InfoQ Homepage Agile Techniques Content on InfoQ
-
"Sprint": a Misnomer?
One of agile development's most fundamental concepts is working "iteratively" - running a project by delivering progressively better versions of the product at recurring interim milestones. Each methodology has its metaphoric label for this; the two most prevalent are XP's "iteration" and Scrum's "sprint". Kevin Schlabach talks about how the word "sprint" may be a bad metaphor.
-
Presentation: Technical Lessons Learned Turning the Agile Dials to Eleven
In this presentation filmed during Agile 2008, Craig Smith and Paul King present what happens when one tries to be super Agile. Practically, they employed most currently used Agile practices on several projects, then they experimented with new ideas leading them to better results, increased productivity and quality.
-
Kanban as Alternative Agile Implementation
Kanban systems for software, derived from the Toyota Production System, are an iterationless approach for scheduling work. Instead of using a time boxed iteration and planning meeting, the pulls stories from the backlog only when it has completed its previous work. Dave Nicolette thinks that its important to expand our repertoire beyond the basics become familiar with other tools like Kanban.
-
Iterating To Acquire Knowledge, Not Just 'Business Value'
At first glance, most agile methodologies define simply that stories be developed in order by business value. In many cases though, it is prudent to blend increasing business value with deliberate steps in "knowledge acquisition". Alistair Cockburn describes how to do this blending effectively, and how to leverage it to deliver the right feature set at the right time.
-
Handling Absence in Scrum Teams
Absence of a team member whether planned or unplanned can potentially affect the velocity of an Agile team. A discussion on the Scrum Development group tries to find ways to deal with absence.
-
Federal Funding Backs Agile Training in Oregon
Agile experts James Shore and Diana Larsen will benefit from federal funding to teach two courses in Oregon this month, from Employer Workforce Training Funds and the Oregon Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development.
-
Presentation: Prioritizing Your Product Backlog
Choosing the right features can make the difference between the success and failure of a software product. Mike Cohn presented 'Prioritizing your Project Backlog' at Agile 2008 on how a project backlog should be organized and prioritized and non-financial techniques for prioritization such as kano analysis, theme screening/scoring, relative weighting and analytic hierarchy process.
-
Story-Focused Standups
A widely accepted agile practice is the daily standup meeting, in which each team member shares: what they have done since the previous standup, what they expect to achieve by the next, and anything that is getting in their way. Mike Cohn recently examined variations that shed additional light on the progress being made toward completing each user story.
-
What is Sprint Zero? Why was it Introduced?
Some teams use a Sprint 0 to prepare their product backlog, the infrastructure (development environment, CI server), ... .Is this part of Scrum? Is it useful?
-
Making Retrospective Changes Stick
Agile teams may find it easy to talk about change during their retrospectives, but not so easy to make that change actually happen. Esther Derby, well-known thought-leader on the human aspects of software development, recounts an experience from her personal improvement efforts to illustrate this and offer a few suggestions on how to succeed with making change actually happen.
-
How to Handle Unfinished Stories?
It is not uncommon for a scrum team to get to the end of the sprint and find that they have a story that has been worked on, but is not yet done. Perhaps the story appears to be about 80% done. What should become of such stories and how should the progress made on them be tracked? These are questions that every agile team will face. In a recent blog post, David Starr shares his approach.
-
Behavior-Driven Development for Everyone
Behavior-Driven Development is nothing new but has steadily risen to the forefront as an excellent technique for technical and non-technical participants to collaborate on a software project. Several frameworks exist to aid the development of software in the BDD (Behavior-Driven Development) mindset, with one particular framework trying to make it as <i>easy</i> as possible for everyone.
-
Martin Fowler: Can SOA Be Done With an Agile Approach?
Agile development challenges many of the common software development assumptions. One of the most significant is the evolutionary approach to software design. Another is up-front design which is promoted by top-down SOA. In his latest article, Martin Fowler examines whether the two can coexist.
-
When is Ok to Break the Rules
In “Just Ship Baby” Kent Beck, author of the JUnit Framework, reminds us that the point of all the Agile processes and practices is to produce shipping software. If they’re getting in the way of shipping software – then perhaps you need to break the rules.
-
Lego Is Not Just For Kids Anymore
Lego blocks have been used for playing and building interesting structures. Michael Hunger and Takeshi Kakeda show how Lego blocks can be used as effective information radiators.