InfoQ Homepage Agile Techniques Content on InfoQ
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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.
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Run Code Run: Hosted Continuous Integration
RunCodeRun is a hosted continuous integration service for Ruby projects on GitHub, developed by Relevance. We take a first look at the project and talked to its developer Rob Sanheim.
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Are Kanban Workflows Agile?
Karl Scotland started a discussion examining whether the workflows or stages in a kanban system are counter to the agile ideals of cross-functional and collaborative teams. He started by noting that the stages on a kanban board can look a lot like the phases of waterfall. The ensuing discussion clarified that stages are not necessarily hand-offs, and led to other insights as well.
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Focus Improvement on Bottleneck Constraints
In My Framework is More Productive than Your Framework, Ken DeLong examines approaches to making software projects more productive. He finds that despite the hype about frameworks, languages, and project management tools, these tend not to be the bottlenecks. Ken believes that the largest productivity gains are likely to come from improved communication, code readability, and debugability.
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Presentation: A Kanban System for Software Engineering
David Anderson presents a brief history of the kanban system through case study reports from teams at Microsoft and Corbis. Kanban acts to limit work-in-progress and focus the team on achieving a continuous flow of value to the customer and innovates on accepted agile management practices by providing an iteration-less process with a regular release cadence.
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Models of Apprenticeship
Uncle Bob Martin recently wrote about his experience with apprentices and what he considers key to progressing from apprentice to journeyman. He describes two hypothetical apprentices: Sam, a developer who has apprenticed with the same master and had the same year fifteen years in a row. Jasmine has changed jobs (and therefore masters) a number of times - growing her skills along the way.
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Book Excerpt: Agile Testing
InfoQ brings you an excerpt from Agile Testing, a book is for testers on an agile team, test and quality assurance managers transitioning to agile development, and agile teams learning how to approach testing.
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Story Mapping Gives Context to User Stories
The Scrum notion of 'backlog' is a single, prioritized list of user stories for the team to implement. This works well for organizing what the team should work on in the near term, e.g. during sprint planning. At the Orlando Scrum Gathering, Jeff Patton described story mapping. This is a way of organizing stories that provides richer context and can help with release planning.
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Interview: Tim Bray on the Future of the Web
In this interview made during QCon SF 2008, Tim Bray talks about why he is not convinced with the buzz surrounding Rich Internet Applications and shares his ideas on Cloud Computing. He also expresses his opinion regarding the debate REST vs. WS-* and the future directions web technologies will be taking.
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How Do You Get a Hyper-Productive Team?
Some of us have been lucky enough to be on hyper-productive teams, others think this is a myth. Joanna Zweig and Cesar Idrovo have been discussing Group Coherence - a search for hyper productivity with some insightful information for everyone trying to produce a hyper-productive team. Their research gives a possible model of how and why some Agile teams excel and others do not.
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Annotated Burn-Down Charts Help During Retrospectives
A sprint burn-down chart tracks the size of the sprint backlog over the course of the sprint. During the sprint retrospective, the burn-down chart can provide valuable data about how the sprint went. Mike Sutton uses annotations to capture more data on the burn-down chart, making it even more useful during the retrospective.
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Software Craftsmanship Manifesto: A Call to Arms
A movement to promote Software Craftsmanship has been brewing for a few years. Since Agile 2008 last year they found a focal point with Uncle Bob Martin's claim that the Agile Manifesto needed amending with a new value: "Software Craftsmanship over Crap". Recently a group has created the Software Craftmanship Manifesto.
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Article: Successfully Adopting Pair Programming
Jay Fields presents several concrete strategies to go from "I think pair programming is a good idea" to "our team is successfully practicing pair programming and loving it!" He covers everything from pairing stations (the physical layout of your office space), to coaching tips, to common mistakes that those new to pair programming make.
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RFactor: Ruby Refactoring Support for Text Editors
RFactor is a Ruby refactoring tool that aims to bring automated refactoring support to text editors. We talked to its developer Fabio Kung to learn how it works and what's planned for the future.