It's commonly said that everyone does Agile differently. In my experience, it's also common to do basically whatever you want and call it Agile. It can be useful to occasionally reset and examine what canonical Agile recommends.

Things I learned on my path from a Technical Lead to a Scrum Master. My transition flowed from ScrumDude, to ScrumMom, to finally Scrum Master.

A look at how to implement the command pattern in the Spring framework.

Check out these Reactive trends on the JVM, including a look at what Reactive is, patterns, and event logging.

Insights on how to make an average velocity concept a powerful tool for your Agile team.

Apache Struts 2 and SpringMVC, these two are the most popular and much talked about Java web frameworks today. Many of you might have worked with both of these frameworks, but which is one is better to use? What are the basic differences between both of these frameworks? Well, Apache Struts 2 is an elegant and extensible framework that is used for creating enterprise-level Java web applications. It is designed to streamline the development cycle, starting from building to deployment and maintenance of the application. In Struts, the object that is taking care of a request and routes it for further processing is known as “Action”. On the other hand, Spring MVC is a part of a huge Spring framework stack containing other Spring modules. This means that it doesn’t allow developers to run it without Spring, but the developers can run the Spring Core without Spring MVC. The Spring MVC (Model View Controller) is designed around a DispatcherServlet, which dispatches the requests to handler with configurable handler mappings, view resolution and theme resolution. While the objects responsible for handling requests and routing for processing in Struts called an Action, the same object is referred as Controller in Spring Web MVC framework. This is one of the very first differences between Spring MVC and Struts2. Struts 2 Actions are initiated every time when a request is made, whereas in Spring MVC the Controllers are created only once, stored in memory and shared among all the requests. So, Spring Web MVC framework is far efficient to handle the requests than Struts 2. If we talk about the features, Struts 2 and Spring MVC framework caters different level of business requirements. Let’s take a look at features offered by both of these frameworks. Struts 2 features Configurable MVC components, which are stored in struts.xml file. If you want to change anything, you can easily do it in the xml file. POJO based actions. Struts 2 action class is Plain Old Java Object, which prevents developers to implement any interface or inherit any class. Support for Ajax, which is used to make asynchronous request. It only sends needed field data rather than providing unnecessary information, which at the end improves the performance. Support for integration with Hibernate, Spring, Tiles and so on. Whether you want to use JSP, freemarker, velocity or anything else, you can use different kinds of result types in Struts 2. You can also leverage from various tags like UI tags, Data tags, control tags and more. Brings ample support for theme and template. Struts 2 supports three different kinds of themes including xhtml, simple and css_xhtml. On the other hand, Spring MVC framework brings totally different set of features. Spring MVC features Neat and clear separation of roles. Whether it is controller, command object, form object or anything else, it can be easily fulfilled with the help of a specialized object. Leverage from the adaptability, non-intrusiveness and flexibility with the help of controller method signature. Now use existing business objects as command or form object rather than duplicating them to extend the specific framework base class. Customizable binding and validation will enable manual parsing and conversion to business objects rather than using conventional string. Flexible mode transfer enables easy integration with the latest technology. Customizable locale and theme resolution, support for JSPs with or without Spring tag library for JSTL and so on. Leverage from the simple, but powerful JSP tag library known as Spring tag library. It provides support for various features like data binding and themes. Of course, Struts is one of the most powerful Java application frameworks that can be used in a variety of Java applications. It brings a gamut of services that includes enterprise level services to the POJO. On the other hand, Spring utilizes the dependency injection to achieve the simplification and enhance the testability. Both of these frameworks have their own set of pros and cons associated with it. Struts framework brings a whole host of benefits including: Simplified design Ease of using plug-in Simplified ActionForm & annotations Far better tag features OGNL integration AJAX Support Multiple view options and more However, the only drawback with Struts 2 framework is that it has compatibility issues and poor documentation. On the other hand, Spring MVC provides benefits like: Clear separation between controllers, JavaBeans models and views that is not possible in Struts. Spring MVC is more flexible as compared to the Struts. Spring can be used with different platforms like Velocity, XLST or various other view technologies. There is nothing like ActionForm in Spring, but binds directly to the domain objects. Code is also more testable as compared to the Struts. It is a complete J2EE framework comprising of seven independent layers, which simplifies integration with other frameworks. It doesn’t provide a framework for implementing the business domain and logic, which helps developers create a controller and a view for the application. However, like any other technologies or platforms, Spring MVC too suffers from several criticisms related to the complexity of the Spring framework. Final Verdict Either framework is a great choice. However, if you’re looking for the stable framework, Struts 2 is the right choice for you. On the other hand, if you’re looking for something robust, SpringMVC is perfect. Ensure that you review your exact requirements before choosing the framework!

