Linkopedia August 2010
Published August 19th, 2010 Under Links | Leave a Comment
Blog: Categorizing the Cloud …
Blog: Patterns and Practices for Improving Personal Productivity, Time Management, and Effectiveness
Blog: Earned Value v. Earned Schedule
Blog: A List of Coding Standard Websites
Humour: My husband is a programmer; I have no idea what that means.
Article: jQuery Test-Driven Development
Article: Are We Headed to Abilene?
Tool: Flerry is a Flex-Java bridge for Adobe AIR 2.0
Tool: Coverlipse is an Eclipse plugin that visualizes the code coverage of JUnit Tests
Video: How to Cope with Communication Problems in an Agile Project?
Video: Continuous Integration, Pipelines and Deployment
Find more interesting links on the software development links directory, the software development tools directory, the software development articles directory, the software development blogs aggregator or the software development videos directory.
Reflections on Management
Published August 17th, 2010 Under Books | Leave a Comment
This book is composed of papers previously written by Watts Humphrey. The people and management aspects of software development are often neglected in books and this one is a good source to start thinking about them… and improving our practice. The book is structured in four parts: managing your projects, managing your teams, managing your boss and managing yourself. In each part, it presents both general principles and real life examples or stories taken from Watts Humphrey career. This makes the book very easy to read as we can connect the theory to situations that we have met in our professional life.
Read the complete review on Sofware Development Books
Reference: “Reflections on Management – How to Manage Your Software Projects, Your Teams, Your Boss, and Yourself”, Watts S. Humphrey and William R. Thomas Addison-Wesley, 260 pages, IBSN 978-0-321-71153-3
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk
Lean Agile Software Development
Published June 9th, 2010 Under Books | Leave a Comment
The goal of this book is to propose a vision of Agile software development that goes behind the current practices, more specifically Scrum, to integrate the principles of Lean development. To achieve this objective, the authors draw on their own experience in Agile consulting. Read more
Linkopedia May 2010
Published May 12th, 2010 Under Links | Leave a Comment
Blog: The 9 Capabilities of Communicators
Article: Test Driven Development using Flash Builder 4 and FlexUnit
Article: Common Product Owner Traps
Article: The Busy Developer’s Guide to SQL Server Modeling
Tool: Instant Django is a portable Django development environment for Windows
Tool: theSCRUM is a free solution for teams using Scrum
Tool: Tattletale gets you an overview of your project or a product.
Video: Continuous Integration and the “Cup of Coffee” Test
Video: Using FireBug to Debug JavaScript
Video: Selenium + FitNesse – A QA Multiplier Effect
Find more interesting links on the software development links directory, the software development tools directory, the software development articles directory, the software development blogs aggregator or the software development videos directory.
Agile Project Management
Published January 19th, 2010 Under Books | Leave a Comment
The fact that this book is already at his second edition after a first publication in 2004 says something about its value. In one of his definition of Agile, Jim Highsmith says, “Agility is the ability to balance flexibility and stability”. I will say that his book balances nicely high level thinking and a pragmatic approach. The book provides a framework for running agile projects and gives also insight in some more neglected related topics like managing projects portfolios or measuring the success of Agile projects.
The author starts by defining what Agility is and emphasizes that Agile is about “delivering value over meeting constraints”. The book describes the Agile Project Management (APM) framework, discussing its values and presenting the phases (Envision, Speculate, Explore, Adapt, and Close). The core values of the APM are:
* Delivering Value over Meeting Constraints
* Leading the Team over Managing Tasks
* Adapting to Change over Conforming to Plans.
All these aspects are covered with both a high level vision (after all values are values), but also by describing daily project activities: Key points that will help you understand the author message are put in evidence. Example: A coaching leader’s attitude is reflected in the question “How can I help you deliver results?” The micro-manager’s attitude is reflected in the question, “Why isn’t task 412 done yet?”
The final parts of the book deal with topics related to Agile project management: scaling, project portfolio management, measuring performance and fostering innovation. This is definitely a book that I will recommend to every people involved in project management, agile or not. I always think that learning Agile practices should be preceded by understanding Agile values. This book provides insightful material for values and practices.
Related web sites:
* Jim Highsmith Web site
* Agile Project Leadership Network
Reference: “Agile Project Management”, Second Edition, Jim Highsmith, Addison-Wesley, 392 pages
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk