Methods & Tools Software Development Magazine

Software Development Magazine - Project Management, Programming, Software Testing

Scrum Expert - Articles, tools, videos, news and other resources on Agile, Scrum and Kanban


Methods & Tools - September 2019
Sharing global software development expertise since 1993


=== Sponsor ===


5 Ways to Time Travel Test [Whitepaper]

Temporal testing is critical for date sensitive business rules such as insurance rates, billing, and enrollment. Efficient time travel testing can increase your test coverage, accelerate development, and improve software quality.

Read our whitepaper to learn the 5 ways to time travel software!


*** Updates ***


Last Articles Published on Methods & Tools Website

Helping Software Development with a Product Discovery Phase In the software development, it is common that clients approach development agencies like ours with a product they want to create. However, sometimes these ideas involve a huge product or sometimes a smaller one, but it still has some undefined aspects; for example uncertainties about its potential users, its functionalities, monetization strategy, etc. which can make the estimation process difficult. This article explains what the Product Discovery process is all about and why it is essential for a successful software development project. Read more...


*** From The Archives ***


Articles from Methods & Tools' Archives

Five Symptoms of Mechanical Agile This article provides five stories, mostly based on real life, that might help you see how Agile and Scrum can become mechanical and what you should do about this. Processes cannot be mechanical, they have to be living, breathing processes that can adapt effortlessly. The only way to have processes that are alive like this are to have openings in them for people to do what they think is the right thing to do. We need to allow people to act like people, and not try to force them into a machine model that we've created for them. Read more...


=== Sponsor ===


Enov8 Environment Manager - DevOps at Scale

Enov8 Environment Manager is an out of the box "IT & Test Environment Management" platform that allows you to drive productivity across your IT projects and DevOps teams. A "DevOps at Scale" solution that improves transparency, control and cost optimization. Use Enov8 to model IT environments, monitor health, identify demand (including bookings), centrally planning & coordinate, standardise & automate release operations and improve through enterprise status accounting & reporting.

Learn more on enov8.com


*** Quote of the Month ***


A few years back, I was working with an organization where teams were achieving the expected increase in velocity, but leadership didn't feel like things were moving any faster. Selecting one team, we looked at their history and found that their velocity had gone from an average of about 20 points to an average of about 40. On a hunch, we ran a report to figure out the average story size for each iteration. Sure enough, the average story size had gone from around 1.4 to around 3.1. In fact, you could see a punctuated increase in average size followed by a slow but steady incline. The punctuated increase came right around the time leadership introduced the new burn up charts and put a focus on velocity.

Looking at the average number of stories completed per iteration, the numbers were telling. With an average velocity of 20 at 1.4 points per story, they were completing around 14 stories per iteration. With an average velocity of 40 at 3.1 points per story, they were completing around 13 stories per iteration. Were they in fact moving faster and the stories were coincidentally larger? How could we know for sure?

We took an evenly distributed sampling of stories across the history of the project and printed them out without any sizing information. We then asked the team to size the stories using the same techniques they'd always used. The average story size came out to be approximately 2.8 with earlier stories growing from an average of 1.4 to 2.6.

Had they been gaming the system? No. As we've already discussed; we game the system when we change it, the resulting behaviors are just natural consequence. We can't know for sure if there was, at one time, a deliberate increase in story sizes, but we can say that under the given conditions, the team genuinely believed the larger numbers were more accurate.

Source: Escape Velocity - Better Metrics for Agile Teams, Doc Norton, https://leanpub.com/escapevelocity


=== Web Sponsors ===


This month, the Methods & Tools website is supported by Software Testing Magazine and Scrum Expert. We thank them for their support.


*** Software Development Linkopedia ***


Text: Product vs. Feature Teams

Text: Don’t get locked up into avoiding lock-in

Text: Clean up bad BDD scenarios

Text: Team Leader Venn Diagram

Text: Why Don't We Just Call Agile What It Is: Feminist

Text: Addressing The Elephant: And Why Most Conflicts In Teams Are Invisible

Text: Most Common Mistakes of ScrumMasters

Video: Are DevSecOps, Containers & Shift-Left just Buzzwords?

Video: Challenges of Serverless Java

Video: Agile Requires Excellence

Video: Automatic Testing of a Heavily Integrated Software

Video: How NOT to Implement Agile

Tools: Exploratory Testing Chrome Extensions

Tools: Commercial Scrum Retrospectives Tools


*** Promoted Software Development Conferences ***


Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, October 14-16 2019, Portland, USA

Agile Tour London, October 18 2019, London, UK

STARCANADA Testing Conference, October 20-25 2019, Toronto, ON, Canada

Agile + DevOps East, November 3-8 2019, Orlando, FL, USA


Contact us if you want your software development conference promoted here.
Find more upcoming conferences on SoftDevConferences.com, ScrumExpert.com, SoftwareTestingMagazine.com

 
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
November 2009
October 2009
August 2009
May 2009
April 2009
February 2009
January 2009
November 2008
October 2008
August 2008
May 2008
April 2008
February 2008
January 2008
November 2007
October 2007
August 2007
May 2007
April 2007
February 2007
January 2007
November 2006
October 2006
August 2006
May 2006
April 2006
February 2006
January 2006
November 2005
October 2005
August 2005
May 2005
April 2005
February 2005
January 2005
November 2004
October 2004
August 2004
May 2004
April 2004
February 2004
January 2004
November 2003
October 2003
August 2003
May 2003
April 2003
February 2003
January 2003
November 2002
October 2002
May 2002
April 2002
February 2002
January 2002
November 2001
October 2001
May 2001
April 2001
February 2001
January 2001
Winter 2000
Fall 2000

Methods & Tools
is supported by


Testmatick.com

Software Testing
Magazine


The Scrum Expert