Friday 26 February 2010

Agile South Coast: The Next Group Meeting will be on 8th March

Howard van Rooijen will be talking about BDD!

Any time left after the talk can be used for networking or open space discussions.

The venue will be the iMeta offices near Southampton

The spaces are limited so please make sure to register at http://agilesouthcoast.ning.com/xn/detail/5068743:Event:139


DATE: 8th March
TIME: 19:00
iMeta Technologies Ltd.
Phi House
Enterprise Road
Southampton Science Park
Southampton
SO16 7NS
United Kingdom
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=SO16+7NS&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=21.245077,42.758789&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Southampton,+Hampshire+SO16+7NS,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=16

Everyone is Welcome!

Weekly Agile Links 1-5 Mar 2010

Overwhelming number of links this week and I had to select the ones I believe were better read. This week my link of the week is Jean Tabaka's list of tips - 78 Things I Have Learned in 6 Years of Agile Coaching


New Site for Agile Managers and Team Leaders Jurgen Appelo introduces a new website - management 3.0

Are tools necessary for acceptance testing, or are they just evil? Gojko Adzic dissects a recent Jim Shore article and defends the need for acceptance tests.

When Agile meets data: a call for longitudinal studies Laurent Bossavit thoughts on Scrum and data from other approaches. I like the conclusion- Agile is a journey of inquiry

[link of the week]
78 Things I Have Learned in 6 Years of Agile Coaching Jean Tabaka and her most valuable advice for Agile coaches - priceless!

Fixing the Quick Fix Esther Derby on fixing the problem and not the symptom. Always worth reading Esther's articles.

Getting Started With Agile (1/5) First of Mike Cottmeyer series on Starting with Agile

A CLEARer way forward Glyn Lumley redefines objective setting and points out why CLEAR is better than SMART

Failure Is Not An Option, It Is A Requirement. Derick Bailey on the benefits of failure.

In Awe of Process Excellence joeely618 tells an experience about learning.

It's The Execution That Matters, Not The Idea This just confirms what I've always said.. ideas are important but execution is more important.

Learning from Dogs Dave Rooney on how precious time is and how you should use it!

What does being a team really mean? Gerry Kirk outlines his definition of being a team. Also touches on the "5 core Scrum values".

Inevitable and avoidable rework Simon Baker talks about two types of technical debt

The Name Game I know another game that goes under the same name so was pleasantly surprised to see that this one is different. Definitely will try it ;)

An Agile Coach to start Scrum Widely in a Company Dimitri Baeli @ agileee2009 (video)

Is there a place for criticism of Scrum? Tim Gregory on what's wrong with most scrum practitioners' attitudes and how Scrum needs to evolve.

Deming’s 14 Points and Quality Project Leadership J. Alex Sherrer explains how to utilise Deming's ideas in practice.

5 Little Things That Make a BIG Difference as a Leader Part 1 Dan McCarthy's tips for Leaders - I will definitely look for the rest of the series.

The Fist Of Bad Management There's plenty of talk these days about what is wrong with traditional management and Bret L. Simmons summarizes most of the main points.

Friday 19 February 2010

Weekly Agile Links 22-26 Feb 2010

This week my link of the week is JOHN BRAMBLITT – THE BLIND PAINTER

I've got plenty of other links that you will hopefully find useful including one that is almost 10 years old, some wisdom from Martin Fowler and Cory Foy's thoughts on the new Scrum alliance.

Enjoy ;)

If you haven't watched this yet - you have to do it now!(Seriously man! It is just a bit of dancing...)

Systems Thinking, The Vanguard Method and Software Development Karl Scotland shares his thoughts on the Vanguard method introduce by John Seddon in his book “Freedom from Command and Control“.

[link of the week]
JOHN BRAMBLITT – THE BLIND PAINTER An inspiring video! Shows what once can do if he is truly up for it despite such a huge impediment as being blind. Lot's to learn from this John Bramblitt!

In Praise of Middle Management Peter Stevens says Middle Management is not redundant in Scrum, instead it is the true source of leadership.

Pair Programming: In interviews Mark Needham on Agile approach to interviews. Very interesting - I wish I can attend one of these ;)

Managing in Mayberry: An examination of three distinct leadership styles This one I definitely should read (not just because it is almost 10 years old). It is a little bit long for the time I have so will require some extra effort ;)

Using Agile Techniques to Pay Back Technical Debt I can't believe this! No, seriously -Microsoft start talking sense! Finally. Remember a link to a PM/PMO lady from MS and her experience with agile? Now, there is another MS guy talking about technical debt.. There is hope I tell ya!

