4 myths about software development productivity

Greger Wikstrand and Joakim Lindbom talk about software development productivity.

There is no conflict between speed and quality! That was the header for lesson one of your relearning program. You want to improve software development productivity in yourself, your team or your organization? Then follow me along and debunk a few myths.

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Hiring team members

There are so many questions when it comes to hiring new team members and forming a team.

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Tester in Agile

A car, crash tested inside the box.

Someone asked me what should happen to the testers now that the developers were moving to Agile. How should they handle the new situation? This is how I answered: I think your best bet would be to integrate with the development teams. Here are two things you could start thinking…

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Budget for Technical Debt Reduction

If you do not take care of technical debt reduction, you will end up like this house.

The foolish man builds his house on loose sand but the rains and the winds will crash it. (Matthew 7:24-27) Things have not changed that much in the last two thousand years. Technical debt remains a major challenge for software development teams.

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Rock star agile developers

Two rock star agile developers.

[bibshow] Rock star agile developers. We are all talking about them. But are they truly out there? Studies show that developer productivity falls into a wide range. An average run-of-the mill developer has a productivity of 1. A great programmer might be a 10. A poor programmer might be a…

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Software Development Success

A roadpost pointing to success or failure

[bibshow] Software development success is organization dependent. Which organizations are successful in developing and delivering software? Which projects will be successful? That is a crucial question in an industry with an annual turnover of over 400 billion USD and only a 50% success rate. [bibcite key=”citeulike:4540645″] Is it enough to…

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Agile projects requirements breakdown structure

fibonacci series in nature

In Agile projects, when a set of requirements are received from Clients, it may consist of (a mix of) A few needs, objectives, goals and some partial stories (even though it would have come in a structured document). Re-organizing (re-arranging) those into a requirements breakdown structure (RBS) helps ask right questions to…

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Change is the only constant in agile

Neon sign: change. Change is the only constant.

[bibshow] How much change can a project withstand before it is too much? A requirements change rate of above 20% is probably too much [bibcite key=”citeulike:13415962″]. Typical rules of thumb figures for software development requirements change rate is cited as 1-3% [bibcite key=”citeulike:321639″]. But the rate of change is accelerating.…

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Software Effort Estimation Problems

Estimation is important for software developers. Software effort estimation problems are part of their daily lives.

Software effort estimation is an important part of the daily lives of many software professionals. I have joined the #noestimates debate on Twitter because there is a lot to learn from a discussion on estimates. I’m not ready to fully abandon estimates but I am interested in discussing where, when…

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Agile Community of Practice

A data repository is not a community of practice

I’m a strong believer in learning by doing. I also believe that learning will be better when supported by an agile community of practice (CoP). Communities of practice allow self-selected members to develop their “capabilities, build and exchange knowledge”. In my professional life, I am involved in several communities including…

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