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Does Value Stream Mapping Work for Software Development?
Value stream mapping is a lean manufacturing technique used to analyze the flow of materials and information required to bring a product or service to a consumer. This process was successfully implemented in the manufacturing industry by Toyota and has been mapped to software development too. Does software development follow the same path as manufacturing?
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Who Wants This User Story?
Some user stories defy easy assignment of their benefits to a particular person. But how can we satisfy the standard "As a ... I want ... so that I can ...." user story template if we can't express who wants this work done?
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Blog Series - The State of Agile
The Agile Scout blog has put out a call for comments on The State of Agile. So far ten commentators have confirmed their willingness to contribute. The first five entries have been posted and some of their key points are reported in this news item. An eclectic group of authors from a wide range of backgrounds are providing their thoughts on how Agile has changed and where it is headed.
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Tobias Mayer on Scrum Alliance
Tobias Mayer held a high-profile role at the Scrum Alliance. He quit, and wrote a scathing blog post about the Scrum Alliance. In that post, he questions the Scrum knowledge of the leaders, questions the integrity of the Scrum Alliance board, and asserts that that the Scrum Alliance "has become the epitome of the dysfunctional organization that Scrum practitioners are committed to transforming."
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Avoid SDK Hassle with Build Services for Native Mobile Web Apps: RhoHub, Apparat.io
HTML/Javascript code packaged as native apps allows for cross platform mobile development - but there's still a nuisance: the yak shaving exercise of installing and maintaining the SDKs of all target platforms, and running the builds. There are solutions to fix that: Rhohub for Rhodes, Apparat.io, and PhoneGap/Build.
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Are There Better Estimation Techniques for Experienced Teams?
The results of software estimation are important for stakeholders to take care of team allocation and budgeting. A widely prevalent technique to estimate in Agile has been Planning Poker, which is a consensus based. Does this way of estimating take too much time? Are there other methods which can be employed by experienced practitioners?
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Can Oracle Turn Java Around?
A lot has happened in the last week or two in the Java space. Oracle has remained silent throughout, but their silence is deafening. They need to clarify what is happening with the JCP, and comment on OSX's removal of Java. Oracle can still turn this around, but the silence is damning. They may have bought the rights to Java, but it hasn't bought into the Java community.
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Google & Spring Collaborate To Advance Cloud Java Development
VMware and Google today announced an early November 2010 'general availability' of their collaborative projects to move Java-based cloud development forward by bringing the Google Web Toolkit to Spring Roo, integrating Spring Insight with Google Speed Tracer, and incorporating Google Plugin for Eclipse into the Eclipse-based SpringSource Tool Suite.
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Big Changes at Scrum Alliance
The Scrum Alliance has a new Managing Director, Donna Farmer. She issued an introductory email to Scrum Alliance members on Wednesday, soliciting feedback on the organization, and providing her email and phone number. Earlier, former creative director of the Scrum Alliance Tobias Mayer summarily quit his role in the organization, later making mention of the Scrum Alliance in a volatile blog post.
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The Future of WCF Is RESTful [Updated]
Glenn Block, a Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Program Manager, said during an online webinar entitled “WCF, Evolving for the Web” that Microsoft’s framework for building service-oriented applications is going to be refactored radically, the new architecture being centered around HTTP.
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Apple Deprecates Java
As well as yesterday's back to the Mac presentation, Apple released a number of updates, including Java for 10.6 update 3, which brings the Java version to 1.6.0_22 and fixes numerous security holes. Significantly, though, in the release notes Apple signs its exit to the Java licensee space by making Java deprecated and hinting at its removal from 10.7 OSX Lion.
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Tips for Release Planning with Distributed Scrum
With teams in the US and India, how does one make release planning work? What if the team isn't even able to do their planning at the same time because of the time difference?
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Maven Central mirror in Europe
Sonatype have created a mirror of Maven Central in Europe. If you use Maven, and you're based in Europe, you should update your maven settings to point to it for faster asset acquisition.
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Scrum Does Not Have a ProductMaster Role
A common question across multiple forums is about the acceptability of combining the ScrumMaster and Product Owner role. While most Agilists believe that these roles are like oil and water, there are situations where combining them might be inevitable.
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Ray Ozzie Steps Down as Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect
Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s Chief Software Architect, has stepped down and will retire from Microsoft after five years as strategist pushing the idea of online services and cloud computing.