Why technical user stories are bad
You might sometimes come across “technical user stories” when doing agile software development. These are generally a bad idea and should be avoided where possible. This article will explain what technical user stories are, and why technical user stories are bad. And some tips on what to do isntead. It will also cover the rare […]
Continue readingWhy DevOps Is Broken
Like most management ideologies, DevOps is stuck in its ways and resistant to change. While traditional strategies might have worked perfectly well in the past, today’s software development landscape is radically different from where it was twenty years ago, and we desperately need new management paradigms. The problem with DevOps is mostly one of culture. […]
Continue readingCycle time and lead time
What are cycle time and lead time? Cycle time and Lead time are important concepts from Kanban and Lean Manufacturing. People often use them as metrics in Agile Software Development, however. And they can provide important insights into how your teams are operating. Cycle and Lead Time are measurements that describe how work is flowing into […]
Continue readingThe walls are glass, but you can’t come in
Sometimes teams have good times, sometimes they have bad times. Sometimes things go well, sometimes they don’t. No matter how bad things get, it is important that they be transparent, always. The walls around the team are made of glass: information flows freely in and out. But we need to make sure that while they […]
Continue readingIt’s all about the flow
So it’s not really about the tools and processes. Right? Sure – it’s about people and interactions. Well, that sounds nice, but it’s not always helpful. What sort of people? What sort of interactions? There is something deep-running underneath all the talk and principles and concepts in Agile, Scrum, Lean, and all the rest. Sometimes […]
Continue readingWhat are the Scrum values?
Scrum is a very popular and well-known framework for Agile software development. Lots of people know about the roles, rules and rituals and Scrum. But a few years ago they added values. Not a lot of people know and understand these values. So this article will explain what are the Scrum values. As you probably […]
Continue readingEstimating defects in Agile is an anti-pattern
There is a lot of discussion in the Agile community about estimating defects. A lot of people seem to think you need to estimate defects. There are lots of people arguing about how to estimate defects. This article will show you why you shouldn’t estimate defects. Estimating and assigning story points to defects is an […]
Continue readingAre agile and Scrum the same?
Some people often wonder: are agile and scrum the same? There’s a lot of confusion out there. I saw a thread on Stack Overflow on this topic that was full of complete nonsense. So I thought I would clear things up. Short version: agile and Scrum are NOT the same. Now I’ll get into what […]
Continue readingTesting 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 […]
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