Posts

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value

Examples, Exemplars, Requirements, Tests

Keith Braithwaite, Zuhlke (but speaking on behalf of SPA)

Summary

• Automated Functional Tests ensure quality and drive process change
• Test failures are more often due to misunderstood requirements than sloppy coding
• Treating tests as executable specifications can help with both
• Tests based on examples lead to an exploration of the problem space that discovers requirements and provides a foundation for trapping defects.

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value

Using Agile: the QA perspective

Chris Ambler – QA Director Electronic Arts

Not a developer, never have been, never will be.

Not a techie! But have worked in testing (of various sorts) for 28 years.

Focus is product, and quality.

What does quality really mean? How does it affect the business? How can we measure it?

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value

Scaling Scrum

Rachel Davies, Agile Experience Ltd.

Summary

Scrum is the simplest possible agile method so it’s easy to get started with a small team of software developers. What happens when you try to apply Scrum to large projects? This talk shares experiences of working with large projects with multiple scrum teams and distributed scrum teams. Come to this talk to explore how to scale Scrum without losing the essence.

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value Leading Agile Teams Dot Tudor, TCC Summary One school of thought is that good leaders make a big difference to the successful outcome of any initiative. On the other hand, some agilists want to eliminate leaders and go with situational leadership and self-organising teams. There is also a large contingent in the agile community with the view that the right approach is to change the style of leadership, not to eliminate leaders.

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value

Agile – Why Should Your Business Care?

Bill Birnie, Senior Manager, IS Development Solutions, Standard Life Employee Services Limited, Ollie LaFontan, Exoftware

Summary

• What does my business want from Agile ?
• Creating an Agile culture and the importance of measures
• Consolidating gains and driving more change.

Standard Life’s award-winning use of Agile techniques is helping it achieve remarkable levels of productivity from its application development spend, and is supporting the positioning of technology provision at the heart of its business proposition.

This session will cover the importance of linking your Agile enablement strategy to the needs of your business, and the challenges created by trying to change processes and beliefs that have been in place for many years.

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value

National Packaging Waste Database – a DSDM Case Study

Steve Watkins, Head of IT Portfolio Office, Environment Agency and Jeremy Renwick, Kubernetes Ltd

Summary

• Delivering the National Packaging Waste Database (NPWD) on time and to budget
• Facilitating a very diverse stakeholder community drawn from industry and the 4 regulators
• Managing the culture shock of imposing agile on a waterfall community
• Managing an agile project with a geographically distributed team
• Learning the lessons

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value Agile Analysis: A Proposition Assessment Case Study Luke Barrett, Senior Business Analyst, Thoughtworks Summary While the benefits of taking an Agile approach to the heart of the software development cycle are becoming increasingly recognised, this people-centric, communication-oriented, test-driven way of working is also powerful in helping teams and organisations early in the evolution of a idea or proposition. In this case study we look at applying an Agile way of working to the analysis of a new business idea at its inception – this includes the creation and iteration of key deliverables (financial model, project roadmap, core processes and usage scenarios) to allow a go / no-go decision.

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value **The Ten Golden Rules for Successful Agile Projects ** Keith Richards, Keith Richards Consulting Summary Agile approaches to projects are maturing and becoming mainstream, yet some are more successful than others This presentation describes the ten golden rules that will increase the chances of success, and make the difference between an “OK” project and an “excellent” project. The golden rules also highlight what NOT to do.

I’m blogging the conference Agile Approaches for Delivering Business Value The stated goals are to provide: a forum for the exchange of information regarding all agile development technologies; an opportunity to hear case studies from a variety of sectors [an opportunity] to find out new viewpoints and developments and learn from the experiences of others Sessions: Day 1 The Ten Golden Rules for Successful Agile Projects Case Study: Agile Analysis: A Proposition Assessment Case Study Case Study: Delivering a Public-Private Partnership using DSDM Case Study: Agile – Why Should Your Business Care?

Ton Zijlstra has some provoking thoughts about the limitations of GTD-like systems :Ton’s Interdependent Thoughts: Thoughts on GTD System Weaknesses In short, Ton highlights the increasing need to apply qualitative (and often social- and/or network-based) approaches to filter the info-glut before you can start putting actions into a GTD-like process. I think he’s spot on, and it made me think a little more analytically about my personal organisation system, loosely-based on GTD, but heavily reliant on the capabilities of MindManager enhanced by ResultsManager.