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Software has brought us major gains in productivity and teamwork but often at a high cost. We have even come to expect software problems as a normal part of business. It’s difficult for non-technical users and managers to understand software development and deployment as they often don’t know what questions to ask. They are unable […]

One frequently stated “rule” of Scrum that I don’t accept is co-location — having the entire software development team in one place. The arguments are that co-location facilitates communication, speeds interaction, spurs impromptu discussion, and builds camaraderie. I suppose all of those things are true to some degree but it’s not as simple as having […]

I followed Steve Jobs’ career since he and Steve Wozniak founded Apple in 1976. I owned an Apple II computer back then and I own an iPhone 4 today. Steve Jobs was not the world’s greatest designer but there are some things he did better than anyone. Here are six lessons I learned by watching […]

Face it — every job gets boring, routine, mundane or monotonous from time to time. Software development is not immune. The job may be intellectually stimulating much of the time but not all the time. On agile development projects, velocity receives a lot of attention. Velocity measures how many story points a team can complete […]

Agile development may be a hot trend but it’s hard to get right. Are you afraid to take risks? Are you afraid of losing your job if you mess up? Does your boss operate on the “failure is not an option” principle? Do you feel the need to be right all the time? Is “playing […]

Competition — it’s what makes everything better. The most successful athletes and sports teams are highly competitive. The most successful people are driven to compete. The most successful companies challenge themselves to be better than the competition. Does your software development team compete with anyone? It should. Competition will up the energy level and drive […]

You’ve likely seen the line that says ‘Only drug dealers and software developers call their customers users’. It’s funny but also carries an important message. You see, drug dealers don’t care about their customers. All they care about is the money. Some software developers exhibit a similar characteristic in that all they care about is […]

Businesses are always looking for an edge. Job seekers are always looking for a differentiator. Both often view IT certifications as a way to get better results. Yet the subject of information technology certifications is controversial. Some strongly believe that someone with a certification is better at what they do than someone without. Others are […]

Here’s what happens. I’m sure you’ve seen it before. A software project starts with lots of enthusiasm. The team is assembled. A kickoff meeting is held. New relationships are formed. Everyone is energized. The team is focused on solving a business problem. There is a sense of urgency and a commitment to deliver. The team […]

There are many forms of intelligence — some more easily defined than others. It’s time to add “agile intelligence” to the lexicon. Here are some of the most commonly used references to various forms of “intelligence”: artificial intelligence business intelligence competitive intelligence emotional intelligence human intelligence military intelligence social intelligence According to Wikipedia, “Intelligence has […]

There are many obstacles to enterprise agile adoption. Some are intrinsic to the agile philosophy and difficult to handle. Others are self-induced by the agile community. Here’s an obstacle we can handle. One of the key attributes of agile software development is teamwork. We build small teams, keep them together, and have everyone share the […]

Okay, full disclosure, what follows is common sense — basic managerial stuff. But, it’s doubly important for any organization that wants to be agile. Applying command-and-control management techniques to agile development slows everyone down and causes more problems that it solves. Don’t just skim over this list. Pick an item from it and get to […]

Do people really matter? If you have a strong enough process in place, does it make any real difference who you have execute it? Couldn’t you just invest a lot of time defining and documenting a structured and disciplined, software engineering process, then hire cheap labor to follow it? Many companies in various retail service […]

Is your software development team using an agile approach like Scrum, XP or Kanban? Are the business sponsors and stakeholders active participants? If not, it may be because you don’t have a champion on the business side. A champion is someone outside of IT or software engineering who supports and fights for your software team. […]

Another reason for software development to be agile. Has this ever happened to you? You receive an email or a phone call saying something to the effect of “The software is broken!”. It is suddenly and inexplicably misbehaving. The results being observed have never happened before. What did you do? You think “How can it […]

Scrum has a deep, dark secret. It all started when Scrum was originally defined. One of the key goals was to empower the software developers to self-organize and take control of their destiny. This is often viewed as anti-management but I don’t believe that was the intent. Self-organization demands that the team take responsibility for […]

You’ve heard of the Peter Principle, right? People tend to rise to their level of incompetence. According to Wikipedia. “It holds that in a hierarchy, members are promoted so long as they work competently. Sooner or later they are promoted to a position at which they are no longer competent (their “level of incompetence”), and […]

Every approach to software development has barriers to entry. (Nothing is ever easy, is it?) Agile approaches are no exception. Let me explain. Sometimes compromise or meeting-in-the-middle is the best solution to a problem. Other times, it takes an extreme approach to be successful. Consider the subject of software development. Here are two conceivable extreme […]

One often controversial aspect of agile development is how the team is situated. Assuming the team members are in the same facility, there are many options. Is the team spread out in individual cubicles? Are they doubled up with two developers to a walled office? Are they co-located in a larger area? If you choose […]