for your development organization. As such, many people are asking the question "how does Kanban compare to Scrum?". Henrik Kniberg has taken a stab at answering this question
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Presentation: Born to Cycle
Agile development is not about doing a set of practices, it's about a way of "being," it's about learning. How is this learning accomplished? By taking brief pauses after small experiments, even large problems can be solved. In a recent Harvard Business Review interview of Toyota's president, he observed, "...when 70 years of very small improvements accumulate, they become a revolution."
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Presentation: Agile Mashups
It is rare to come across a team that are following an agile software method such as Scrum or XP by the book. Most teams create their own "mashup" of agile practices to suit their unique situation. This talk highlights what's on offer in the different agile methods, where different agile practices add value and how to go about blending them into your current approach.
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Recommended Lean Books
Are you interested in reading up on Lean theory? The latest discussion on the leanagile Yahoo! group lists many good reads and even a work-in-progress.
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Presentation: Agility - Possibilities at a Personal Level
Linda Rising talks about the industrial revolution, caffeine, agility and happiness at QCon 2008 in San Francisco: Some observers of historical trends have suggested that the Industrial Revolution could not have happened without coffee and tea. Control of working and waking is what the Industrial Age was all about. Is it time for a truly agile approach to how we work and live our lives?
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Do Stand-ups Stand Up for Larger Teams?
The daily stand-up meeting helps the team members make a commitment to each other about what they aim to achieve in the day and identify obstacles to progress, if any. However, many Agilists believe that the conventional stand-ups break down quickly as the team size increases.
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Virtual Panel: Is the Backlog a Vital Artifact and Practice or Waste?
Mary Poppendieck, Ron Jeffries, Jeff Patton, David West, Steve Freeman, and Jason Yip give us their take on backlogs and their importance to successful Agile teams.
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Lean 'Standard Work' Applied to Software Development
One component of the Toyota Production System is the concept of standard (or standardized) work. A recent post on the Kanban Development list asked if this concept carries over when TPS and lean are applied to software projects. Despite the fact that software development is not manufacturing, respondents did find value in applying the 'standard work' concept to development.
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What Practices Make Up YOUR Agile Development?
'Agile' is an umbrella term. As the community matures, we are going beyond specific methodologies towards each team and/or organization having a tailored set of practices. Jurgen Appelo is running a survey that could give us insight into the current state of practice.
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Transparency: A Great Leap Forward or Exposed Artery?
Agile propagandists make great claims about the advantages of being transparent about the state of their projects. They claim that this how mature relationships work and that "Honesty is the best policy". But is this true? Many of us work in dysfunctional organizations where honesty is the best way to get cheated. Surely Transparency is just not pragmatic?
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Does a Distributed Agile Team Need Heroes?
This month's issue of the Agile Journal has a case study that suggests that if you do not have a technical wizard on your team, then distributed/offshore Agile development will fail. This goes against the grain of self-organizing teams and getting away from heroes of the traditional Agile mindset.
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An Agile Approach to Code Reuse
A recent discussion on the Extreme Programming Yahoo Group explored the apparent conflict between making software reusable and the XP practice of not writing code until it is needed. Ron Jeffries and others shared insights about the costs and benefits of code reuse, as well as how and when to do it in an agile environment.
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Don’t Start What Cannot Be Done
Many Agile teams face a dilemma when picking up a new story towards the end of a Sprint. There is some time left but this time may not be enough to get a story done-done.