BT

Facilitating the Spread of Knowledge and Innovation in Professional Software Development

Write for InfoQ

Topics

Choose your language

InfoQ Homepage Agile Techniques Content on InfoQ

  • Do Agile Methods Require Documentation?

    Some believe that agile methods do not require (or cannot support) documentation of any kind. Ian Cooper examines this belief against the Agile manifesto and against specific agile methods.

  • Agile Measurement - A Missing Practice?

    Tom Gilb and Lindsey Brodie have written an article that suggests that Agile methods have a major weakness - that of lack of quantification. They argue that all qualities can be expressed quantitatively and present a new process, PLanguage, which looks very much like Scrum with an explicit measurement step. Are they right? Are Agile methods such as Scrum and XP in need of explicit measurement?

  • Agile Certification beyond the CSM...

    Scott Ambler delves once again into the subject of Agile Certification, airing the pros and cons of current certifications (namely the CSM), discusses potential elements of future qualifications. Is the ground swell of opinion growing for a wholesale change in Agile Certification, or is the CSM evolving enough to maintain community integrity?

  • Ruby x Agile: Matz explores the relationships between Ruby and Agile

    Ruby creator Yukihiro Matsumoto recently starred in the first of six short videos exploring the relationship between Ruby and Agile methodologies. Matz features along with Kenji Hiranabe and Shintaro Kakutani. Kenji is a self confessed ‘Agile agitator’ and Japanese translator of multiple XP/Agile books. Shintaro is a strong Ruby proponent.

  • Can Virtual Teams Ever Work?

    Co-location is one of the cornerstones of Scrum, so the increasing trend toward non-co-located teams raises questions on how Agile can work in such an environment. David Churchville has blogged some common distributed team scenarios, and offered solutions to common pitfalls of delivering Agile projects using different types of distributed teams.

  • Frequent Retrospectives Accelerate Learning and Improvement

    When we seek process improvement by discarding traditional SDLC rules, how should we work? Retrospectives are a tool teams can use to reflect on their process and improve it gradually over time. In this article, Rachel Davies offers help for teams who have ideas for improvements but are not sure how to get them off the ground.

  • Refactoring the Agile Manifesto

    The Agile Manifesto is six years old. Many have become disillusioned with Agile as it has spread and (inevitably?) been diluted. Post-agilism has been discussed even before Agile has become truly mainstream. Some have suggested that we have learned much over these years and the Agile Manifesto needs to be updated.

  • Accurate Estimates - the ultimate oxymoron?

    Amit Rathore questions the value of real time task based estimates in the planning and execution of software projects, taking a lean stance on what they bring to the software delivery party.

  • Is Post-Agile Just Agile?

    There's been some discussion of Post-Agile lately. Much of this discussion focuses on practicing agile principles without following a given process dogma and adapting those practices that work for a given team. But is this post-Agile or just Agile?

  • Solving Sudoku with TDD

    A small debate recently flared up on the merits - or lack thereof - of test-driven development. Following Ron Jeffries' attempts to create a Sudoku solver, the community explores some of the difficulties and misconceptions associated with TDD.

  • Jeff De Luca, on FDD: Modeling, Code Ownership, Choosing an Agile Method

    In an interview with Stefan Roock, Jeff De Luca, who created and documented Feature Driven Development, discussed developing an overall model, code ownership, choosing an agile method, and more.

  • Archeology: Testing Sacred Text Found

    Alberto Savoia has uncovered an ancient treasure: "The Way of Testivus - Unit Testing Wisdom From An Ancient Software Start-up," which turned out to be some good advice on developer and unit testing, packaged as twelve fake, pretentious, and somewhat cryptic bits of ancient Eastern wisdom - but good for a laugh.

  • Agile Tools Usefulness Debated

    The Agile Journal's April issue examined how tools are being used in Agile projects. There are articles that are pro-tools, anti-tools, and a debate between Ron Jeffries and Ryan Martens.

  • An SOA and Agile Discussion

    SOA aims at making the entire enterprise agile by using services as the building blocks for applications. Agile software development aims at making organizations agile by introducing practices that increase communication and feedback. This article brought up a few points of agreement and disagreement between the two techniques and readers have started discussion their points of view.

  • March Issue of the Agile Journal Examines Top-Down Agile Adoption

    The Agile Journal's March issue examined how organizations can and do adopt Agile practices in a top-down fashion. Liz Barnett wrote that top-down support within an organization is essential for any wide-spread adoption and gave six areas that we should focus on for success.

BT