A list of fun and, oftentimes, true quotes about DevOps and software development.

A definition of verification and validation in regards to automated testing, and a guide to using them in your workflow.

A brief history of story points, and why they're not as useful as they may seem at first glance due to the complexity they introduce.

An analysis of how much of DZone's audience lives up to the lofty goals of the Agile Manifesto.

You’re sitting at your desk, trying to “track” down a bug that’s been reported, when it happens. The hunt takes you into some method that inspires you to do a double take. It’s about 1,200 lines long, it has switch statements nested three deep, and you think (but you aren’t sure) that it does the same thing two or three times in a row for no particular reason. You look at the source control history and see that this is another “Bob special.” After seeing this, you start thinking about finally having a long overdue talk with Bob so that you don’t have to keep cleaning up these messes. That sure won’t be a fun talk. So how do you approach it? Philosophically Speaking Let’s be clear about something up front. Getting really good at telling teammates that their code is littered with problems is like getting really good at breaking into your car after locking yourself out of it: it’s tactically useful in the moment but indicative that you need a better overall strategy. Your goal shouldn’t be to master gently telling coworkers about their bad code but rather to make the mastery unnecessary. And I say that not as some kind of meta cop-out, but rather to put your strategy into context as an attempt to start or further a relationship. “Getting really good at telling teammates that their code is littered with problems is like getting really good at breaking into your car after locking yourself out of it.” Tweet This Quote When you’re part of a team, someone on your team who is committing bad code is a failure of everyone on the team—yourself included. So as you prepare for the intervention you’re planning with the person in question, keep in mind that you aren’t some kind of neutral crime scene investigator, sizing things up antiseptically. You’re part of the problem, and you share in the responsibility. Your team. Your code. Your problem. The good news is that if you approach this conversation constructively, you’re taking the first step toward fixing the problem, the code, and thus the team. So the key is making it constructive. 5 Ways to Not Make Code Criticism Constructive Before I go into detail about how to approach this conversation, I’ll give you a quick rundown of 5 things not to do. Don’t have the conversation when you’re frustrated or angry. Instead, wait until you’re calm and rational. Don’t get into this unless there’s a demonstrable problem. If you and he just have different casing preferences or something, the tension you create is probably going to nullify the benefits of standardization. Cosmetic coding standards and other relatively minor concerns can and should be addressed with automated static analysis. Don’t rely on seniority or status in any way. There’s no faster way to breed resentment than forcing people to do things they don’t agree with “because you say so.” Don’t expect to revolutionize someone’s entire approach in a single sitting and make the conversation a marathon affair. You want to have a clear and relatively concise message so that you get your point across without exhausting the other person. Improvement will happen over the long haul. Finally, don’t say that the code is “” That’s a useless, subjective way to categorize. Everything in software is about trade offs, so what you want to do is show Bob that he’s paying for quick and dirty coding with maintenance headaches for the rest of the team. Build A Constructive Code Strategy and Environment You’ve already prepared a bit by reading what not to do, so now it’s time to complement that with what to do. There needs to be three main components to this preparation: (1) the gaps you want to address (2) the support for your argument (3) the outcome for which you’re hoping. These three things are going to frame the discussion you intend to have. The gaps are actual, specific problems with Bob’s code. You don’t want to stroll over to Bob’s desk, pull up a chair, sit on it backwards and say, “So, Bob, you’re pretty bad at this programming thing…great talk!” You need to decide what tangible items you want to address during this discussion. What’s the most egregious source of problems? Is it the gigantic methods? The nested switch statements? The duplicate code? Pick one or maybe two of these things to cover. Just as you don’t want to be critical and vague, you also don’t want to be critical and devastatingly specific, reading off 95 of Bob’s greatest coding flaws like some kind of departmental Martin Luther. There may be 95 things wrong with Bob’s code. But if you want to fix all of them, it’s important to lay the groundwork for a mentoring relationship because you’re definitely not going to fix all of them in one day. Building Support: Do Your Research. Let’s say that you’ve decided to focus on method length as the topic to address. The next thing to do is build support for your argument. It’s a lot more credible to cite some supporting studies or widely respected industry figures on the matter than to march over to Bob and declare that his methods are too long. Build a case with evidence for the principle that you want to cover, and then also find specific, problematic instances in the code base to discuss. The last thing you want is to be hand-wavy about the problem—you want to be able to point at it and say, “for instance, this right here is a really big method.” The Outcome Should Be Actionable Having picked your issue and built a case, the last thing to do is choose an outcome toward which to steer the conversation. So you’ve shown Bob a giant method that he wrote and convinced him of the evils of giant methods. “Uh, okay,” he’ll say. “So what now?” Decide ahead of time that you want to work together to break the method into X number of smaller methods or that you want to leave the code in a state where no refactored method is longer than Y lines. Whatever it is, pick something actionable so that you and Bob can cap the conversation off with a joint win. Be courteous At this point, you’re ready to have the hard conversation. If you do it right, it won’t be nearly as hard as you might think, and it will serve as a productive starting point for a series of subsequent conversations that will be easier and perhaps even pleasant. This article originally appeared at SmartBear's Blog, written by Erik Dietrich.

