- You are here:
- Home »
- Agile
Category Archives for Agile
Testing is not a phase
Every time someone talks about a testing “phase”, a little part of me dies. The worst example I saw recently was a post on an agile group asking “how many days should we allow for testing? If something takes 10 days for development, should we allow 10 days for testing? Or maybe 15?”. I’m not […]
Continue readingAgile vs Waterfall
It’s time to settle the long-running debate of the best way to develop software; Agile vs Waterfall. I’m going to describe and compare the two approaches, discuss their pros and cons, and determine a winner. What are Agile and Waterfall? These words generally refer to two very different approaches to organising, planning and executing software […]
Continue readingThe history and future of management
Many organisations today are run according to management principles which are 50 to 100 years old. These methods are not appropriate to the fluid and fast-paced world we live in, but many organisations are struggling to change. In this article, I will talk about the history and future of management theory, so we can understand […]
Continue readingProduction support in agile / scrum
A common question I see asked is “how do we do production support in agile / scrum?”. This is a harder problem than it might at first seem. It definitely adds some complexity to the problem of prioritizing work. There are three stages to solving it properly. What actually is production support? Production support or […]
Continue readingProblems with story point estimates
Story point estimates have become standard in agile and Scrum. There are a number of problems with these estimates, however. This article will explain what they are, and what the alternatives are. Where do story points come from? The history of story points is a little unclear. Ron Jeffries’ name often comes up. He claims […]
Continue readingIt’s not about the tools and processes…
I’ve been reading Quora lately, and despairing. Nearly every question about Agile there is in this format: “What tool is the best for doing {X} in Agile?”. This is disappointing. What happened to the Agile Manifesto? That bit where it says “People and interactions over processes and tools”? People seem to have forgotten the lesson – […]
Continue readingAgile Metrics: the Ultimate Guide
This guide has everything you need to know about agile metrics. So if you want to understand all the different metrics you can measure and how to use them, you’re in the right place. It will cover every possible metrics you would possibly want to use, and tell you what they mean, when you should […]
Continue readingSoftware development is a design activity
Software development is not a manufacturing activity Despite what a lot of people believe, software development is not a manufacturing activity. That is, it is not a process that takes some inputs (money and ideas, people, time, source code, compilers) and then manufactures some outputs (software; APIs, DLLs, database schemas). We have spent too long pretending it […]
Continue readingThe Pros and Cons of Hiring an Independent Contractor
(This is a contributed post) Over the past decade, the way that we work has completely changed. Being able to work flexibly or working remotely has changed a traditional workplace for many people. Many more people work from home a couple of days a week, or even run their own business from home. This can […]
Continue readingAgile is not just about software
We all know the stories about agile failures. About things like Flaccid Scrum, Cargo Cult Agile, and all the others. We all hear the tales of micromanaging PMP-certificate wielding “scrum-masters”, absentee-landlord product owners, and merciless stakeholders. What’s gone wrong? A few things. But mainly, organisations are signing up to Agile for the wrong reasons, and they’re […]
Continue reading