Agile Configuration Management
I love configuration management! “But”, you ask, “isn’t configuration management boring?” Well, configuration management can be boring and tedious if you do it manually. With modern tools it is not all that bad. Even if it is boring, that is out-weighed by the sheer importance of proper agile configuration management for a successful software development team.
Agile Estimation Units
Which agile estimation units should you use? You can use any arbitrary units to estimate backlog items in an agile project. It does not matter if you do your estimation with story points, ping pong balls, man days, man hours, kLoCs. After a while your teams will converge on a…
Brainstorming Does Work for Agile
Does brainstorming work? The post has lead to a few follow ups. As always, there is a question of is it done right? To take a quote from the article linked: “Group brainstorming sessions might produce a higher volume of ideas than a single person would but groups don’t produce…
Agile Things to Remember
Here are a few “agile things to remember”: There is a difference between how and what. The responsibility for each is distributed to different people. Cheating contributes to technical and project debt. You will only fool yourself because debts must be paid. There is a difference between a supporting and…
Agile in Regulated Industries
Agile in regulated industries — could that work? That is the topic of an upcoming webinar. I find this a bit ironic. Can we make Agile not work in regulated industries? Did Agile cause the Ariane V crash or was it “GRC (governance, risk and compliance)” that caused it?
A Waterfall is Fine – for Watching
As humans we love the majesty of nature. Who can fail to be impressed by such majestic cataracts as the Niagara falls or the Victoria falls? Someone said that falling is fine, it is hitting the ground that kills you. Same thing with the water in the waterfall. When it hits the end, enormous chaos is generated both visibly as spume and invisibly in the water.
Hydroelectric Power
We do not usually try riding a waterfall in a barrel. We can harness it for electric power. But if we do, we certainly do not want to ride it in a barrel.
Agile is also a Waterfall
Laminar versus turbulent flow. Image reused from http://www.ceb.cam.ac.uk/pages/mass-transport.html .
Agile software development methodologies are about breaking the waterfall into safe, manageable steps. The impact is not saved for the end in a big bang delivery. Instead it is taken one step at a time. The water does not flow as chaotically. It is more like a laminar flow.
Wordle for March 2012
I think Wordles are beautiful and interesting. That is why I have created one for this blog. Click on the image for a full-size version. Biggest Wordle Words It seems that the “biggest” words in this blog are Agile, Project, Software, Management followed by thoughts, things, engineering and manager. I…
The Un-Agile Principles
These are the Unagile Principles also known as the Principles Behind the Unagile Manifesto. They are a support for all those who oppose the dangerous and wide-spread dissemination of methods based on the principles behind the Agile Manifesto. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through delivery of the…
Un-Agile Manifesto – when you hate agile
The so called Agile Manifesto has created so much excitement in the software development world and beyond. But for all those who got their life ruined by agile, for all those who oppose Agile methods in software development — it is time they got their own manifesto. Here it is…
Agile Team Staffing
Agile team staffing is about staffing your agile teams and managing the talents of the teams not just the people. So, how do you create agile teams where the members trust each other? Keeping the same teams over a longer period will help teams develop transactive memory and trust. But…