InfoQ Homepage Culture & Methods Content on InfoQ
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Managing Agile Projects - How Hard Can It Be?
Agile projects emphasize self-organizing teams and tight IT/customer collaboration, but does this relieve managers of their role? Liz Barnett, editor-in-chief at AgileJournal.com believes it does not... that the manager role remains critical, though Agile does change it. Her recent article on managing Agile projects recommends some practices to focus on when switching to Agile management.
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Fowler: "Agile Imposition is a Very Red Flag"
Martin Fowler, one of the original creators of the Agile Manifesto in 2001, reflected last week on reports of Agile process being imposed on teams from the outside. He states his reaction succinctly: "Imposing a process on a team is completely opposed to the principles of agile software, and has been since its inception."
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New Closures Proposal from Doug Lea, Josh Bloch, and Bob Lee
A new proposal for adding closures to Java 7 has been proposed by Josh Bloch, Doug Lea, and Bob Lee. It was drafted in response to the other major proposal currently in the works. Lee notes that the goal of the new proposal is to try to find a balance between the power of closures and the weight of new syntax.
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Case Study: DSDM Bridges the Gap Between PRINCE 2 and XP
PRINCE 2 is a traditional project management method, mandated for government agencies in the UK. Extreme Programming (XP) is considered one of the lightest Agile software development methods, relying on team self-management. In this case study, Barbara Roberts uses one of the more management-oriented Agile methods, DSDM, to get these two approaches working together within a single project.
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Experience Report: Running FIT and Fitnesse with Ruby
Ron Jeffries and Chet Hendrickson, well known contributors to the Extreme Programming community, regularly meet in bookstores and cafes to pair program, then Ron blogs about what they've learned. Yesterday Ron wrote a detailed blow-by-blow of their experience installing and configuring Ruby/Fit, then Fitnesse on top of it. For agile practitioners, this is essential "Iteration 0" work.
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Test Driven Database Development
Scott Ambler thinks it's time to raise the bar on data quality: he suggests teams should adapt well accepted TDD code quality practices to database development, since data is a valuable corporate asset. His article in September's TASSQuarterly magazine presents his "Test Driven Database Development" (TDDD) which, just like TDD, combines test-first practices and refactoring.
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Why 1994 and 1998 CHAOS Stats Differ Widely
Jim Johnson, creator of the CHAOS Chronicles on project failure, answers a question outstanding after our August interview: How does he explain the amazing change in cost overrun from 189% in 1994 to 69% in 1998? Apparently Standish planned to publish a CHAOS report in 1996 but held it back due to these unexpected results. Johnson shares what their research revealed happened.
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Jeff Bezos Suggests Outsourcing Least Important 70%; A Boost for Rails?
Amazon.com founder, Jeff Bezos, explains 70% of a project's time is spent on inconsequential tasks and suggests these could be outsourced to third parties or technologies, such as Rails.
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Opinion: Take Agile Off Your Resume
Yesterday Steve Yegge blogged about development practices under the title "Good Agile, Bad Agile". He wrote about "Good Agile" at Google, "Bad Agile" almost everywhere else, and offered consultants and job hunters some professional advice: drop the name.
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FishEye 1.2: Enhancing Version Control
Cenqua has released FishEye 1.2, a commercial version control exploration tool supporting CVS and Subversion. The new version improves Subversion support, adds new visualizations, email feeds, user preferences, and administration features.
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Practical Advice for Implementing Scrum
As Scrum continues to gain momentum, it's not surprising to hear the call for practical help for these many novice teams. Mike Vizdos, a Certified Scrum Trainer and Agile coach with experience in both small and large enterprises, has responded with a site called "Implementing Scrum", using cartoons and straight talk to lay out the basics.
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On migrating from Python & Zope to Java with EJB 3 & JBoss SEAM
Nuxeo has announced that the next version of its ECM product will be based entirely on Java, using JBoss SEAM, EJB 3, and JBoss. The move is interesting for a company claiming to be "the biggest Zope-focused company in the world." InfoQ spoke to Nuxeo's engineering team to find the why and how of their move.
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InfoQ Book: Enterprise SOA Adoption Strategies
In the lastest book in the InfoQ series, Capgemini CTO and SOA standards body member Steve Jones argues that for SOA to succeed we must move our thoughts away from the implementation technologies and towards the "what" of the business. Steve explains how to construct an overall business service architecture.
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Dangers of Agile Adoption
Siddharta Govindaraj has been noticing what happens as Agile is adopted by more mainstream enterprises. He outlines five points that companies need to watch for when adopting agile processes - and what to do about them.
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Team Foundation Server SP 1 Beta 1.0 Released
A beta of the Team Foundation Server SP1 has been released via Microsoft Connect. This release contains new features as well as bug fixes. It is currently available in English and Japanese.