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Why Does Everyone Pick on Agile? People in the software development community often declare that agile is dead and they have a new approach. But much of what is proposed as a “better agile” is usually just a reorganization, rewording, or clarification of the existing agile principles. Jeff Payne argues for keeping agile together as one movement. |
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Data Means Nothing if You Don’t Know How to Use, Analyze, and Interpret It Simply having data stowed away and ready to use when needed is great and all, but if you don’t have a smart strategy for how to not only analyze and interpret it, but also put it to proper use, then you may end up creating a connected ecosystem without a real purpose. |
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The Hidden Benefit of One-on-One Manager Meetings Managers may frame one-on-one meetings as a way to “support employees” and check to see if the employee “needs to meet this week.” Supporting an employee is a primary goal of these meetings, but the value of one-on-one time to managers—and the importance of building trust with employees—also should be prioritized. |
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Testing in a Pair Programming Environment If a development team does pair programming, where does testing fit in? You don't have to wait until the programming is done—testers can be part of the whole process, from code design to reviewing changes to production. Pair programming plus a good automation strategy mean quality is built in throughout development. |
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Why Agile Is a Double-Edged Sword When It Comes to Quality When it comes to quality, agile very often leads to better applications and just stronger testing overall. However, the rapidity of agile can make it even more difficult to keep up with bugs since you’re iterating at speeds teams often just aren’t used to. |
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Software Teams Aren’t Taking Bug Reporting Seriously Enough Of the things that are being sacrificed for speed, proper bug reporting is high on the list. Because it’s so easy to quickly update applications on the fly and push out fixes within days or even hours rather than weeks or months, plenty of teams assume it’s OK to ship something with a high volume of bugs. |
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The Manager’s Role on a Self-Organizing Agile Team Scrum and other agile methods focus on team roles and dynamics, and because of the emphasis on self-organizing teams, there’s sometimes a misconception that there’s no need for a manager. In reality, good people management can help an agile team thrive—the manager just has to know how to empower the team. |
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Preventing Workplace Miscommunication When one person says something that the other one misinterprets—a very common type of workplace miscommunication—the conversation often moves on with neither party realizing what happened. Being able to discover a misinterpretation and straighten it out before it escalates into a serious tangle is an important skill. |