Get a crash course in understanding microservices and the difficulties in implementing them.

Git offers several types of workflows. Learn what they are and which type is best suited for your specific purpose.

Curated TED Talk playlists integrated within Cornerstone Learning enable organisations to instantly access new, innovative ideas and share knowledge across their workforce June 30, 2015 - Cornerstone OnDemand, a global leader in cloud-based talent management software solutions, today announced the company is teaming with TED, the non-profit global community devoted to spreading ideas, to deliver curated TED Talks to Cornerstone clients for a new, innovative approach to professional learning and development. The first and only collaboration of its kind, Cornerstone clients now have the ability to provide their workforce with modern, mobile-enabled TED Talks from world-class leaders at the forefront of their fields from within Cornerstone Learning. Cornerstone's collaborative learning functionality also allows organisations to enable peer-to-peer knowledge capture and discussions that can extend the learning impact of TED Talks. Watched and listened to more than 1 billion times this year, TED Talks introduce ideas that can help companies transform how their people think and work. Cornerstone clients will have access to a series of curated TED Talk playlists designed to address key business challenges in an innovative format that is unique, powerful and inspiring. With curated TED Talk playlists through Cornerstone: Inspire your workforce. TED brings together the world's most inspiring and ingenious people whose ideas can strengthen how professionals understand and think about the world around them. TED's curation of talks on behalf of Cornerstone can help organisations generate excitement and engagement among employees, help management crystallise goals, start important conversations, and spark collaborations. Provide the best, most relevant content. Organisations will gain access to the very best collections of TED Talks across a wide range of topics that are central to innovation and talent development, including change management, culture building, leadership, technology, globalisation, diversity and design. Playlists have been curated to reflect talks from visionary leaders across the most influential industries, such as healthcare, education, technology, manufacturing, finance and more. Amplify the value of your learning and development strategy. Employees can view TED Talks from within Cornerstone Learning, the global learning management system (LMS) for over 1,800 leading organisations. Integrating TED Talks into professional development curriculum allows organisations to inspire each individual employee at any stage in their career. Organisations can easily target and deliver learning and development to groups or individuals with the support of TED Talks and measure impact on workforce development from within Cornerstone. Watch and Share Instantly on Mobile: As smartphones emerge as the leading platform for watching video and Web content among busy professionals, TED Talks allow employees to consume and share content on their mobile devices while on the go. Comments on the News "TED Talks are brilliantly crafted and make an emotional connection with viewers. Their ability to convey innovative and complex ideas through powerful, first-person stories is the type of talent management content that can inspire and drive real change in the workforce," said Kirsten Helvey, senior vice president, client success, Cornerstone OnDemand. "We are dedicated to helping people reach their potential by providing our clients with the most innovative talent management solutions that support their professional development and training initiatives." "With the growing demand from companies for TED Talks, Cornerstone provides TED with the expertise and efficiency in reaching millions of learners in organisations across the globe that can benefit from our content," said Deron Triff, TED's director of global distribution and licensing. "This collaboration also provides TED with an important opportunity to understand how the talks can be utilised for professional development to strengthen how we collaborate with the business community. Cornerstone will be a great alliance for bringing TED Talks to companies and sparking innovation among their employees." Additional Resources Learn more about curated TED Talk playlists for Cornerstone via the Cornerstone Marketplace: marketplace.csod.com/#/content/90 Read additional commentary by Cornerstone's director of talent management, Jeff Miller, on the value and influence of TED Talks for empowering today's workforce via the Cornerstone blog: www.cornerstoneondemand.com/blog/how-ted-gets-your-workforce-talking

