This past week our team had been asked to make some modifications to an e-mail that was sent to customers after they made a purchase. The change was fairly routine; add some text that should only display under a certain condition. The e-mails were fairly easy to generate as the team had chosen the Velocity library as the template system. In fact, there was a way to generate some sample e-mails without starting up the application server.

Mario Moreira surveyed recently surveyed agile professionals to find out just how valuable CM processes and tools are to them. While there was a noticeable difference in opinion between different responder age groups, the overall response was overwhelmingly positive in CM's favor.

Most IT organizations are investing in gathering and reporting data. However, returns from these measurement programs are questionable. Sometimes, the measurement initiatives lag in useful metrics definition. However, most measurement programs fail as they are not able to convert reported data into actions. This paper describes a five-step approach by answering some of existing challenges through selected statistical tools while involving stakeholders in timely manner in order to make data speak and transform into actions.

The life of a software product is a continual stream of feature additions, enhancements, and even removals. But a great product doesn't (usually) outshine its competitors because of the sheer number of features, it's because those features are really useful or work well together. It's a difficult balance that requires a lot of iteration and experimentation.

For advice on tackling this difficult problem, you might try looking to Batman.