Improving the world with software
Better software. Better questions.
Essays on software development, teams and the craft of building things that last.
Essays from August 2006
7 essays from August 2006
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Why do we use Agile?
The question in the title of this post is an interesting one. Many people use Agile for the right reasons (because they think that it can help them with their work in many ways), but there are some people that do it for the wrong reasons: Because they like some part of one Agile methodology; …
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Systems Thinking applied to software
Henrik Mårtensson has posted two good pieces on systems thinking and software development in his Kallokian blog. Check them out here and here. It is worth it. I especially like this paragraph at the end of the second piece: Organize to optimize the value stream (flow organization), not to keep people busy (functional organization)! Both …
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It’s the motivation stupid!
This is something I’ve come across many times in my career. I constantly see motivated individuals excel against all odds and theoretically more prepared individuals fail when they should have made it with time left to spare. Now Jason Yip just linked to an article about that same fact: “Motivation is more important than innate …
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Command and control method of management
From Joel: In other words, the military uses Command and Control because it’s the only way to get 18 year olds to charge through a minefield, not because they think it’s the best management method for every situation. Go and read it, especially if you feel you are in a Command and Control company 😉
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Performance measurements can kill your efforts to bring Agile to your organization
Dave Nicolette has written a simple but really insightful piece on why performance measurement should be done with care and at the team level if you want an Agile team to gel and succeed. The bottom line: measure what your team produces and let them decide who is not worth to stay in the team …
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Why BDUF does not work
I have a really hard time trying to convince colleagues at work that Big Design Up Front (BDUF) does not work, that it is waste and the more time you spend coding the more likely you are to reach a better design solution. But before we go deeper into this discussion it is worth defining …
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Agile does not give you recipes, it makes you use your brain…
In a post in the Agile project management mailing list somebody asked if it would not be time for an Agile Project Management Body of Knowledge book (APMBOK) inspired, probably on PMI’s PMBOK, the Project Management Body of Knowledge. What I think about this question is that PMBOK and Agile represent completely different approaches to …
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