This article was originally published on 6/29/15 For developers coding in c/c++, NetBeans IDE provides a c/c++ bundle of its set of tools. However, the NetBeans c/c++ toolset is the application platform for Oracle Studio IDE, which provides a set of features that extend the NetBeans c/c++ toolset. In this interview, we meet Ikroop Dhillon, who is the principal product manager of Oracle Solaris studio. She tells us about herself and about the Oracle Solaris studio. Speaking with the True Professionals Anytime we set up an interview with someone in space, we always want to ensure that they are someone with something interesting to say. Believe it or not, that is not always as easy to find as you might imagine. This is why we were so thrilled when we heard back from Ikroop Dhillon about our interview request. Dhillon is a great person to speak with about these matters because she is a product manager at Oracle Solaris Studio, and she has overseen countless projects in her time there. Not only that, but we find her insights and information to literally be second to none. It was our greatest pleasure to get to speak with her. As someone with a background in computer science, Dhillon is exactly the kind of person that is up-to-date and knowledgeable about the inner workings of computers and all of the latest updates in the industry. She has been continuously learning about how various processes work and what the latest updates are in the world of computers. Thus, it is with great pleasure that we were able to meet up with her and go over the latest as it was developing all around us. What we wanted to cover included topics that have not often been discussed by other teams of interviewers before. We knew that Ikroop Dhillon would provide us with the time that we needed to start getting some answers from her about what all of these changes might mean for the brave new world that we are all entering at this time. It has been an interesting and challenging time, to say the least, and we can all stand to learn something from those who are tracking the developments as they happen day by day. Dhillon is exactly the kind of person you want in your corner if that is your mission, and that is why we spent such a lengthy amount of time speaking with her at this time. We hope that you gain some useful insights from our conversation. We certainly picked up a lot of information that we wouldn’t otherwise have had access to. Hi Ikroop, thanks for taking the interview. Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do? Hi! Thanks for chatting with me today. I am the principal product manager for oracle Solaris studio, and I focus on business development, product strategy, and go-to-market plans. How and when did you get involved with oracle Solaris studio? I have an educational background in computer science and was a technical marketing engineer at Intel prior to joining oracle. I have always had an interest in application development and started product management of oracle Solaris studio development tools about seven years ago. What are the key aims of oracle Solaris studio? Oracle Solaris studio is an advanced c, c++, and Fortran development environment. It runs on both Oracle Solaris and Oracle Linux operating systems, and with remote development support, developers can build, debug, analyze and optimize applications from virtually any laptop or desktop environment. Oracle Solaris studio delivers a complete and comprehensive tool suite aimed at simplifying the development of high-performance, secure, reliable, and robust enterprise applications. So, it doesn't run on windows? If you go to the oracle Solaris studio download page, then you'll see downloads for Linux and Solaris. http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solarisstudio/downloads/index-jsp-141149.html but a tar file can be downloaded as well, and on any java-aware oses, the user can run GUI tools in "remote mode": https://blogs.oracle.com/d/entry/using_the_solaris_studio_ide What do you consider to be the most awesome and unique features of oracle Solaris studio? Oracle Solaris studio contains some very powerful application analysis tools. The oracle Solaris studio performance analyzer helps you optimize your application by enabling you to easily identify and fix performance bottlenecks. It has an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that allows you to visualize performance data from various angles and easily drill down and isolate performance issues. The code analyzer is another great component of oracle Solaris studio that helps you protect your application from memory access issues, including memory leaks. In addition to the analysis tools, Oracle Solaris studio also has an award-winning IDE. Based on the NetBeans platform. The IDE is specifically geared for c/c++ developers and is optimized to handle large enterprise applications very well. We focus on making sure that the IDE has a low memory footprint when handling large applications and fast response times. Under what conditions should oracle Solaris studio be used instead of the c/c++ tools that come with NetBeans IDE? Oracle Solaris studio delivers advanced performance, memory, and thread analysis tools in addition to those provided by NetBeans IDE. These powerful analysis tools help optimize application performance and improve software reliability and quality. In addition, Oracle Solaris studio delivers highly optimized c, c++, and Fortran compilers and performance libraries for compute-intensive applications. If you are looking for a complete and comprehensive c/c++ and Fortran development tool suite, it is recommended that you use Oracle Solaris studio. What kinds of customers are using Oracle Solaris studio, and what are they doing with it? Our customers include leading companies in finance, telecommunications, and defense. We also work closely with top oracle ISVs and partners. Our customers rely on oracle Solaris studio for the development of their mission-critical enterprise applications, and most Oracle applications are built using Oracle Solaris studio. Can you tell us a bit about the social media and related sites that are important for those using Oracle Solaris studio? The oracle technology network contains the product download (oracle Solaris studio free to use in production) and learning resources, including technical articles, whitepapers, and how-to videos: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/solarisstudio/overview/index.html The oracle.com site includes the datasheet, product briefs, and customer quotes: oracle.com/goto/solarisstudio You can also follow us on Facebook or Twitter for product and content updates: https://www.facebook.com/oraclesolarisstudio https://twitter.com/solarisstudio Anything else you'd like to share with the NetBeans community? I just recorded some videos that highlight some important features of oracle Solaris studio. The oracle Solaris studio performance analyzer also supports java and does a terrific job of optimizing java application performance. It is quite useful if you have a mixed c/c++ and java application.

