InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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Mitigating Inside and Outside Threats with Zero Trust Security
As ransomware and phishing attacks increase, it is evident that attack vectors can be found on the inside in abundance. Zero Trust Security can be thought of as a new security architecture approach where the main goals are: verifying endpoints before any network communications take place, giving least privilege to endpoints, and continuously evaluating the endpoints throughout the communication.
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Getting Rid of Wastes and Impediments in Software Development Using Data Science
This article presents how to use data science to detect wastes and impediments, and concepts and related information that help teams to figure out the root cause of impediments they struggle to get rid of. The knowledge discovered during research includes an expanded waste classification, and the use of trends to uncover undesired situations like hidden delayed backlog items and defects trends.
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How Space Shapes Collaboration: Using Anthropology to Break Silos
Software companies strive to keep innovating and changing the rules of the market. These companies are made of people who, unlike smartphones, personal computers or smart watches, have not evolved as much in recent years. This article proposes an analysis of workspaces from anthropology to solve one of the most common problems: the appearance of silos instead of a culture of collaboration.
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Avoiding Technical Bankruptcy: a Whole-Organization Perspective on Technical Debt
Technical debt is not primarily caused by clumsy programming, and hence we cannot hope to fix it by more skilled programming alone. Rather, technical debt is a third-order effect of poor communication. What we observe and label “technical debt” is the by-product of a dysfunctional process. To fix the problem of accumulating technical debt, we need to fix this broken process.
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Remote Ensemble Testing - How an Experiment Shaped the Way We Work
This article shares how an experiment evolved into a common practice at the workplace, using an experimental approach with remote ensemble testing to get teammates on our cross-functional team more involved in the testing activities of the jointly created product. This all started in the times of a global pandemic where the entire team was working from home.
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Measure Outcomes, Not Outputs: Software Development in Today’s Remote Work World
Today’s remote work world calls for a closer look at how to measure software developer productivity. Currently, there is no standard metric and widely used methods are flawed. The author describes how they successfully lead 500+ remote software developers by measuring outcomes, rather than outputs in order to produce the ideal balance between speed and quality code development.
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Growing an Experiment-Driven Quality Culture in Software Development
Have you ever faced a challenge at work that you weren’t sure how to tackle? Experiments to the rescue! In a complex environment like software development, no one can tell what might work, so we have to try things out. Read this article to learn about key challenges, insights and lessons, and get inspired for your own path to experimentation.
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You’re Doing it Wrong: it’s Not about Data and Applications – It’s about Processes
Classic developer thinking tends to approach application design from a data-centric point of view. When the domain is process management, that often leads to excess complexity and work; it also (wrongly) over-reduces proactive processes to quick bursts of automation triggered by data changes. There’s a better way to do this: start with the process.
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Applying Social Leadership to Enhance Collaboration and Nurture Communities
There are many styles and forms of leadership. In this article we explore social leadership, a form of leadership that has helped to challenge views on what leadership truly is and find out what behaviours can help create collaborative cultures and spaces where learning and meaningful engagement matter the most.
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Lessons Learned from Self-Selection Reteaming at Redgate
Redgate Software runs a yearly deliberate reteaming process across engineering to alter how they invest the efforts of teams and encourage people to move towards the work they find most engaging. Self-selection reteaming is an effective and empowering method of aligning with company goals. It normalized the idea of people moving between teams for personal development and renewed sense of purpose.
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Agile Coaches, Agile Guides and Other Family Members
Companies look at agile coaches as agile experts to guide teams through agile working. But that is at odds with the deeper philosophy of true coaching. Perhaps they should be engaging agile guides instead. Calling out Agile Guide as a distinct role when moving into uncharted territory can be especially effective and allows true coaches to maximise their effectiveness too.
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A Design Thinking Roadmap for Process Improvement and Organizational Change
How to understand an organization and the problem they want to improve, find solutions to problems, and provide feasible and high value recommendations that significantly transform how the organization operates for many years? This article shows how design thinking techniques have been used at NASA to drive organizational change and process improvement to create an impact on the organization.