InfoQ Homepage Methodologies Content on InfoQ
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Does Cost Accounting Cause Crappy Code?
Cost accounting , the standard accounting approach to analyzing the monetary value of a project, treats all parts of a project independently and encourages local optimization. Local optimization of costs means that you focus on task completion time. A focus on minimizing task completion time means that you don't have time for refactoring and other niceties - they are too expensive.
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What can Math and Psychology teach us about Agile?
With Agile, we avoid early commitments to gain flexibility later. APLN members Chris Matts and Olav Maassen have noted a connection here with the math behind financial options. Their article introduces "Real Options," applying both psychology and financial math to our thinking about Agile practices. They propose it will help us refine our agile practices and take agile in new directions.
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Article: Interview with EFx Software Factory creator Jezz Santos
In this InfoQ interview Jezz Santos talks about the Microsoft Software Factory Initiative. Jezz talks about his view of Software Factories and describes how they will change the way we develop software today. He also explains the anatomy of a Software Factory and how Software Factories relate to Domain-Specific Languages.
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Incremental Software Development without Iterations
David Anderson described how his team is using a kanban system for their sustaining engineering (maintenance and bug fixing) activities. Iterations have been dropped although software is still released every two weeks. Work is scheduled, monitored, and run via a "kanban board" and daily stand-up meetings.
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If Agile is So Good, Why Isn't Everyone Doing It?
On CIO.com, Thomas Wailgum wrote about why, despite the evidence, Agile adoption remains at a steady, rather than explosive growth. He posde questions to CIO's of a number of Fortune 500 organisations in his article "How Agile Development Can Lead to Better Results and Technology-Business Alignment."
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A Disciplined Approach to Agile Adoption
Ahmed Sidky and James D. Arthur present an Agile Adoption Framework. Attempting to provide a structured, repeatable and measurable framework for adopting Agile processes in a software development organization.
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Interview: Per Kroll on Agility and Discipline, RUP, Distributed Development
Per Kroll is a director at Rational Software Corporation, where he's responsible for the development and management of the Rational Unified Process. In this interview, Per shares insights from his book 'Agility and Discipline', Agile practices for distributed development, how RUP is changing to support teams that want to customize it, and RUP vs. Agile.
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The Dire Consequences of Fixed Price Projects
In a recent newsletter, Scott Ambler looked at why fixed price projects tend to overrun and often fail to solve the business problems they set out to conquer. Scott named the key problems in fixed price projects, identified the bad habits they encourage for customers and developers, and ended with a call to revisit how we fund our IT projects, offering an alternative.
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Jeff De Luca, on FDD: Modeling, Code Ownership, Choosing an Agile Method
In an interview with Stefan Roock, Jeff De Luca, who created and documented Feature Driven Development, discussed developing an overall model, code ownership, choosing an agile method, and more.
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Is Scrum Atomic?
An article on the ScrumAlliance website asked what it means to be practicing Scrum and answered that you must be doing all of the Scrum practices for this to be true. Most of the comments left agreed with that sentiment, and a few did not. So, is Scrum indivisible?
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APLN Takes on Certification
The Agile Project Leadership Network, unlike the Agile Alliance, has decided to wade into the certification waters. The APLN has decided to take input from the community as it embarks on defining two different levels of Agile Leadership certification.
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An SOA and Agile Discussion
SOA aims at making the entire enterprise agile by using services as the building blocks for applications. Agile software development aims at making organizations agile by introducing practices that increase communication and feedback. This article brought up a few points of agreement and disagreement between the two techniques and readers have started discussion their points of view.
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Father of the Unified Process says "Enough of Processes"
When someone as well-versed with the processes people use to develop software as Ivar Jacobson says "Enough of Processes", one is bound to wonder why. Ivar Jacobson argues that the way we develop and share processes has to change.
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Avid Agile Adoption Engenders an "Equal and Opposite" Reaction
An old post on "The Physics of Passion" resonates today, as the methodology argument continues: is Agile an approach worth embracing? Or just the latest flavour of corporate Kool-Aid? Kathy Sierra wrote that being accused of "drinking the Kool-Aid" can be a good thing: a sign that we're developing passionate proponents - and opponents.
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The Agile Alliance Takes an Official Position on Certification
The discussions that have been happening in distributed pockets of the community regarding certification of Agile processes has prompted the Agile Alliance to take a stance. Their position is employers should have confidence only in certifications that are skill-based and difficult to achieve. That means that certifications such as Certified Scrum Master and DSDM Foundation do not pass muster.