Adapting to Scrum: Challenges and Strategies  

Read about some of the challenges facing technical writers who create product documentation in a Scrum environment, as well as strategies for confronting these challenges.

Sigman, Christine M. Intercom (2007). Articles>Project Management>Agile>Scrum

Agile Development Checklist

The purpose of this article is to define a set of ideal practices for an agile software development project.

McLennan, Liam. Code Project, The (2006). Articles>Project Management>Agile

Agile Documentation (Using Tests as Documentation)  

Storytelling can make documentation more exciting for both writers and readers. Stories provide context and people tend to remember them. More all-∆around fun when stories are tests.

Gheorghiu, Grig. Business Information Review. Articles>Documentation>Agile>Testing

Agile Documentation with doctest and epydoc

A Test Map is a list of unit tests associated with a specific function/method under test. It helps you see how that specific function/method is being exercised via unit tests.

Gheorghiu, Grig. Blogspot (2005). Articles>Documentation>Agile

Review: Agile Documentation: A Pattern Guide to Producing Lightweight Documents for Software Projects

In Agile Documentation, Rüping gets to the heart of the documentation dilemma, offering a two-word solution: minimum necessary.

Davis, Donna L. developer.star (2003). Articles>Reviews>Agile>Documentation

Agile Documentation: Strategies for Agile Software Development

When I initially started work on Agile Modeling (AM) I wanted to focus solely on principles and practices for effective modeling but quickly discovered that this scope was not sufficient, that I also needed to consider the issue of how to be effective at the creation and maintenance of documentation too. Some agile models will �evolve� into official system documentation, although the vast majority will not, and therefore it is relevant to discuss how to be agile doing so.

Agile Modeling. Articles>Documentation>Agile>Extreme Documentation

Agile Principles Are Changing Everything

There's an irony about agile development. There is no hard evidence that it produces better software, faster. And formal adoption rates, admittedly hard to measure, don't reach the 20 percent mark. Yet the ideas that underpin agile development--defining requirements incrementally, writing software in short stints, seeking customer feedback, testing code as it's written, frequent builds--have caught on like wildfire. They are widely accepted as sound development practices, even among teams that have not formally adopted them.

deJong, Jennifer. Software Development Times (2008). Articles>Collaboration>Agile>Methods

Agile Project Management - Reliable Innovation

This webinar discusses how Agile Project Management (APM) excels on projects in which new, risky technologies are incorporated; requirements are volatile and evolve; time-to-market is critical; and high quality must be maintained.

Highsmith, Jim. Rally Software Development (2005). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

An Agile Review Process for Technical Documentation

Documentation teams need a fast and effective review process to move forward on their projects and deliver quality, timely content. Reviewers, may they be SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) or key organization authorities, are usually extremely busy and have limited time (or interest) to review documentation. Interesting dilemma, no?

Talbot, Fabrice. LiveTechDocs (2008). Articles>Documentation>Agile>Workflow

Agile: What is it Anyway?

Agile methodologies have had a lot of press in recent years. To listen to some people, agile methodologies are the answer to all the ailments that have ever plagued software development from the beginning of the computer age. But what are they, really? And do they really deliver on that promise? The answer is: (drumroll, please) it depends.

Little, Karen. BA Collective (2007). Articles>Project Management>Agile>Methods

The Agile/Waterfall Cooperative  

In this tutorial, attendees will learn to factor their company's business needs into their existing Agile procedures, and management will learn how to begin the investigative work of determining how to streamline these requirements and activities so that they don't hamper the project.

Sliger, Michele. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

The Almighty Thud

Why do we bother with models or documentation? They don't execute, and our customers pay us for working code, not pretty pictures. We bother with models to communicate. The idea is that a graphical object model can show how objects fit together more clearly than looking at the source, an interaction diagram can show a collaboration better than figuring out the call path from several class definitions. But so often the design documentation fails in this, and leaves me puzzled on my sofa.

Fowler, Martin. MartinFowler.com (1997). Articles>Documentation>Agile>Extreme Documentation

Applying Agile Methods in Rapidly Changing Environments  

The authors (both coming from a heavyweight software development environment) describe their approach to transferring a heavyweight method into a more agile approach. One can argue whether the described result is intermediate or final, the the process described and the choices made are well worth studying.

Kutschera, Peter and Steffen Schafer. Jeckstein.com (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Agile

Best Practices for Agile/Lean Documentation

Documentation is an important part of agile software development projects, but unlike traditionalists who often see documentation as a risk reduction strategy, agilists typically see documentation as a strategy which increases overall project risk and therefore strive to be as efficient as possible when it comes to documentation. Agilists write documentation when that's the best way to achieve the relevant goals, but there often proves to be better ways to achieve those goals than writing static documentation. This article summarizes common "best practices" which agilists have adopted with respect to documentation.

Ambler, Scott W. Agile Modeling (2001). Resources>Documentation>Agile

Beyond Story Cards: Agile Requirements Collaboration

Discusses the life cycle of Story Cards, what they should be, how to use them and what to watch out for.

Shore, James. JamesShore.com (2006). Articles>Documentation>Agile>Card Sorting

Breaking With Tradition

Though the term 'agile' isn't often ascribed to the ways of software configuration management, Steve Berczuk offers some ways in which applying the principles of agile SCM can help teams work more effectively.

Berczuk, Steve. StickyMinds (2006). Careers>Project Management>Agile

Careen-Stable

As an agile coach, I get the opportunity to facilitate many teams’ first iteration planning meeting. Now these meetings do start out like typical meetings, with everyone sitting around a table and one person talking. But as the meeting progresses and discussions begin around the work, it can begin to look like chaos to an outsider. What I didn’t realize however, until recently, was that it can also look like chaos to some of the insiders as well!

Sliger, Michele. On Becoming Agile (2006). Careers>Management>Agile

A CIO's Playbook for Adopting the Scrum Method of Achieving Software Agility  

Scrum is a proven, Agile software management method that has been widely adopted by organizations seeking to reliably deliver higher quality software. Scrum is a simple process: it has a small set of interrelated practices and rules, is not overly prescriptive, can be learned quickly and produces productivity gains almost immediately.

Schwaber, Ken, Dean Leffingwell and Hubert Smits. Rally Software Development (2007). Articles>Project Management>Agile>Scrum

A CIO's Playbook for Adopting the Scrum Method of Achieving Software Agility    

Provides a brief overview of the Scrum method as well as 'playbook' of guidelines and tactics for enterprise-wide adoption of Scrum.

Schwaber, Ken, Dean Leffingwell and Hubert Smits. Rally Software Development (2006). Articles>Project Management>Agile>Scrum

CIO's Playbook for Adopting the Scrum Method of Achieving Software Agility  

The authors of this whitepaper have helped many hundreds of teams adopt Scrum. Here they share how CIOs can implement Scrum on an organization-wide basis - the challenges they will face as well as the rewards - and provides a playbook for adopting Scrum in enterprises where software, and lots of it, is the key to competitive success in the marketplace.

Leffingwell, Dean and Hubert Smits. Rally Software Development (2005). Careers>Management>Agile>Scrum

Clash of the Titans: Agile and UCD

Agile software development has become fairly popular in the last few years, leaving many UX professionals wondering how user-centered design (UCD) can fit into an extremely fast-paced development process that uses little documentation. User-centered design can involve a variety of techniques that provide insights into users' wants, needs, and goals, including ethnography, contextual inquiry, contextual interviewing, usability testing, task analysis, and others. But all of these take time--time that an agile development process might not allow. There is hope, though. Agile and UCD methods are not completely at odds with each other--and in some cases, agile development can even enable a more user-centered approach. By taking the time to understand the differences and similarities between agile development and UCD, it's possible to devise a process that is both user-centered and agile.

Cecil, Richard F. UXmatters (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Agile

The Daily Stand-Up

The first and most basic rhythm of the Agile feedback cycle is the daily standup. It's just what it sounds like - a daily meeting where everyone stands up for the duration of the meeting. When I give Agile workshops, one of the questions I'm often asked is how to do daily standups when the teams are geographically dispersed. While this can be a challenge to coordinate and maintain, you'll soon find that the benefits of the daily communication make it well worth the effort. Here are several options to consider with your team:

Sliger, Michele. Rally Software Development (2005). Careers>Project Management>Agile>Collaboration

The Documentation Dilemma

With limited staff, a rapidly changing IT environment, and increasing complexity, my own inflexible documentation practices had to be updated to reflect more dynamic environments.

Dickerson, Chad. InfoWorld (2004). Articles>Documentation>Agile>Extreme Documentation

DSDM: Go for the Nine  

This presentation reviews the benefits, principles and history of DSDM (Dynamic Systems Development Method).

Tabaka, Jean. Rally Software Development (2006). Presentations>Project Management>Agile

Easing Into Agile Modeling

Agile modeling started out fairly complex and it grew a bit into its current form.

Ambler, Scott W. Agile Modeling (2006). Articles>Project Management>Agile>Collaboration