Conversational Stories Martin Fowler hits the nail on the head as usual - a good reminder about PO/Team relationship and how user stories should be created.

The Lump Of Coding Fallacy Interesting thoughts on how to change well known habits around unit testing and those opposing to it also about development in general. worth reading ;)

Leadership Books list by Hugh Ballou

..but if the Scrum Alliance Can’t Do It, Who Will? Cory Foy on the SA, the new Scrum and a few opinions of what they should become. Interesting overall.

The Value of Lessons Learned “Experience is inevitable, learning is not.” says Nancy Dixon - contains some good reasoning behind having retrospectives

Great Minds Don’t Think Alike - Ray Silverstein on leadership and building culture of people not afraid to state what they think (e.g. free of politics) - not directly agile and still lots to do with it.

There's more to done than the green dot Interesting thoughts on when is a story really done..

A simple measure of effectivenes Another one from Simon Baker which looks very interesting to me as it is related to agile metric which I blogged about before

Monday 15 February 2010

Weekly agile links 15-19 Feb 2010

Not the best week with regards to links as I was away on training and ill so have probably missed a lot of useful stuff on twitter and the mailing lists.
Anyway I think I still have a useful bunch of links with my favourite being the Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy Derek Sivers's blog - a truly inspiring video!

All links below - Enjoy ;)

Why Good People Skills Matter in a Recession From Gill Corkindale posted on the HBR blog

Leadership Tools an article by Hugh Ballou

Cumulative Flow Chart in Kanban: Real Usage Example Michael Dubakov demonstrates how a CFC can be very useful.

A Lesson in Getting Started... A real life example that relates well to agile by Mike Cottmeyer

The Tyranny of "The Plan" Always worth listening to what Mary Poppendieck has to say!

Testability & Good Design from George Dinwiddie’s blog

No One Knows What the F*** They're Doing (or "The 3 Types of Knowledge") A very interesting read about the types of knowledge by Steve Schwartz. I definitely need to re-read it if I want to find out more about what I do not know!

A times article by Sathnam Sanghera which has a lot to do with the effectiveness of BBC - hey it is our money they're spending after all!

[link of the week]
Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy Derek Sivers's blog - a truly inspiring video!

Structure? The Flatter, the Better An interview with Cristóbal Conde, president and C.E.O. of SunGard conducted by Adam Bryant.

Refactoring A guide to refactoring

Relax, Agile Development IS Growing Up A review of this article by Michael Dubakov, lots of points that I agree with

Saturday 6 February 2010

Weekly agile links 8-12 Feb 2010

My agile link of the week this time is Matthew Baker's guide from waterfall to agile! [the first link below]
I also have a quote of the week which sounds as valid as ever:
"we're so similar in our attempts to be different"
I hope you enjoy the collection of links!

From Waterfall to Agile: How we got there - Matthew Baker provides a nice overview on the difficulties and challenges while helping a company become Agile.

The speaker interviews: Esther Derby A fresh interview with Esther Derby. A must read although I have not done it yet.

People Are NOT Resources This is exactly what I needed. While I have read bits and pieces about why it is a bad practice, this article gives so much reasoning that I can see myself easily convincing event the worst cases that I know ;)


Lessons from Target Value Design Introduction to TVD by Hal Macomber

Who are your Users?
Liz Keogh on org. structures, stakeholders, users and project experience (interesting read)

Brain Functions That Improve with Age Another great (and encouraging) article from the blogs @ hbr

The STC magazine has arrived! The new magazine for testers published by Rob Lambert (and others)

Pursue the Goal Not the Method I've been trying to say just that! And while a few a prepared to listen I love the fact that others think the same.

The surprising truth about what motivates us An audio recording of Daniel H Pink speaking about what motivates team members

Don't just interview new developers. Audition them! I cannot agree more with all this articles says!

Comparing Velocity Across Teams Vikas Hazrati provides good reasoning why it is a bad practice.

Is the Microsoft Way counter-productive? "Innovation can only thrive where competition isn’t dominant" says Alan Cooper

Work isn't your dad interesting read and the conclusion is similar to one of my friend's favourite phrase - "life's simple - you either collect gold or experience" (like in his favourite game)

Facilitating High-Emotion Retrospectives An alternative approach to Retrospectives by Cory Foy

Revisiting and Re-reading Dr. Deming’s “Out of the Crisis” A must read (at lest to me ;) )