InfoQ Homepage Methodologies Content on InfoQ
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Agile Work Cheatsheets Posted
It's been said before: Agile may be simple, but it's not so easy. Mishkin Berteig contributes some one-page quick-references to jog our memories and keep us focused on delivering value.
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Statistics on Agile Practices Problematic
Keith Ray questions the value of statistics for software processes, including Agile processes.
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TOC More Powerful than Six-Sigma, Lean
A manufacturing study has shown that TOC is twenty times as effective as Six Sigma, and nearly ten times more effective than lean at causing cost savings. This is the only scientific double-blind study of its kind performed "in the wild", i.e. in actual business plants. These ideas are frequently discussed in Agile circles and integrated into Agile methodologies.
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Contracts, Expectations, Agreements and Processes
Contract first development isn't a new idea, but has some followers in the SOA domain. Recently, the W3C has extended the WSDL to include semantic annotations, enriching the basic contract with more metadata. Contracts are also explored in more detail in the development of processes by Steve Jones using tools like Eclipse and NetBeans.
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Test Driven Development Has Become the Norm
In his June article "Test-driven development is the combination of test first development and refactoring" on Dr. Dobbs Portal, Scott Ambler cuts to the chase, as usual: TDD has become the norm. So, do you want to implement it now, or wait for competetive pressure to make it necessary? This article lays out the reasons to consider it, and debunks some widespread misconceptions.
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Examining the Declaration of Interdependence
The Declaration of Interdependence emerged in 2004, when a group of experts met to discuss ways to extend the Agile Manifesto to non-software products and management. In this month's edition of Better Software Magazine, Alistair Cockburn details the DOI's six principles and how they can benefit any enterprise.
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Health Check: Has Your Team Got Rhythm?
Agile work keeps things simple by putting in place some basic patterns. Sometimes, when problems arise within the process, complex solutions can be averted by simply re-establishing a rhythm in the cycle of releases, iterations, days, stories/features. Agile Journal, in their Metrics edition, published three articles which mention the importance of rhythm as a diagnostic.
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InfoQ Article: SOA anti-patterns
SOA Expert Steve Jones from CapGemini provides a hands on look at SOA Antipatterns and a list of ways your SOA project can go wrong. This list includes signs that these problems are cropping up as well as what to do when you see them happening.
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Ivar Jacobson Reveals Essential Unified Process (Ess UP) Vision
Ivar Jacobson, father of use cases and the Unified Process (UP) as well as one of the original "Three Amigos" of UML fame, describes his vision for a streamlined version of the UP which is published on a collection of cards instead of as HTML pages.
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IBM Updates Rational Toolset
IBM announced today a host of new SOA tools which were launched at the Rational Software Development Conference 2006. These tools increasingly support governance through the lifecycle stages of design, development, deployment, testing and maintenance.
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Microsoft Motion Light: Rapid Business Architecture Techniques
Microsoft Motion is a dynamic and systematic approach to decomposing a businesss into discreet capabilities. It organizes, measures and evaluates these capabilities and is a compliment to process mapping.
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SirsiDynix Case Study: Jeff Sutherland on Highly Productive Distributed Scrum
Scrum co-creator Jeff Sutherland has just finished a paper on the SirsiDynix project, which he calls the most productive large Java project ever documented. The project used Distributed Scrum and some XP practices. Although distributed teams are often expected to experience reduced productivity, this team's productivity level matched that measured by Cohn on a co-located team!
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Submissions Wanted on Lean and Agile Together
The Software Technology Track at the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences will include an Agile subject: "Incorporating Lean Development Practices into Agile Software Development". Research papers are sought, but the deadline for submissions is close: June 15, 2006. Did we mention it's taking place in Hawaii?
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Converting a project from a waterfall to an iterative approach
Software developers who firmly believe in an iterative approach must work for clients who, for various reasons, are rooted in a traditional methodology. This article discusses ways to help such organizations make a transition.
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Anderson's "Agile Management" Reviewed
Stick Minds has posted two reviews of David Anderson's "Agile Management for Software Engineering: Applying the Theory of Constraints for Business Results", in which Anderson combines TOC and Agile approaches. The book targets senior IT executives, project managers, development managers, and team leads. Do manufacturing metrics really enhance Agile software development? Apparently the jury is out.