Many people believe that marketing is just advertising or selling. But, in reality, marketing is actually a conversation that you the entrepreneur start by meeting your customers’ needs. One of the biggest challenges in marketing we see is executives who resist it by asking, “Yes, but how will this help me sell more?” Many businesses struggle with just such a sales- or product-focused culture, forgetting that they were formed to solve a customer problem and that the solution to that problem was born of insights gleaned from talking to potential customers. It’s this forgetfulness that makes marketing look less like it’s about serving customers and more like it’s about (only) sales and advertising. And that’s not good. In fact, for many business-to-business brands, marketing originally emerged from the sales team’s need for more leads in the field. In the consumer space, marketers started on the traditional advertising side, where the game was all about reach and frequency, and where the goal was to get the brand message out to the target audience. The legacy of such thinking leads to the biggest mistake marketers make: They make the message all about themselves. When I started my own content-marketing journey, I remember, I was always hearing, “How much more stuff will this help us sell?” Yet the worst way to try to reach your target audience in today’s digital, consumer-led world is to try to sell yourself directly. Businesses that succeed in reaching their customers have stopped trying to interrupt the content their consumers are interested in and instead have started creating, publishing and sharing the content their customers enjoy. Related: A Guide For Creating Consistently Great Content Answer customers’ questions, and you may earn the right to tell them more about yourself. But building a company that focuses on helping people versus selling stuff? That’s a question of culture! And culture flows straight from the boss. So, if you’re a CEO, your job is to build a customer-focused culture of content. And here are three questions to pose that help you do just that. 1. What is a culture of content? Effective marketing is the art of providing the best answers to your buyers’ questions, and that’s a content problem — which in turn is a job that flows to just about every employee. Everyone in your business produces content. Everyone has an email address and a few social accounts. Content drives real business value when it connects with your potential customers. Late last year, Altimeter published a report on how to foster a culture of content, to which I was honored to contribute. The research pointed to education, executive buy-in and employee advocacy as key components of a culture of content. 2. How do you shift away from a culture of selling? Most businesses believe that the best way to drive new sales is to talk about themselves, thinking that if they’re not outright asking for new business, they won’t get it. Today, however, customers tune out such promotional messages. They can tell which content is trying to sell. Businesses need to make the customer the hero of their stories, exhibiting empathy in a real and emotional way. Many businesses forget that one of the most effective ways to use content to drive traffic is to simply answer your customers’ most basic questions. If you sell widgets, the first question your content should answer is, “What are widgets?” And then: “How can widgets help a business like mine?” Once you’ve done that on a regular basis, you can answer why your widgets are best. There is no magic pill for effective content that drives traffic. The best businesses have a documented strategy for publishing helpful, high-quality content; they drive that strategy by publishing on a consistent basis. Publishing audience-focused content more than once per day is much more effective than publishing less frequently. And frequency requires a culture of content. 3. How can brands establish a culture of content? The best way to build a “culture of content” is to help your employees understand what problem you set out to solve. The mission must be bigger than the service or product you sell. The brand is about more than what you sell, it’s about people. Companies that do this well understand the larger world they operate in and how they fit into it; they activate their employees to tell authentic and personal stories about how they contribute. As a content marketer, I have often found myself teaching others how to write, share on social media and build their personal brands. To succeed takes executives who embody this spirit — living and breathing the notion that your brand is bigger than what you sell. Creating and defining a culture of content, then, starts with the CEO. However, it’s also the daily job of everyone else. What content have you produced today that will help a potential customer? Have you coached any executives on how to turn their presentations into slideshares and blog posts? Have you encouraged any of your thought leaders to start contributing more often? It’s time to get started to create this bright new customer-winning culture Original post

