More than 750 tools Listed!
Published February 27th, 2008 Under Methods & Tools, Software Development | Leave a Comment
More than 750 tools have been registered in our Software Development Tool directory. If you are looking for a specific tool to develop software, do not hesitate to visit it to get some direction. If you are developing a tool, both commercial and open source, useful for software developers, register it for free on the web site. Subscribe to the RSS feed for continuous information on the software development tool market.
Methods & Tools Survey Confirms Increased Agile Adoption
Published February 25th, 2008 Under Methods & Tools, News, Numbers, Software Development | Leave a Comment
At what stage is the agile approach (XP, Scrum, TDD, …) adoption at your location? (2005 results)
Not aware 13% (26%)
Not using 13% (16%)
Investigating 14% (14%)
Analysed and rejected 4% (3%)
Pilot projects 8%(4%)
Partial implementation (adoption of some agile practices) 17% (17%)
Partial deployment (some projects are using this approach) 14% (12%)
Deployed (all new projects are using this approach) 17% (8%)
Participants: 512 (232)
Ending date: February 2008
Source: Methods & Tools
Comparing the 2008 and 2005 results, we could notice that the level of ignorance of the agile movement has decreased, as only 13% of the organizations are ignorant of it. Full deployment numbers have doubled in the recent years to reach 17% and total rate of various adoption levels is now 56% compared to 41% in 2005. This growing adoption rate has also been confirmed by other surveys on this topic. Some critics will naturally discuss the “scientific” nature of this kind of surveys, but I believe that they are useful to give us an idea of the evolution of the software development world. The increased popularity of agile is also visible on the Indeed job request trend. Read more
New Conferences Partnerships
Published February 22nd, 2008 Under Conferences, Methods & Tools, Software Development | Leave a Comment
Methods & Tools is proud to have been chosen as media partner by the following software development conferences
Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise March 26-27, 2008, Philadelphia, USA
STAREAST 2008 May 5-9 2008, Orlando, USA
2008 DC PHP Conference & Expo, June 2-4, 2008, Washington, DC USA
Yet Another Perl Conference 2008 June 16-18, Chicago, USA
Code Generation 2008, June 25-27 2008. Cambridge, UK
Software Development Articles
Published February 20th, 2008 Under Methods & Tools, Software Development | Leave a Comment
Some of the last interesting additions to our Software Development Articles Directory:
* Top-10 Application-Design Mistakes
Application usability is enhanced when users know how to operate the UI and it guides them through the workflow. Violating common guidelines prevents both.
* Why Do I Need All That Process? I’m Only a Small Project
At Intel’s Information Technology (IT) department, we developed extensive processes for our projects. While the large projects get the glory, the majority of our projects are less than six months long, have small teams, limited scope, and low risk. We found that we have a variety of project sizes but a single set of processes originally built for larger projects. So how did we fix that issue?.
* Spiral Development: Experience, Principles, and Refinements
Spiral development is a family of software development processes characterized by repeatedly iterating a set of elemental development processes and managing risk so it is actively being reduced. This paper characterizes spiral development by enumerating a few “invariant” properties that any such process must exhibit. For each, a set of “variants” is also presented, demonstrating a range of process definitions in the spiral development family. Each invariant excludes one or more “hazardous spiral look-alike” models, which are also outlined. This report also shows how the spiral model can be used for a more cost-effective incremental commitment of funds, via an analogy of the spiral model to stud poker.
What is Next for Yahoo! ?
Published February 12th, 2008 Under News | Leave a Comment
Yahoo! announced yesterday that “the Yahoo! Board of Directors has carefully reviewed Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal with Yahoo!’s management team and financial and legal advisors and has unanimously concluded that the proposal is not in the best interests of Yahoo! and our stockholders. After careful evaluation, the Board believes that Microsoft’s proposal substantially undervalues Yahoo! including our global brand, large worldwide audience, significant recent investments in advertising platforms and future growth prospects, free cash flow and earnings potential, as well as our substantial unconsolidated investments. The Board of Directors is continually evaluating all of its strategic options in the context of the rapidly evolving industry environment and we remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all stockholders.”
What could be the different evolution from the current situation? There are three main solutions for Yahoo:
* looking for a higher Microsoft bid
* staying independent
* looking for another ally
It is true that Yahoo and Microsoft cultures are different and those Yahoo founders still own around 10% of the company. They are reluctant to turn over control to Microsoft in case of acquisition and we don’t see Steve Ballmer buying Yahoo without taking full control of it. The initial rejection is also part of the negotiation tactic for unsolicited proposals. There are many important institutional investors that own a large share of Yahoo’s capital and that will be happy to cash some money in uncertain market. This is even truer when Yahoo operational track record has not been very good these recent months. The cost cutting measures announced recently are not the sign that the company looks confident with its future strategy. Names for other allies like AOL have been mentioned in the press, but I don’t see any company that could significantly improve Yahoo’s Internet business. Only Microsoft and Yahoo combination could create today an important opposition to Google. My prediction is that either there will be an acquisition based on maybe better financial terms or Yahoo will try to continue to control its own future but will face a difficult 2008. Not only it will have to continue facing a strong Google opposition, but the overall advertising context should become negative with the slow-down of the US economy.
keep looking »