Agile Processes in Software Engineering and Extreme Programming


Book Description

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Agile Software Development, XP 2012, held in Malmö, Sweden, in May 2012. In the last decade, we have seen agile and lean software development strongly influence the way software is developed. Agile and lean software development has moved from being a way of working for a number of pioneers to becoming, more or less, the expected way of developing software in industry. The topics covered by the selected full papers include general aspects of agility, agile teams, studies related to the release and maintenance of software, and research on specific practices in agile and lean software development. They are complemented by four short papers capturing additional aspects of agile and lean projects.




Remote Delivery


Book Description

This book records the author’s years of experience in the software industry. In his own practices, the author has found that the distributed work pattern has become increasingly popular in more and more work environments, either between vendors and customers or between different teams inside a company. This means that all practitioners in the software industry need to adapt to this new way of communication and collaboration and get skilled enough to meet the greater challenges in integrating the distributed work pattern with agile software delivery. By centering on the difficulties in communication and collaboration between distributed teams, this book digs into the reasons why so many remote delivery projects end up anticlimactic and provides solutions for readers’ reference. It also cites successful cases in promoting agile development in distributed teams, which has been a vexing problem for many software development companies. In addition, readers can find suggestions and measures for building self-managing teams in this book. Remote Delivery: A Guide to Software Delivery through Collaboration between Distributed Teams is a very practical guide for software delivery teams with their members distributed in different places and companies engaged in software customization. Developers, QAs, product managers, and project leaders can also be inspired by this book.




Team Topologies


Book Description

Effective software teams are essential for any organization to deliver value continuously and sustainably. But how do you build the best team organization for your specific goals, culture, and needs? Team Topologies is a practical, step-by-step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns. It is a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways are able to evolve with technological and organizational maturity. In Team Topologies, IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help readers choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization, making sure to keep the software healthy and optimize value streams. Team Topologies is a major step forward in organizational design for software, presenting a well-defined way for teams to interact and interrelate that helps make the resulting software architecture clearer and more sustainable, turning inter-team problems into valuable signals for the self-steering organization.




Global Project Management


Book Description

Global Project Management describes how to adapt your organisation and your projects to thrive in business environments which require distributed skills, around-the-clock operations and virtual team environments. The book goes beyond simple recommendations on collaborative tools, to suggest the development of best practices on cross-cultural team management and global communication, recommend organisational changes and project structures, and propose alternatives for the implementation of the new practices and methods. Filled with real-life examples and techniques, the book illustrates how to apply the recommendations as part of the successful management of any global project.




Research Anthology on Agile Software, Software Development, and Testing


Book Description

Software development continues to be an ever-evolving field as organizations require new and innovative programs that can be implemented to make processes more efficient, productive, and cost-effective. Agile practices particularly have shown great benefits for improving the effectiveness of software development and its maintenance due to their ability to adapt to change. It is integral to remain up to date with the most emerging tactics and techniques involved in the development of new and innovative software. The Research Anthology on Agile Software, Software Development, and Testing is a comprehensive resource on the emerging trends of software development and testing. This text discusses the newest developments in agile software and its usage spanning multiple industries. Featuring a collection of insights from diverse authors, this research anthology offers international perspectives on agile software. Covering topics such as global software engineering, knowledge management, and product development, this comprehensive resource is valuable to software developers, software engineers, computer engineers, IT directors, students, managers, faculty, researchers, and academicians.




Research Anthology on Recent Trends, Tools, and Implications of Computer Programming


Book Description

Programming has become a significant part of connecting theoretical development and scientific application computation. Computer programs and processes that take into account the goals and needs of the user meet with the greatest success, so it behooves software engineers to consider the human element inherent in every line of code they write. Research Anthology on Recent Trends, Tools, and Implications of Computer Programming is a vital reference source that examines the latest scholarly material on trends, techniques, and uses of various programming applications and examines the benefits and challenges of these computational developments. Highlighting a range of topics such as coding standards, software engineering, and computer systems development, this multi-volume book is ideally designed for programmers, computer scientists, software developers, analysts, security experts, IoT software programmers, computer and software engineers, students, professionals, and researchers.