At Bloomfire’s User Conference in May, I had the pleasure of listening to City of Austin’s Chief Innovation Officer Kerry O’Connor present on how government knowledge management is changing. The Innovation Office focuses on internal and public service innovation, as well as open government. O’Connor has worked in the public sector for many years – at the U.S. Department of State, the Office of Management Policy Rightsizing and Innovation, and several U.S. Embassies. She talked about seeing firsthand that the government is changing from a “need to know organization” to a “need to share organization.” O’Connor argues that disruption is inevitable, and will come whether in the form of opportunity or threat – and there’s no script. “When there’s no script,” O’Connor says, “we have to be intentionally improvisational.” O’Connor defines innovation as any project that is new to you and has an uncertain outcome. She talked about how important knowledge is in supporting innovation. As the first person to ever fill this role, her goal for her first year in office was to set up an innovation infrastructure. This included putting into place the processes, teams, and skills and information to create an environment that fosters innovation. O’Connor recommends that to facilitate intentional improvisation, you must frame the problems you want to solve first. Once you know the goal, look for innovation technology infrastructure that helps you manage contacts, relationships, projects, knowledge, ideas, and insights. We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected and disrupted, and O’Connor says that organizations are naturally becoming more networked, human-centered, and improvisational. She encouraged attendees to “use what you have; we must connect, coach, mentor, share, and experiment.” To ensure that citizens can interact with the knowledge that city employees have, the City of Austin created online public spaces. These spaces, created on Bloomfire, offer the opportunity for citizens to participate in a conversation with employees around innovation, data, and city orientation. I was inspired by O’Connor’s presentation, and proud to live in a city that is so forward thinking about how information is shared. It made me want to get more involved in finding ways to solve some of problems Austin is facing as a result of our rapid growth. As a result of her talk, I’m going to try to make it to this weekend’s ATX Hack for Change. If you would like to watch O’Connor’s entire presentation, you can access it on the Bloomfire Community. Like this post? Click here to subscribe to our blog and receive the latest content on social learning, customer support, sales enablement, or all three.

