Agile methodologies are all about speed and simplicity. In the early days of Agile, simplicity was represented in the form of 3 X 5 notecards, which were used to record user stories, tasks, and feature backlogs, among other things. Even today, most teams exploring Agile will start off with a whiteboard and stack of index cards. After the novelty wears off, and the team gets into the thick of a release, they start looking for software tools that can maintain the collaborative nature of the whiteboard while adding the ability to automate some work and also add collaboration with remote team members.
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUponAgile
In a 2010 study, Forrester Research reported that roughly 88% of respondents had more than 10 members on a team. And, only 17% had the entire team co-located at the company headquarters. Join us for this 60-minute Agile XXL: Scaling Agile for Project Teams webinar on Wednesday, November 9, at 2:00 p.m. EST (North America), to learn more about scaling Agile. Alan Bustamante, senior Agile consultant, will discuss the people, process, and tools—what he calls “project support pillars”—that must be in harmony before you can successfully scale an enterprise Agile team. He’ll also share common challenges in solidifying each of those pillars, and early warning signs that a project team is at risk of serious issues as it scales.
You’ll learn:
- A model for understanding what happens when people, process, and tools are not aligned.
- Common problems faced by organizations struggling with scaling Agile teams.
- Proven solutions to mitigate the risk associated with scaling Agile project teams.
Register today and learn how to scale your Agile project team regardless of team size or team location.
Global Team
On November 9, I’ll be hosting the Agile XXL: Scaling Agile for Project Teams webinar. I haven’t ironed out the details of this webinar yet, but thought it would be good to write a primer for the event. While I have been practicing many Agile techniques on large, distributed projects since 2002, I didn’t start formally putting them together as a collection of practices in the form of Agile projects until 2007. It was in 2007 that I say my Agile journey and passion for Agile software development officially began. Since then, helping organizations adopt Agile practices for large and/or distributed project teams has been of particular interest to me because most of my clients have fit into the category. Let’s take a look at some numbers.
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUponThanks to everyone who joined us for the Requirements and Agile: Keeping up with Change webinar. If you missed the event, take some time to watch the Requirements and Agile: Keeping up with Change recorded webinar. Attendees asked several interesting questions, all of which we weren’t able to address during the webinar. To follow up, and invite others to participate, we’ve included the Q&A below.
Why a deceptively simple solution to one of Waterfall’s deep flaws makes it no match for Agile software development.
Earlier this year, I had the privilege of co-presenting on Agile Software development to a group of computer engineering students at the University of Cincinnati with our Agile Padawan, Katie Dwyer. Walking through campus was a refreshing experience. Seeing all the young faces reminded me of my college days, and the level of optimism, energy, and hint of youthful rebellion that often pervades the student population of many college campuses. Yes, even in a time of economic uncertainty, the spark is still there!
During our presentation, I talked about some of the weaknesses of the Waterfall model and contrasted those weaknesses with the strengths of Agile software development models. At one point, I talked about how Waterfall development includes a predictive model of requirements gathering—where all requirements are gathered up front, interaction with the customer is limited, and change control processes are formalized to limit changes throughout the project lifecycle. In contrast, Agile methods allow daily communication with the customer and frequent changes with minimal constraints.
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUpon
Alan Bustamante, senior agile consultant for Seapine’s Agile Services group, will be speaking at the Agile Prague Conference, which takes place September 29 and 30. Alan’s talk, Only the Agile Survive: Understanding the Business Case for Agile, takes place at noon on the 29th.
As a result of the current economic climate, many organizations have been forced to reduce head count, salaries, and benefits to shore up their finances. Now, these companies are looking for ways to satisfy their customers within the boundaries of the “new normal,” which is a reduced cost structure and increased pressure to deliver more, faster.
These organizations also need a way to divert funding from one project to another when a higher priority initiative emerges. Agile methods have proven to be an effective way to address these challenges.
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUpon
Requirements or user stories? Why not both? Attend our Requirements and Agile: Keeping up with Change webinar on October 4, at 1 p.m., to learn how to minimize gaps in verification and validation practices sometimes seen when using Agile methodologies. These gaps are typically a result of moving away from formal requirements in favor of user stories, which are quicker to develop but typically not as rigorously defined. Continue reading…
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUpon
Since we released the TestTrack Sample Scrum Project, we have had requests to make downloads available in RDBMS formats. With the help from our support team, we have been converting projects as the requests come in. The converted projects are available for download here.
All the conversions were done using TestTrack 2011.1, and the following are available:
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 RTM
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2
- Oracle 11g
- Oracle 11g R2
- PostgreSQL 8.3.1
We will update the downloads page as new conversions become available, and also as we upgrade the project as a result of upcoming releases.
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUponThanks to everyone who joined us for the final webinar our TDD 101 Learning Series. If you missed the event, take about 30 minutes to watch the Beginning Test-Driven Development in a Legacy System recorded webinar.
If you missed either of the prior webinars, or want to brush up on your knowledge of test-driven development, browse to Learn Test-Driven Development at TDD 101.
Share on Technorati . del.icio.us . Digg . Reddit . Slashdot . Facebook . StumbleUponIf you’re serious about Agile, you don’t want to miss Agile2011 in Salt Lake City, August 8-12. Seapine will be there, with some of our Agile Services team members manning our booth. We’ll be demonstrating our products, including our new electronic task board. More importantly, we’ll be sharing ideas and experiences with anyone interested in learning or discussing Agile concepts and practices.
Whether you’re new to Agile, or already an experienced veteran, we’d love to meet you and talk shop. Fill out your registration form (check your conference bag) and make sure you stop by our booth to drop it off. You’ll get a free Agile Expedition kit filled with some great giveaways (Agile badger T-shirt anyone?) to help with your next sprint planning meeting.
On the product side, we’ll be showing off TestTrack for Agile project management along with our new task board that enables your team to work with tasks in a Kanban-type interface via web and mobile devices.
Seapine Agile Task Board
Seapine Agile Task Board in Action
