agile

Culture is all about values and beliefs in action. Every team and organization has a culture that shows up in the way people are treated and promoted, how rewards are allocated, and even what's considered an acceptable topic for conversation. Esther Derby examines four common corporate cultures-cultures where power is the currency, cultures which control through policies and procedures, cultures that define clear goals and attract people to achieve them, and cultures where people are motivated by close relationships with co-workers. Agile methods flourish in some cultures and are quashed in others. If the values that underlie agile practices are at odds with established cultural norms within your team and company, what can you do personally to begin making changes? You’ll learn a simple method to "see" culture and begin to consciously create a more agile micro-culture within your team.

If there's so much to like about agile, why do some team members resist it so strongly? Mike Cohn explores two of the main reasons for resistance to agile: Waterfallacies and AgilePhobias. A Waterfallacy is a mistaken idea or belief about agile that stems from prolonged exposure to waterfall projects. An AgilePhobia, on the other hand, is a strong fear or dislike of agile, usually due to the uncertainty of change. Of the two, Waterfallacies have the potential to do the most damage to your transition effort, but fortunately, they are the more easily overcome. During his presentation, Mike examines the most common Waterfallacies and how to eliminate them. He also discusses the most prevalent AgilePhobias, how to identify the afflicted team members, and how to help them overcome their fears.

Although some experts say that testers are not needed in an agile development environment, Lisa Crispin knows differently. Testers want to make sure customers get what they need; they look at the "big picture" and work to ensure the best experience for the user. Unfortunately, even in the agile development world, business needs and the users’ experience often are disconnected from the delivered software. Professional testers can help agile developers deliver what stakeholders want-the first time. Lisa describes how she uses tests cases to create a common language that business customers, users, and developers all understand. She explains the techniques for eliciting examples to define features and describes how to turn examples into executable tests. These tests define the scope of a feature, making it easier for everyone to envision how the feature should look, feel, and work.

Knowledge of agile development processes is spreading through publications, training, and experience. And now organizations are taking on larger projects using agile methods. However, as more teams are involved in agile practices, organizations often stumble over what information is created and used during the various stages of an agile project and who is responsible for developing and reporting this information. Hubert Smits shares a model that describes the information created and consumed throughout the iterations, and describes the rhythms of an agile project(release, iteration, and day). The process Hubert describes focuses on creating the right artifacts at the right time, and with an accuracy-or acceptable level of inaccuracy-that enables project stakeholders to make good decisions.