From time to time I’ve been heard to say: “Agile is Punk.” But I’ve never explained myself. I’ve also been heard to say things life “Agile is about democratising the workplace” but I’ve never explain myself there either. Let me try… What I mean when I say this is: Agile (software development) has a lot in common with Punk rock. To me the important thing about punk rock was that it was about people trying it - music, their own thing. Anybody trying to play music, anybody forming a band, anyone who had a novel idea trying to get a record contract. Yes, even if they couldn’t play an instrument they could have a go, and who knows, maybe they would learn as they went. (I should say that while I’m old enough to have been around when punk was I’m not old enough to have been there. Both post-punk and post-disco influences were at work in the New Wave music which was common when I came music listening.) Punk had a democratising effect on music. Music has aways been of the people, anyone can listen, anyone can try to sing - although I’m not very good at it even I can try! But the music industry was something different, performing, recording - there were barriers there! Punk tore down barriers. Punk opened up the recording industry. Punk opened up music. Agile opened up the software process industry. Before Agile official software processes were pretty locked down. You had to be an academic or expert/consultant to dabble in that space. Programmers who worked in under official software processes were on the receiving end. Agile said: “Your opinion is important too.” In truth music has always was been open to everyone, just not the recording industry. And in software development processes were open to anyone, most programmers did not work under an official process, mostly it was common practices which, if they worked, were probably more effective than official ones. Unfortunately these unofficial work practices came with guilt: because we did not do it the way the books said we should. When faults occurred we blame ourselves for “not doing it properly”. Agile says: “Everyone involved with software development should have a voice in deciding how to work, it can be improved and you don’t need to be an expert, academic, consultant or certified member of some body to express that view.” That also makes it democratic. I don’t mean democratic in the sense that we all get to vote, I mean democratic in the sense that it is power is vested in the hands of the collective people. Everyone has a voice, everyone can participate, and those who hold executive power do so by the will of the people. Agile is about giving everyone a voice. Like Punk that means accept that those who don’t have much skill are also entitled to a voice. Funnily enough, I’ve long held that any punk band that made a second album weren’t punk anymore because they were part of the industry, they were now experts! The same is true with Agile, hang around for long enough (like me) and you are no longer an outside but an insider, an expert. Increasingly we see Agile heading outside of software development. When this happens it becomes necessary to ask: What is Agile? My answer is: Democracy. Agile is about valuing everyone, agile is about giving everyone a voice, agile is about putting the power to change the workplace (process, systems, norms) into the collective hands of the people who work there. Yes at times it feels revolutionary, but there are fellow travellers, it is all a Theory-Y movement.

Written by Jim Magers for LeadingAgile. When I’m teaching an agile bootcamp class and talking about work in process, I always make a point (usually multiple times) to tell the attendees that agile is about finishing work…not about starting work. I reinforce this by pointing out that you can have a glorious looking burndown chart for the duration of the sprint but completely fail in your mission to meet your commitments and finish stories. The team can be burning down hours beautifully on a daily basis, with the remaining task hours looking like they are tracking right along the ideal line, and then boom… It’s closing time for the sprint and no stories actually got completed. Remember that notion of building working, tested software? Didn’t happen. The team started too many stories at once and ended up not being able to bring any of them across the finish line when the bell rang. This notion of finishing work applies to sprint planning as well. If you short-change the time it takes to do good sprint planning, and the team meanders off to begin writing code and test plans too soon, there is a risk that the team is going to struggle to be successful. Remember what we do in sprint planning. Consider velocity, and load the sprint backlog with high priority stories from the product backlog. Check. Determine capacity for the team to work on sprint tasks over the coming sprint. Check. Break stories into tasks and determine who is doing what. Check. Make sure the work is going to fit. Check. Commit to the work. Check. But what can happen when you don’t take the time to thoughtfully break down tasks and estimate hours of effort? Consider the following burn down chart. In this example, the team left sprint planning thinking that they were committing to 830 hours. But just two days into the sprint they discovered additional task hours and instead found themselves in the awkward position of actually needing almost 1200 hours of capacity to complete the committed stories. Guess what…they did not have 1200 hours of capacity to give, especially since they were now a full two days into the work. In looking more closely at their burndown chart over the course of the two-week sprint, it took them almost 6 days of work to get back to the point where they had 830 hours of work left to do. Six days just to get back to where they thought was their starting point when they concluded their sprint planning meeting. And surprise, they didn’t finish the sprint successfully. So, don’t short-change the value that good sprint planning affords. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it can seem tedious. Yes, the team is anxious to get started. But good sprint planning pays dividends. Remember that it is about finishing work, and not about starting work.