Debugging Teams


Book Description

In the course of their 20+-year engineering careers, authors Brian Fitzpatrick and Ben Collins-Sussman have picked up a treasure trove of wisdom and anecdotes about how successful teams work together. Their conclusion? Even among people who have spent decades learning the technical side of their jobs, most haven’t really focused on the human component. Learning to collaborate is just as important to success. If you invest in the "soft skills" of your job, you can have a much greater impact for the same amount of effort. The authors share their insights on how to lead a team effectively, navigate an organization, and build a healthy relationship with the users of your software. This is valuable information from two respected software engineers whose popular series of talks—including "Working with Poisonous People"—has attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.




Dynamic Reteaming


Book Description

Your team will change whether you like it or not. People will come and go. Your company might double in size or even be acquired. In this practical book, author Heidi Helfand shares techniques for reteaming effectively. Engineering leaders will learn how to catalyze team change to reduce the risk of attrition, learning and career stagnation, and the development of knowledge silos. Based on research into well-known software companies, the patterns in this book help CTOs and team managers effectively integrate new hires into an existing team, manage a team that has lost members, or deal with unexpected change. You’ll learn how to isolate teams for focused innovation, rotate team members for knowledge sharing, break through organizational apathy, and more. You’ll explore: Real-world examples that demonstrate why and how organizations reteam Five reteaming patterns: One by One, Grow and Split, Isolation, Merging, and Switching Tactics to help you master dynamic reteaming in your company Stories that demonstrate problems caused by reteaming anti-patterns




Agility Shift


Book Description

As contrary as it sounds, "planning" -- as we traditionally understand the term--can be the worst thing a company can do. Consider that volatile weather events disrupt trusted supply chains, markets, and promised delivery schedules. Ever-shifting geo-political tensions, as well as internal political upheaval within U.S. and global governments, derail long-planned new ventures. Technology failures block opportunities. Competitors suddenly change their product or release date; your team cannot meet the pace of innovations in your market niche, leaving you sidelined. There are myriad ways in the current business environment for a company's well-considered business plans to go awry. Most business schools continue to prepare managers to be effective in stable and predictable environments, conditions that, if they ever existed at all, are long gone. The Agility Shift shows business leaders exactly how to make the radical mindset and strategy shift necessary to create an agile, entrepreneurial organization that can innovate and thrive in complex, ever-changing contexts. As author Pamela Meyer explains, there is much more involved than a reconfiguration of the org chart and job descriptions. It requires relinquishing the illusion of control at the very foundation of most management training and business practice. Despite most leaders' approaches, "Agility is not simply accelerated planning." Unlike many agility books on the market, The Agility Shift provides specific, actionable strategies and tactics for leaders at all levels of the organization to put into practice immediately to improve agility and achieve results.




Succeeding with Agile


Book Description

Proven, 100% Practical Guidance for Making Scrum and Agile Work in Any Organization This is the definitive, realistic, actionable guide to starting fast with Scrum and agile-and then succeeding over the long haul. Leading agile consultant and practitioner Mike Cohn presents detailed recommendations, powerful tips, and real-world case studies drawn from his unparalleled experience helping hundreds of software organizations make Scrum and agile work. Succeeding with Agile is for pragmatic software professionals who want real answers to the most difficult challenges they face in implementing Scrum. Cohn covers every facet of the transition: getting started, helping individuals transition to new roles, structuring teams, scaling up, working with a distributed team, and finally, implementing effective metrics and continuous improvement. Throughout, Cohn presents "Things to Try Now" sections based on his most successful advice. Complementary "Objection" sections reproduce typical conversations with those resisting change and offer practical guidance for addressing their concerns. Coverage includes Practical ways to get started immediately-and "get good" fast Overcoming individual resistance to the changes Scrum requires Staffing Scrum projects and building effective teams Establishing "improvement communities" of people who are passionate about driving change Choosing which agile technical practices to use or experiment with Leading self-organizing teams Making the most of Scrum sprints, planning, and quality techniques Scaling Scrum to distributed, multiteam projects Using Scrum on projects with complex sequential processes or challenging compliance and governance requirements Understanding Scrum's impact on HR, facilities, and project management Whether you've completed a few sprints or multiple agile projects and whatever your role-manager, developer, coach, ScrumMaster, product owner, analyst, team lead, or project lead-this book will help you succeed with your very next project. Then, it will help you go much further: It will help you transform your entire development organization.