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Are You a Whole Team?

Key to the success of Agile is a "Whole Team", a cross functional team of generalizing specialists. A group that works across boundaries. Matthew Philip diagnoses some of their common problems, such as "Emphasis on Titles", the "Hero Culture" and more. Matthew looks at the root causes and possible cures.

Matthew Philip
on May 12, 2011
Agile Architecture Interactions

James Madison shows how architects can bring agile and architecture practices together to pragmatically balance business and architectural priorities while delivering both with agility.

James Madison
on Apr 25, 2011
The Art of Creating Whole Teams: how agile has changed the way we work with our customers

Angela Martin earned her PhD examining how agile methods work in practice and what is different about this way of working. She shares some of the key practices which organisations can implement to increase their likelihood of successful cultural change through creating Whole Teams - truly cross functional collaborative teams working well together to deliver products which meet customer's needs

Angela Martin
on Mar 15, 2011
Breaking Down Walls, Building Bridges, and Takin’ Out the Trash

Agile Team Rooms can help double the productivity of an Agile Team. Most people are familiar with the Caves and Commons approach where the team has a common area on the inside of the room and private desks on the outside. Some teams dispense with the private spaces in the room, but few go as far as Menlo dispensing with the rooms altogether.

Richard Sheridan Lisamarie Babik
on Dec 22, 2010
Use of Kanban in the Operations Team at Spotify

In this article, InfoQ spoke with Mattias Jansson, Operations Engineer at Spotify (an online music streaming service) about the adoption of Kanban by the Spotify Operations team. Jansson offered a lot of detail about the choice to adopt Kanban as well as the experiences that the Operations team at Spotify has gained while implementing a Kanban-based approach to dealing with their workload.

Michael Prokop Mattias Jansson
on Sep 14, 2010
Working with the Product Backlog

Roman Pichler discusses the product backlog along with techniques for effectively grooming it. Complicated applications of the product backlog are covered as well as how to handle nonfunctional requirements and how to scale a product backlog for large projects. This is a chapter excerpt from Roman's book: Agile Product Management with Scrum.

Roman Pichler
on Aug 04, 2010
Skills for Scrum Agile Teams

The skills required to be hyper-productive in agile projects are different from those required by a traditional one. This article identifies behavioral and technical skills required for a team to have that edge. Anyone who acquires these "delta" traits should be equipped with the right set of behavioral and technical skills, which enable them to work effectively in an agile project.

Prasad Prabhakaran
on Jul 26, 2010
Manager 2.0: The Role of the Manager in Scrum

Scrum defines just three roles, Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Team - not Manager. Pete Deemer explores the consequences for Managers, how the managerial role might be redefined (including a sample job description), and appointing the manager as Scrum Master.

Pete Deemer
on Jul 23, 2010
The Limits of Agile

The problems faced by teams that are attempting Agile in non-traditional settings aren't that Agile principles are inapplicable, nor that the feedback cycle is doomed to failure; but rather, outside of a certain Agile sweet-spot there are additional barriers and costs to applying Agile techniques. None of these obstacles prevents Agile in itself but each increases the cost of getting to Agile.

Alan Kelly
on Jul 19, 2010
The Science of Learning: Best Approaches for Your Brain

Why don't people understand your idea in a meeting? Why does the developer you're mentoring still not get it? Why do attendees in your course only learn 10% of the material? We are all teachers in some way, yet only professional educators receive training in this area. This article discusses lessons from neuroscience and how they can be applied to Agile Software Development and beyond.

Mark Levison
on Jul 12, 2010
Success Factors for Systematic Reuse

Systematic reuse requires the interplay of people, process, and technology decisions executed within the context of real world constraints. Are there success factors that will make a difference to reuse? This article offers five success factors that will help capture domain variations, ease integration, delve deeper into design context, work effectively as a team, and manage domain complexity.

Vijay Narayanan
on Jul 07, 2010
Fred Brooks on The Design of Design: Interview and Excerpt

A review of Frederick P. Brooks' latest book, The Design of Design. Few individuals have had as much influence on the 'practice' of software development and this book of loosely coupled essays on the essence of design, design process, and the development and nurturing of great designers extends and enhances previous contributions to the field. The review is enhanced with an interview and excerpt.

Dave West
on Jun 30, 2010

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