Agile Development Methods

Agile Development Methods

Agile Development Stories
Become an Estimation LeaderSingle-point estimates, whether they are for a budget or a schedule, are never correct. Things happen. Demanding that your team provide you an exact number and then treating that as a guarantee is not being a good manager—or being agile. What if you could provide a different estimation leadership?
Does Agile Really Have Staying Power?It’s crazy to think just how far we’ve come since the term "agile" was introduced into software development back in 2001, as it seems like just about every company is incorporating these faster, more collaborative techniques into development and testing teams. But can agile be considered a fad?
What's in the Summer 2015 Issue of Better Software Magazine?This issue of Better Software gives best practices that will improve your skills in a variety of categories, including agile, testing, DevOps, and process. These articles aim to better your professional lives so that you and your team can deliver software technology that delights customers.
An Agile Approach to Managing Your Software Testing Career

Testers are very much still needed. However, with so many new technologies and roles becoming available, some testers may want to explore options for their career paths. Michael Sowers offers an agile approach to determining your career direction, evaluating the alternatives, and developing a plan.

Figuring Out What to Measure: Metrics for Agile Teams

For agile to work, it's important to evaluate how your team and your project are doing. Qualitative feedback, such as from reviews and retrospectives, can be valuable. But at some point you may need more quantitative information to improve your project. How do you decide what metrics to gather?

How DevOps Is Now Driving Agile

Like agile, people are quickly adopting and making great use of DevOps, which stresses communication, automation, and a strong sense of cooperation within a team. Yet, while it can be argued that agile spawned DevOps, some software veterans argue that it’s DevOps that’s actually pushing agile.

How to Tell if Your Team Is Really AgileAgile teams run like a well-oiled machine, so it’s important to take a look at your group and assess just how agile it really is. What fixable problems might you be experiencing that are jamming up the system, causing the process to run slower than it needs to?
Make Sure Measuring Agile Metrics Is Really Leading to ImprovementIn your quest to figure out how your team is doing with its agile process, gathering data can be useful—as long as it does not add significant overhead to your project or get in the way of delivering customer value. Don't let the desire to quantify your improvement get in the way of improving.