InfoQ Homepage Collaboration Content on InfoQ
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Article: Distributed Version Control Systems - a guide
Since Linus Torvalds presentation at Google about git in May 2007, the adoption and interest for Distributed Version Control Systems has been constantly rising. In this article, Sebastien Auvray introduces the concept of Distributed Version Control, see when to use it, why it may be better than what you're currently using, and have a look at three actors in the area: git, Mercurial and Bazaar.
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Are there weaknesses with Collective Code Ownership?
The Agile development community has been practicing Collective Code Ownership for long enough now that we had enough time to find some of the faults.
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Article: Software Development Lessons Learned from Poker
There is no silver bullet. We know it, but don't act like it. Your language, tool or process is better, right? In this article, Jay Fields says: "It depends". The right choices varies with context, people, and more. This article touches upon how a lot of things must impact a choice; learning culture, skill levels, teamwork, incomplete information, metrics - and context.
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Does Your Team Have a Mission Statement?
Is your team juggling conflicting requests? Is your Product Owner struggling to decide which customer's to serve and which to ignore for now? Does it seem that everyone has a different agenda? Perhaps you need a mission statement
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Microsoft Live Mesh Keeping your World in Sync
Microsoft released a technology preview of their Windows Live Mesh service designed to connect and synchronize devices, folders and news. The details from Microsoft include giving users of PCs, Macs and Mobile phones access to their information from anywhere.
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A Preview of Mingle 2.0
On April 15th Thoughtworks will release Mingle 2.0, nine months after the initial release of Mingle. InfoQ got some time with product manager Adam Monago to talk through the new functionality provided by Mingle 2.0.
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Managers: Help your Teams Learn Communication Skills
The Agile “self organising team” paradigm requires that team members develop strong interpersonal skills. Now management gains an important role in helping teams learn new ways to communicate and collaborate. This article proposes some strategies for imparting new skills without crushing a team’s growing self-organization, and suggests some sources of helpful material for developing new skills.
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Well Formed Teams: Helping Teams Thrive, not just Survive
What does it take to create a high-performing team? According to Doug Shimp and Samall Hazziez, a "Well Formed Team" exhibits the following characteristics: follow Agile and Lean principles, use an adaptive system with a feedback loop, are focused on the business vision, are passionate and hyper-productive.
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GitHub - Rails-based Git repository hosting
Github is a new service, built in Ruby, for hosting git repositories. But there's more: by exploiting git's features, such as quick branching/merging, it allows new, more streamlined ways of cooperation between and experimentation with open source projects.
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Improving Productivity without Formal Metrics
Ron Jeffries has started writing a series of fictional stories based on his observation of real teams. The first story (Kate Oneal: Productivity) focuses on the character Kate O'Neal (CTO) and one of her teams "Rimshot". In this episode Ron explores achieving and measuring Productivity improvements without formal metrics.
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Apple Manager Writes "Managing Humans" to Help Techies
It’s Michael Lopp’s belief that developers are trained to manage bits well, but not humans. When developers are promoted to managers much harm can be inflicted. Michael uses stories and humour to warn us of the many perils of management and how to navigate around them.
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Review Board - Online Code Review Tool
Recently there has been a resurgence in interest in code reviews. InfoQ looks at Review Board, an open source application that helps facilitate the code review process, that has been gathering momentum in the open source community.
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Unconsciously Agile? (Rhythms of Agile Development)
Damon Poole wrote recently that many of us maybe practicing Agile development without even realizing it. It turns out that many of us maybe showing signs of the Agile disease without knowing it.
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Agile Beyond the Workplace
Many of us in this field have had our work habits affect our family life - many times for the better. Some of us use index cards in their daily life for scheduling, prioritizing, and discussing daily tasks with their families. Peter Abilla blogged about how he uses a Job Chart (a type of information radiator) to teach his children.
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Successful Collaboration Doesn't Happen by Accident
Partnership Coach Michael Spayd tells us that both contractors and permanent employees can find themselves playing a "consultant" role, and should consider using consulting contracts or "designed partnerships" with their clients - not regarding the exchange of money, but to create a climate for stellar results for the client, while also communicating their own values and preferences.