Business leaders like to be in control of every aspect of their operations, but if any element is outsourced, that sense of governance becomes much more difficult to maintain. Outsourcing can be appealing to organizations looking for talent at reasonable costs - it just takes significant planning to pull off successfully. When a team is in a different location from the company, there are a number of challenges that must be overcome. We will look at what some of the biggest issues are and how you can appropriately manage an outsourced quality assurance team. Obstacles of outsourcing While outsourcing can have a lot of advantages for businesses, the number of roadblocks can be intimidating for many enterprises. Here are the biggest challenges to prepare for: Information sharing: When you don't see individuals every day, it can often be easy to forget to relay important messages. Communication in this situation is imperative, as it could affect the overall operation of the application. As soon as a request is given, there should be seamless transfer of knowledge to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the project proceeds as expected. This will eliminate any redundancies and lower the overall development cost. Engagement: Many outsourced teams have a difficult time becoming personally involved with their projects. This will also affect their ability to collaborate effectively with other teams in the business, ultimately hurting program quality. Organizations must have a strategy to keep these individuals motivated and provide them with the tools to succeed. Technology/skills: An outsourced team may use different pieces of technology or have skills separate from what the organization was looking for. For example, if the company really wants to move to agile software development, but the outsourced group still uses waterfall methods, that could create problems down the road for their software development initiatives. Similarly, the business must ensure that the outsourced individuals have the skills necessary to meet corporate goals and spur innovation through their app testing. How to regain control Although total governance of outsourced assets won't be possible, there are still some things that organizations can do to take control of these teams and ensure that they're fulfilling business objectives. Australian outsourcer Beepo suggested a consistent schedule for gathering feedback and using technology like the cloud and test management tools. Let's dissect each of these ideas. Many outsourced teams are often left by the wayside when it comes to communication. This can reasonably lead to mistakes being made and leave the members feeling apathetic toward their work. However, by setting up regular video conferences and requesting feedback, outsourced individuals can feel empowered to express their opinions and become a larger part of their projects. This will also help build trust and motivate teams to collaborate more. Using tools like test management and the cloud can also be helpful when working with an outsourced team due to the fact that they provide a singular platform for all users. This means that the outsourced and in-house teams can be working on the same project at the same time, with any changes being made in real time. This will not only reduce redundancies, but it creates accountability and ensures that tasks are being addressed according to their priority. Considerations to make when outsourcing Whether you're looking to outsource, or simply make your outsourced team better, there are some key items to address. Ashok Mani from AppLabs noted that organizations must look into a provider's engagement models, mobilization efforts, communication plans, security and scalability. These elements will be essential to clear up before trying to manage a team. "While organizations are deriving value from outsourcing software development, outsourced software testing will maximize returns from their investments and provide the right level of objectivity and rigor required to create a high-quality product," Mani stated. "If an independent QA and testing service provider is chosen whose focus is on ensuring quality products/systems are implemented, benefits will be fully maximized." Outsourcing a quality assurance team is going to have a few challenges for businesses. But by preparing for these obstacles, they will be able to manage the outsourced group more effectively. Having a communication plan and technology available will be essential to working well with the team and improving development operations.