Articles on Scrum and Agile Project Management
Scrum likes to rely the technical practices recommended by eEXtreme Programming to improve the software quality. Pair programming is one of these practices, even if surveys tell us that it is not used as much as other practices like test-driven development (TDD). In this article, Zee Spencer shares four common pitfalls of pair programming and tell us how to avoid them.
The DSDM consortium has published a new paper “DSDM Agile Project Framework“. Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) was created in 1994. It an agile project delivery framework, primarily used as a software development method. This version of the Agile Project Framework has been tailored specifically to complement Scrum. The DSDM Agile Project framework brings together the strength of DSDM at project level and the streamlined simplicity of Scrum at the delivery team level.
This article discusses the the role of the Product Owner in moving a backlog item to done. It explores how to achieve the productivity benefits of an up-front enabling specification, given the reality that Scrum is an empirical framework in which emergent understanding of the story under development is inherent.
Trac is an open source enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalist approach to web-based software project management. It provides an interface to version control systems (Subversion, Git, Mercurial, …), an integrated Wiki and convenient reporting facilities. As many open source project, Trac has a plugin architecture that allows to extend the core functionalities. Here is a list of Scrum and Agile oriented plugins available in the Trac ecosystem.
The Scrum of Scrums is the key for scaling large, multidimensional projects that cross departments, teams, and traditional boundary lines so that can be managed using the same protocols and logic of a fundamental, small-team project. Bryan Zarnett explains that where most ScrumMasters fail in this large-scale environment is in the nuances of communicating and coordinating multiple teams. The same tool set used to run a small Scrum team cannot be used for a collective of teams. He defines the role of an Agile Program Manager (APM) that will coordinate the program portfolio and its dependencies and manage collective activities, issues, and risks. Regardless of design, the APM cannot operate 100 percent according to a Scrum textbook. Minor modifications to the tool set and the introduction of key new responsibilities will adapt and influence Scrum in minor ways that will allow the larger program context to be applied — and will allow teams to remain Agile even as size and interdependencies increase.
Most of us do the exercise of rating team members every year even if we know that software is built by teams, not individuals. Moreoever, each individual needs to actively collaborate to produce quality software. This means that everyone on the team needs to take collective ownership and help each other, because the motive is not to be a hero but to build an end product of the utmost quality and predictability.
Principles from the Agile Manifesto have been used rapidly throughout industry on software development projects at first, and eventually into projects that are not software centric. This article focuses on the application of Scrum to enable stability for the execution of systems engineering (SE) activities at Boeing and the development of requisite systems engineering work products throughout the product development lifecycle.
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