I’ve long wanted the ability to create burn-up charts for very, very simple projects, where a project tracking tool would be considered overkill. So I took some time out recently and I’ve come up with a spreadsheet that does this. My criteria were: low tech (well, as low as a spreadsheet can be); must be … Continue reading
After my workshop at How to Web in Bucharest today I was approached by a project manager who wanted to know why he should move to Agile. He was clearly very good at his job, things were fine, but Agile still interested him, and he needed a reason if he was to actually embrace it. … Continue reading
You’ve probably heard it, I’ve certainly heard it: agile development is best suited for a higher calibre of person. I think this idea is not only mistaken, but damaging. I might be wrong, of course, but if I am then agile has a very serious deficiency. My objection is two-fold. First, agile in any organisation … Continue reading
Within the agile world, it’s a given that continuous integration should be part of the process. But an efficient way of getting the software into users’ hands seems to sit outside of agile, and I believe that’s a mistake. This is one of the things I’ll be talking about later this month in my workshop … Continue reading
A tweet escaped from Product Tank this week from Benjamin Mitchell, watching Tom Loosemore talk about alphagov: “It’s a mix of ignoring them [non-Agile managers] & making shit up” #ProductTank How is this consistent w/ Agile values of openness & trust? There’s a conference-worth of material to unpack from that question. You can make up … Continue reading
You may very well not need a spec for your software project. I had a recent conversation with a friend in a very small (3-4 person) company, building their first online product, and he said his sole developer was going off to write a spec. This raised alarm bells with me, as I saw it … Continue reading
A thumbleful of notes from a couple of the sessions of the Agile Business Conference 2011. First Jerrett Myers’ and James Yoxall’s talk on lessons implementing an agile project for the Home Office and Metropolitan Police. Then Andrew Craddock’s and Chris Davies’s talk on introducing agile governance at Axa. These notes are terse, but in … Continue reading
Steve Denning suggests the Agile Manifesto needs to be updated, to reflect the fact that working software, its primary measure of success, is no longer good enough — customer delight, he says, is the new benchmark for success. In doing so he has drawn criticism saying that customer delight is a worthy, but ultimately pointless … Continue reading
As much as I love agile development, there is something more important that’s often forgotten: a good understanding of software development. Oh yes — and a little common sense wouldn’t go amiss sometimes, too. A case in point: Paul Stack tells a tale of software woe, in which his workplace has taken up a new … Continue reading
Last week Kelly Waters was at the Guardian and we compared development approaches. Of all that was different in the way we did things, two things in particular intrigued me. Both concerned estimation, but more importantly both were about glossing over details to get a good outcome. 1. Wonky estimation At the Guardian we’ve tended … Continue reading
