agile

What if the process improvements you are trying to make are not where your real problems lie? Assuming where your problems are is often the biggest problem. Alan Shalloway presents value stream maps, a Lean tool that focuses on finding waste in your development process. Alan presents an example of a value stream map that resulted in a twenty percent productivity improvement to the development team without modifying how the team worked. After this introduction to value stream mapping, you will create your own maps to learn how to improve your own processes and to learn the basic lean principles of optimize the whole, deliver fast, and build quality in. Alan demonstrates how focusing on improving the flow of software development from a time perspective can lead to a higher quality, lower cost process.

Agile projects and traditional projects are tracked differently. The key difference is that agile projects track outcomes; traditional projects track activities. Project managers who are new to agile are often unsure which measures are relevant to which stakeholders and how to interpret them, and how agile metrics tie back to some of the more familiar forms of project reporting. Dave Nicolette explains how agile projects are tracked, which metrics are useful to which audiences, and how to monitor project health, delivery effectiveness, and the quality and value of the results. Dave describes the reasons to choose particular metrics, how to use metrics for informational, diagnostic, and motivational purposes, and the time-sensitivity of metrics. Dave also explains the meaning and use of measures peculiar to agile methods, such as "velocity," "running tested features," "earned business value," and "burn charts".

While agile practices are starting to make their way into large enterprises, in most instances this has been a "bottom up" movement driven through grassroots efforts. But, as success stories draw attention to the benefits of agile practices, an increasing number of executives are considering making an organization-wide agile transition. It is an attractive idea, but what does an agile transition look like when it comes as a mandate from the top? How do you scale agile principles from a single team to an enterprise with multiple teams working on multiple projects? Pete Morowski shares practical answers to these questions, addressing issues such as the role of management in creating an agile culture, bridging "two worlds" as traditional and agile co-exist in the enterprise, and rewriting the "rules" to fit the organization.

Since Martin Fowler completed his now-classic work Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code, few programming practices have been more effective-and more controversial-than refactoring. Refactoring is effective when you study and practice it diligently. It remains controversial because many development managers think developers should be adding features, not reworking old code. J. B. Rainsberger takes you deep inside the process of refactoring, including how to start reaping the benefits of refactoring while minimizing the disruption of learning a new practice, how to safely refactor code you don't know well, and the four key elements of simple design that should guide your refactoring. He explains the hazards of refactoring, when not to refactor, and how to refactor in such a way as not to upset your boss. After this presentation, you will be able to refactor your own code more confidently and effectively.