The Scrum Maturity Model
There has been a quest for an “Agile Maturity Model” going on for some time now. Are we Agile? How Agile are we? Where should we improve? Can we get a certification that will convince our customers that we are agile?
About the Agile Mindset
What makes Agile Software Development methods different from Traditional Software Development methods? There are the obvious answers related to different techniques used, e.g. early integration rather than late integration or dividing the problem space from the client perspective (user stories) rather than the technology perspective (client-middleware-database). But essentially the major…
Success Factors for Agile Transition
Surprisingly, perhaps, after over a decade of Agile methods there are still a lot of organizations that are not agile or are doing it badly? Why? According to one survey there are nine critical success factors for successfully introducing Agile Software Development in an organization.
Backlog Prioritization for Value Based Agile Software Engineering
Have you ever wondered why earned-value management is not really about value but about cost? According to EVM, as defined for instance in the PMBoK, value=cost aka budgeted cost of work scheduled.
Fake or Real Agile?
Seems the last few days have been full of discussions about what is fake and what is real. A Facebook friend posted an image of a hunter, an elk and a cougar. Turns out it is fake. I read in the newspaper about how larger clothes manufacturers send “samples” of…
Legacy Code
Legacy Code… We all love to hate it. We all have it. Some of us keeps creating it. How do you deal with it once you have it? Sometimes we find problems with it. But then, what do we do? A colleague at Capgemini, Paul Oldfield, suggested I should read…
Are You Agile?
The Agile Karlskrona Test
12 Key Agile Practices
Which are the key agile practices? Researchers José Fortuna Abrantes and Guilherme Horta Travassos combed the research literature and were able to identify 12 key agile practices: test driven development, continuous integration, pair programming, planning game, onsite customer, collective code ownership, small releases, metaphor, refactoring, sustainable pace, simple design and…
Criticism… Not All That Easy
Criticism is not all that easy. If you have been through any kind of management training you will probably have done a number of sessions on giving “constructive feedback” or something like that. The trick to remember is that we want to achieve an effect. We want to change the person we are giving the feedback to. Does criticizing make that happen for you? No, there is no such thing as constructive criticism.
What can you do instead? Try giving yourself, your colleagues, your customers and whom ever else you meet professionally positive feedback. No one is so bad that there is nothing you can appreciate about them. Tell them about it. Most people don’t so your opinion will be all the more welcome.
Why do you need requirements?
Why do you need requirements? To facilitate collaboration! Great podcast from IBM Rational – if you ignore the over commercial cheesy phrases at the end. 10 Things I hate about ALM – Part 3