InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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Scrum Extensions Update - 4th Quarter 2011
This is the 4th quarter 2011 update of scrum extensions. InfoQ will be looking at proposed and approved extensions each quarter to see how scrum changes and evolves.
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Can Agile Practices Prevent ERP Disaster
Will the U.S. Military's adoption of agile practices lead to ERP implementation success? This article explores the emerging trend of using agile practices in ERP implementations with a focus on the U.S. Military's recent announcement on November 3rd to abandon a waterfall approach and closed standards for its ERP system.
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Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge Released for Public Feedback
The International Institute for Business Analysis and the Agile Alliance have collaborated on a volunteer program to produce the Agile Extension to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge. The Extension has now been released for public comment and feedback.
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Mitchell Harper: University Education of Software Engineers is a Waste of Time
Mitch Harper, co-founder of BigCommerce.com, claimed in a recent issue of the Sydney Morning Herald that university education might be the wrong way to become a software engineer. According to Harper, a self-educated software engineer without an university degree: universities leave their students rather unprepared for the realities of being a software engineer.
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Agile 2011 Videos Now Available On New Agile Alliance Learning Center
The Agile Alliance have recently launched a new Learning Center, with the highlight at launch being the availability of keynotes and selected presentations from the Agile 2011 conference.
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Should Agile Coaches Have a Code of Ethics?
Recently on the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/agile-leaders">Agile Leaders mailing list</a> Dan Mezick initiated a discussion on the need for <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/agile-leaders/browse_thread/thread/23d77a7fd3797ea8">Agile Coaching Ethics</a>.
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Pair Programming: Side-by-Side or Face-to-Face
Pair programming is an agile software development technique in which two programmers work together at one workstation. The benefits of pair programming are well known and the technique is widely practiced. However, what is the best way to sit while pairing?
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A Conversation from the Trenches of Agility with David J Bland, Brad Murphy and Peter Saddington
A Friday afternoon conversation with some noted agile practitioners covering the current state and future trends of the methodological universe and how these are playing out in the real world. Sit back, pop open a beer and enjoy the banter between some of the sharpest agile coaches on the market.
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Is The Patent System Broken?
In a recent interview with The San Francisco Chronicle the patent counsel of Google, Tim Porter, claims the patent system itself is broken. Patent offices worldwide have been increasingly granting protection to “innovations” that are not innovative. The IT Industry is currently facing a series of patent trials which some large corporates seem to leverage as weapons for attacking competitors.
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Enabling and Sustaining High Performing Teams
Agile practices should foster high-performance self-organizing teams. It is important that high-performance equals value delivery, to ensure that the team solves the right problem. It is also important to create an environment where high-performance can flourish which requires thinking and action at a management level. We examine three commentators perspectives on enabling high performance.
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Is Velocity Killing Agile?
Velocity, the measure of work completed by the team divided by the time taken to complete it, is increasingly being used to manage the productivity of a team and as a comparison between teams. Jim Highsmith, Mark Levison, and Scott Ambler discuss the misuse of velocity as a productivity measure.
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How Applied Psychology can help Software Engineers
On the 1st November software engineer and author John R. Fox has published his book “Digital Work in an Analog World”. According to its subtitle “Improving Software Engineering by Applied Psychology”, the book does not consider software engineering in practice. Rather, it is focusing on the psychological aspects relevant and practices relevant for engineers.
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Are Project Managers the Problem?
Do projects succeed in spite of the project manager role? A recent Computerworld article suggests that poor selection and promotion of project managers is at the root of most project failures. This article takes a deeper dive on this notion.
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IT Projects: 400% Over-Budget and only 25% of Benefits Realized
An alarming study by Flyvbjerg and Budzier published in the Harvard Business Review has made everyone stand-up and take notice. The coherent advice being that IT projects are much more riskier than we think.
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Software Development as Risk Management
Should software development look to finance for planning risk and uncertainty? That question recently surfaced in a debate about the “Last Responsible Moment” decision making practice in agile software development. This article covers some recent trends and debate around using finance concepts for risk management and planning in software development.