Links
·
RSS Feed
Popular Pages
 |
 |
Ship It! is part manual of best practices, part software methodologies book and part a distillation of ideas and experiences of good and bad projects that the authors have been involved in. It migh...
-Tech Book Report |
 |
Quoting Watts Humphrey, "Developers are caught in a victim's mentality." We never think it's our fault, it's always somebody else's.
-Jared Richardson |
|
That's got to be one of the *best* choice of title since the Mythical Man Month!!
-Kenneth Sizer |
|
|
|
|
(Aug 29)
I saw a retweeted Twitter entry from a user named Agile Redneck, and I'd listened to way too much of XM Radio's comedy station Blue Collar Comedy. And I was inspired. Between conferences and clients, we've all seen a lot of insane "Agile" teams. So I started twittering a few. Then a few more. I finally decided to turn this into a blog entry.
Please don't let it stop here though... post your own. :) I have no idea who started the Agile Redneck account, but let's help them out with the crazy stuff we've seen too.
- If you have your daily standups once a week, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think Agile is a synonym for XP or Scrum (or both!), you might be an Agile redneck
- If your "continous integration" system requires you to push a button, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you don't know what work your pairing partner has been doing all day, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you said "That's not my job" last week, you might an Agile redneck
- If your Agile team has more people on it than a baseball team, you might be an Agile Redneck
- If you've ever kept developers away from your customers on purpose, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you claim to be Agile, but have never heard of Martin Fowler, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think you're Agile, but have never even read the Agile Manifesto, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you turned off your continuous integration system because the frequent failures distracted the team, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you're "Agile", but you don't write automated tests because you think they'll slow you down, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you move the end date of your "fixed length" iterations to be get all of the work done, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you haven't "gone Agile" because you haven't been able to buy the right vendor's tool, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you've even used Agility as a tool to hide your work from your manager or co-workers, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you've even said "Don't code that. We don't need until later this week. YAGNI!", you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think any Agile topic can be mastered in a two day class, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think nothing useful can be learned in a two day class, you might also be an Agile redneck
- If you think using any single Agile practice makes your team "Agile", you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think any single book, author, or movement is the definitive source of agile knowledge, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you've ever pulled your tests out of your continuous integration system so the builds wouldn't break so often, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think the Enterprise Agile Manifesto is right, you might be an Agile redneck
- If you think your flavor of Agile is better than anyone else's, then you're definitely an Agile redneck
- If you blame your continuous integration server or source code management system when your last code check in doesn't compile, you might be an Agile redneck
I'll try to do another round if time permits. These things are just fun to write! Track the topic on Twitter and you might see more of them popping out.
Enjoy!
Category: Agile
(Aug 26)
If you've been keeping up with me on my Twitter account, then you know I've been commuting to Columbus, Ohio from North Carolina each week for the last four months. When I started working at Pillar, the intention was pretty clear to all parties. I was to work in North Carolina and help Pillar expand into another region. Unfortunately, the execution suffered a bit. For a variety of reasons, Pillar wanted me to work in Ohio for this first engagement... not ideal, but I was willing to do it. We agreed that I'd be there for one or two months... that was stretched to six. However, when they started asking if I'd continue to working in Ohio after this engagement, it became clear that working in North Carolina while associated with Pillar wasn't going to happen, so I started talking to several North Carolina companies.
At nearly the same time my former employer, Logos Technology, contacted me to see if I'd be interested in returning. The timing was perfect, and the work will be very similar to what I've been doing recently, and they're very close to my home. It looked like a great match, so I turned in my notice this week, and after one more long commute, I'll be starting at Logos right after Labor Day.
I'm looking forward to attending Agile RTP meetings again. At the last meeting I attended, I was asked what my affiliation was with the group! Since I started the group a few years ago, I think it's a good sign that I've been away too long.
I'll still be speaking at a number of conferences, writing for DZone's Agile Zone, and there are a few books in the pipeline as well. Hopefully, now that I've eliminated my weekly commute, I'll have all sorts of free time.
We'll see how it all works out, but I'm really looking forward to being at home again and catching up with my RTP friends.
Category: Personal
(Jul 19)
There's an Agile conference in Charlotte this Friday called (wait for it!) Southern Fried Agile. (I'll bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?) It'll be a great mix of topics and speakers and is a steal at this price. It's $70 for the entire day.
I'm speaking on Agile Testing Strategies (Defect Driven Testing anyone?), and you can find a complete list of speakers and topics on this page
I'd hoped to do a more complete write-up on the conference, but I've been very busy lately. Let me say that it'll be great chance to hear several excellent speakers (and me!) without breaking the bank.
If you're in the southeastern region, let me encourage to come out! If you're not, let me encourage you to host an event of your own just like this one!
Southern Fried Agile
Have fun!
Category: Agile
(Jun 18)
Here are a few links to my DZone articles that you'll enjoy.
Embrace Your Inner Stupid talks about ongoing learning and humility.
Code Like Kudzu deals with removing obstacles. Probably not the best choice of metaphors. :)
What is Great Software? delves into more than "It compiled. Ship it!
Agile Isn't Latin is a rant about people who invoke Agile to rationalize their laziness.
Exerciese, Good Choices, and DDT is another call to arms on starting today.
Tips and Suggestions for Your First Iteration is exactly what the title would lead you to think.
Software is like Pornography was an intentionally provocative title. If you want to get software right, you've got to show the customer.
And here's a few in a series that revisited the Agile Manifesto.
What's Agile? Individuals and Interactions or Processes and Tools
What's Agile? Working Software or Great Docs?
Customer Collaboration Over Contract Negotiation? Huh??
I never got around to posting on Responding to Change. I guess I owe you one more, then a summary!
Here's my entire list:
Jared on DZone
I'll still post a bit to DZone, but I need to focus blogging at Agile Artisans, and at Pillar Technologies.
Have a great weekend everyone!
Category: Agile
(Jun 18)
I twittered and posted on FaceBook about stepping down and several people have pinged me privately to ask why. There's no big secret in it... I'm staying really, really busy these days. Let me walk you through it.
I'm commuting weekly to Columbus, Ohio. There are no direct flights, so it's 5+ hours on planes, in airports, waiting for thunderstorms to disperse, or it's an 8 hour drive. I've been driving (which is much more fun than small seats in regional jets.)
In Columbus (actually Dublin, Ohio), I'm working with a company that's making the jump from a traditional model to an Agile software process. We're working with developers, testers, support, sales, leadership, and more. It's a very fun and very rewarding engagement, but it's also very involved and requires long hours some days. Agile transformations are hard work, but really fun too.
I've started sketching out a new book... I'm leaning towards a quilting or alchemy metaphor, but it will be a book on how to blend various Agile approaches into a great working process that fits your company.
I've not done a decent job blogging on Agile Artisans in a while...
You get the idea. I'm staying really busy and something had to give... it ended up being DZone. It's a great site and if you're looking for a great platform with an international audience, DZone needs a new Agile Zone Leader. They'll keep you busy (three articles a week!), but it's a great way to force yourself to write.
I'll post another blog entry in a moment with a number of posts to my DZone writing.
Category: Agile
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This will be a great collection of speakers on Agile and business topics.
|
|
|
|
|
|
I'll be talking about keeping your skills current at this conference for independent web developers
|
|
|
|
|
|
This world-class conference in Orlando always has a great mix of speakers and attendees. Don't miss it!
|
|
|
