Software Archictecture, Development, Agile Methods and the Intersection of People Process and Technology
Does anyone actually think that a Burn Down Chart contributes one iota to creating Better Software Sooner? In my view, it is one of the most anti-agile things that we can do and it provides absolutely no value to anyone other than perhaps the executive suite so that they can have a nice, warm fuzzy feeling that we have a pretty chart that has a nice slope to it and it looks like the one from last sprint.
Are We There Yet? Are we there yet? – Donkey from Shrek 2 If you are a parent with kids any older than three or four years of age you’ve… Continue Reading
A Simple Way to Calculate the Velocity of Your Agile Teams and Projects Whenever the work is itself light, it becomes necessary, in order to economize time, to increase the… Continue Reading
Over the years that I’ve been leading software development projects, I’ve used a number of methods including comparison of projects of similar size and complexity, Microsoft Project, Function Point Analysis or even simply guessing. There have been a few other trendy and perhaps oddball approaches thrown in for good measure. Curiously, regardless of method, the results have tended to be pretty much the same. There has, however, been one exception. I’ve gotten noticeably better results with Agile methods using Agile Planning Poker.
Wrong Way – Go Back (flickr – naz’s stuff) The best we can do is size up the chances, calculate the risks involved, estimate our ability to deal with them,… Continue Reading
An Open Space Conference for Agile Coaches Background On June 11th and 12th I was fortunate to be able to attend Agile Coach Camp Canada 2010 in Waterloo Ontario. The… Continue Reading
(flickr: Sven Hein) This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read. (Winston Churchill) Background In my post on Agile Project Charters I outlined the… Continue Reading
All software has defects of some sort – we know that. If left unresolved, some defects can have cataclysmic consequences while others are so minor that they go unnoticed by… Continue Reading
What Comes First? Index cards for Saturday morning chores (alandd from flickr) You’ve spoken to all of your stakeholders, maybe had a workshop or two, gathered all of the input,… Continue Reading
An Agile Project Charter The Problem What the customer really needed (Click on image for full size view) Any project can fail, and any project can fail for a seemingly… Continue Reading