agile

Articles

Common branching patterns Branching to Distraction

Branching can be an effective solution for managing change, enabling parallel development and improved productivity. But, working on a branch is a distraction and can decrease agility, productivity, and code robustness. Learn when the value of working on a branch outweighs the cost.

Steve Berczuk's picture Steve Berczuk
Simulation Games: A Way to Improve Communication in the Team

One of the hardest daily tasks developers, QA, ScrumMasters, and product owners encounter is effective communication with others. Sound implausible? According to many articles, research, and personal observations, the main cause of project failure is not technology or hardware, but inefficient communication stemming from lack of effective communication between team members, incomplete business analysis, imprecise requirements, and vaguely formulated business objectives.

Monika Konieczny's picture Monika Konieczny
flow chart Four Agile Tips to Eliminate Rework in Application Development

Your applications need to meet business needs, overcome complex processes, and provide instant results to customers. And, ideally, they’ll require minimal rework on your part. The first step to success is requirements definition. Here, Filip Szymanski offers some tips from agile methods that will improve your requirements—even if you haven’t otherwise adopted agile.

Filip Szymanski's picture Filip Szymanski
Test-Driven Design for the Project Manager

Many developers and testers are familiar with test-driven design (TDD), but how can managers use it to drive project implementation? In this article, John Goodpasture offers a guide to TDD design from the project manager’s perspective.

John C. Goodpasture's picture John C. Goodpasture
Rugby Scrum Implementing Scrum (Agile) and CMMI Together

CMMI and Scrum are two commonly used frameworks we have seen groups struggle with when using them together. This article describes how these frameworks aren't really at odds with each other and explains how implementation is the key to using them together.

Neil Potter
Getting Empirical about Refactoring

Often when we refactor, we look at local areas of code. If we take a wider view, using information from our version control systems, we can get a better sense of the effects of our refactoring efforts.

Michael Feathers's picture Michael Feathers
The Crucial Role DevOps Plays in Change and Configuration Management

Agile's core principles may have been originally intended at the software development, but the concept of DevOps has shown that agile's benefits can be experienced by a much larger audience. Collaboration between these two departments benefits just as much as anyone.

Sasha Gilenson's picture Sasha Gilenson
What Is DevOps, Anyway?

“DevOps” is a contraction of “development and quality assurance” and “operations” that describes the practice and result of the bi-directional integration of these functions in an enterprise. It is a set of development, quality assurance, and operational tools and processes aimed at achieving the business goal of deploying timely and higher-quality software products and services.

Bill Portelli
Performance Factory for Agile and Lean Organizations

Implementing agile and lean performance appraisals presents some unique challenges. This article discusses how to do so in a way that helps to enhance the agile and lean practices that so clearly result in excellent team and organizational performance. The good news is that agile and lean performance management is much more effective than other methods.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs
2011 Prediction: Organizations will Continue Applying Agile Strategies at Scale

With all of agile's documented successes, the methodologies are being used in areas never before seen. Scott W. Ambler looks into why agile is as popular as it is, and why its popularity will only increase in the future.

Scott W. Ambler's picture Scott W. Ambler

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