Author Archive
Earlier this year I did a presentation on Executable Specficiations for AgilePalooza conference. There is information about working with legacy code, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) systems, and Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) using automated acceptance testing tools. Also, the presentation lists types of automated acceptance testing tools out there along with actual names of tools and what [...]
I have worked with many individuals, teams, and organizations in the use of Scrum. During that time, I have found that 2 parts of Scrum continually overlooked in implementation. Since Scrum is already a minimal framework, just enough to keep a team out of chaos, when a piece of Scrum is left out problems are [...]
During an interview at the Better Software conference this week, I mentioned that I thought maintaining a single list of work prioritized by the business was important for our industry to improve. The following text is an excerpt, in first draft form, from chapter 2, “Architecture Integrity”, of my upcoming book “Architecture in an Agile [...]
To reduce duplication and rigidity of the programmer test relationship to implementation code, move away from class and methods as the definition of a “unit” in your unit tests. Instead, use the following question to drive your next constraint on the software:
What should the software do next for the user?
The following coding session will provide [...]
AgilePalooza is a one day Agile conference on Friday May 29th at the San Francisco State University downtown campus. There will be two tracks: Learning Agility and Advancing Agility.
“Learning Agility” will be presentation style whereas “Advancing Agility” will use the open space format.
Speakers include David Hussman (DevJam), Chris Sterling (SolutionsIQ), Luke Hohmann (Enthiosys), Lee Henson [...]
I have been using a tool for some time with clients and teams to find out what software quality attributes the product development team should focus on in the project. ISO standard 9621 describes the quality attributes found in software. The following image shows the 6 categories and specific attributes contained within them.
Before I knew [...]
Have you ever heard or said any of these phrases?
We are going to implement the Scrum methodology.
We’re doing a modified Scrum.
Our developers are using a Scrum process.
These may seem like innocuous statements but they are indicators of potential misinterpretation of how Scrum is best utilized. Scrum is not a full development process (although almost anything [...]
For some time I have described team velocity as a:
function of (sprint length, team makeup, sizing nomenclature, product)
Given these parameters to team velocity, how can each affect team velocity when modified?
Sprint Length
It is common for teams when they first implement Scrum to have difficulty with short sprint length. They are probably not used to [...]
I have uploaded the talk I did at SD West 2009 on Yahoo! Video and here it is:
Managing Software Debt - Chris Sterling @ SD West 2009 @ Yahoo! Video
The hopefully-not-anticlimatic second event of the still-pretty-new BeyondAgile is happening on Thursday:
“Agile Challenges Clinic/Swap Meet”
Thursday, 26 March 2009
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Locations on the Eastside and Seattle!
Read on for agenda and location information, or visit our Google Group at
http://groups.google.com/group/beyondagile
The Blurb
At the first event, everyone (over forty people) created a backlog of ideas, suggestions, and work items. [...]
