|
Issue 59 Summer 2009 |
Editor: Abby Fichtner |
|
In This Issue: Beautiful Teams by Andrew Stellman Management-Mandated Multitasking by Johanna Rothman Where Does Developer Testing End & Tester Testing Begin? Fichtner, Oster Infrastructure for Agile: Reach for the Clouds by Mario Moreira Running Effective Daily Standups by Dan LeFebvre Connect to Your Audience by Claudyne Wilder We hope you enjoy these articles from our wonderful presenters and roundtable facilitators over the past quarter. Remember the Boston SPIN is on summer vacation July & August but we'll be back with a great new line up in September. Have a terrific summer and we'll see you in the fall! 
One of the challenges of working on a book like Beautiful Teams is coming to grips with the sheer breadth of information and ideas. The more we spoke with others about their own experiences with beautiful teams, the more it became clear that there were four distinct "buckets" these conversations fell into:
|
|
|||||||||||||
Two of my favorites quotes from the book use the metaphor of digging holes in the ground.
The first is from Steve McConnell, one of my favorite software writers, who talked about establishing an elevating goal for a project:
I like these quotes in particular because they're not necessarily about software development but speak to some basic truths of working with teams. » View Andrew & Jenny's Presentation » Read Andrew & Jenny's Beautiful Teams
by Johanna Rothman The team is working in time boxed iterations, delivering working releasable product at the end of each one. Sometime around iteration 9 or 10, when the team has hit its stride, management says, "Hey, Agile Team. We need you to do your magic on this other project over here."
Manage support work differently. If you have support work (which often cannot wait), maybe you need a support team with rotating membership. Each iteration, remove people from the creating-product team, and have them do support. You change who those people are each iteration to share the support load evenly. Integrate support into the backlog. Maybe you don't need an entire support team, but you have some support issues that arise every so often. As part of your backlog, add a few cards for "unknown support work" and give them story points, so you have reserve time for support. Consider breaking your team in two to work two projects "at one time." If you have a larger team, say 8 or 9 people, break them into two smaller teams, one assigned to each project. You could also insist management start managing their project portfolio. But that's fodder for another article! Whatever you do, don't just blindly accept more simultaneous work or projects. That's not a recipe for success. » Read more of Johanna's articles on her Managing Product Development blog
by Abby Fichtner & Nate Oster If Programmers are testing their code, what are Testers doing? How is there time for testing in a 2-week iteration? These questions all assume some big hand-off from the programmers to the testers. But in agile, we all work together towards the same goal, rather than handing off from one group to the next. Here are some ways testers and developers can work together to build quality into our software: Drive Development from Acceptance Tests. Have testers work with the product owner to define acceptance criteria for each story before coding starts. Have them define tests that must pass for a story to be "done." Pair a Programmer & Tester on Each Story. Testers create an objective definition of "done" by defining tests that must pass. Programmers code functionality and help automate tests. Testers do exploratory testing and refine test scenarios with the programmer, allowing programmers to fix issues in real-time to gain immediate feedback. Hold Everyone Accountable for Quality. Hold programmers responsible for internal quality through clean code backed by automated unit tests. Hold customers responsible for defining their conditions of satisfaction. Have testers help customers articulate quality needs and work with programmers to ensure all quality needs are met. Build a Safety Net with Automated Tests. Use automated tests to validate the software several times per day to enable the team to proceed with confidence as they evolve the system. Adopt a Stop the Line Mentality. Continually inspect and adapt to ensure problems are caught and fixed immediately, before any further work is able to build upon them. Demo Production-Quality Software to Customer at end of each Sprint. Frequently check in with the customer to ensure the software is fit for purpose and that the team is moving in the right direction. » Join Abby & Nate for their workshop on this topic at Agile 2009
by Mario Moreira
A distinct advantage for Agile teams is that the cloud infrastructure approach enables users to use only what they need, something directly in line with lean thinking. This "use what you need" approach minimizes infrastructure debt and allows the product team to scale to their need in a just-in-time manner. An additional advantage is that it helps minimize upfront capital expenses since you don't have to buy hardware, software, and other components. Effectively the infrastructure (e.g., servers, software, etc.) becomes more of an operating cost (pay per use approach). This may be just the solution needed for those companies envisioning the next wave of innovative products so they can focus less on the infrastructure and more on taking their ideas to the next level! » View Mario's Presentation » Learn more about infrastructure options in Agile Journal: Infrastructure - on Premises or in the Clouds
by Dan LeFebvre Almost all agile methods include a practice called the Daily Standup Meeting. However, there seems to be much confusion about the purpose and usefulness of these meetings. Many people believe the daily standup is a status meeting for the ScrumMaster. Others feel it's an unwelcome interruption to the flow of their work. The real purpose of the daily standup is for the self-organizing team to check in with each other to make adjustments as needed to meet their iteration's commitment. Here are some tips for running effective daily standups:
by Claudyne Wilder Everyone wants to keep the audience engaged while looking and sounding confident and in charge of the information. Here are some specific ideas on how to do that, courtesy of Claudyne Wilder, author of Point, Click & Wow! The Techniques and Habits of Successful Presenters:
» Learn more and sign up for monthly Presentation Points at Wilder Presentations |
 |
 |
With thanks to our sponsors...
