Cutter Consortium: Innovation

Agile and SOA Together: Explore -- But Specify

16 Jun 2009 19:52:20 GMT

Allen, Paul | Executive Updates | 16 June 2009 | Agile Project Management

One of the greatest strengths of agile methodologies is that exploratory techniques involving collaboration between people -- the very fabric of software development -- take center stage. At the same time, from a service-oriented point of view, rigor is needed in specifying services and the components used to implement them. All too often we see unhelpful division between agile and service-oriented architecture (SOA) camps. Once we get beyond the rhetoric of methodology, we find a much more basic problem is at work. Two quite fundamental modes of human activity -- exploration and specification -- are commonly divorced or, worse, still muddled. In this Executive Update, we provide advice for avoiding this pitfall, for getting the best out of exploration and specification techniques, working alongside each other.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0911.html

Service-Oriented Agile Projects -- Contradiction or Necessity?

4 Jun 2009 16:20:12 GMT

Allen, Paul | E-Mail Advisors | 04 June 2009 | Agile Project Management

A harsh economic recession calling for renewed cost reduction with an emphasis on tactical solution-delivery projects causes concerns over the effectiveness of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) and puts agile methodologies back in the limelight. SOA and agile are commonly seen as opposites, but opposites that don't attract. On the one hand, agile emphasizes a short game that is about human interplay, simplicity, speed, and transparency, while SOA is inherently a long game that is about discipline, commonality, formality, and specification. Each approach has its camps of followers and -- it must be said -- is not without some success.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090604.html

Software Product Support: Part II -- To Upgrade or Not to Upgrade

1 Jun 2009 16:09:18 GMT

Bennatan, E.M. | Executive Updates | 01 June 2009 | Agile Project Management

Consider this: if you could upgrade all the software on your computer for free, would you do it? It's not a trick question -- give it some thought for a moment. I posed the question at a forum in Chicago earlier this year, and some of the responses were quite intense. That was not what I had expected.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0910.html

Reduce Costs the Agile Way: Keep Value in View

28 May 2009 16:06:40 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 28 May 2009 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

The Agile Triangle way of measuring performance can be useful in looking at business goals in new ways (the triangle involves value, quality, and constraints -- as introduced in my Advisor, "Flex Your Agile Triangle and Add Value," 30 April 2009). If the goal is reducing schedules, for example, metrics from agile projects have shown that improving quality has a great impact on schedule reduction. Focusing directly on schedules often has the direct opposite impact on schedules. Admonitions to "go faster" result in cutting quality corners, which in turn ends up lengthening schedules. So ironically, focusing on schedule yields longer schedules while focusing on quality yields shorter schedules.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090528.html

Managing Change Orders: Understanding Fixed Scope, Fixed Capacity

21 May 2009 15:48:50 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 21 May 2009 | Agile Project Management

At the Cutter Summit 2009 conference in early May, I was talking with an executive from a company that contracts for large government projects. This company has been doing agile development but has often run into a common problem: governments and others often want vendors to be agile and adaptable, but also sign contracts with a fixed price and schedule. During development, when they ask for changes and the vendor tries to mitigate the impact of the change request, the agency staff responds, "You aren't being agile; isn't this an agile project?" I've run into this before. Customers want to push agility too far -- they don't want to make tradeoffs; they want something for free.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090521.html

The Risks of Banking on Risk Certifications

21 May 2009 15:47:51 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 21 May 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Agile Project Management

With the ongoing proliferation of certifications available to business professionals of every type, it's no surprise that risk management has popped into the picture in the cost, IT development, and project management communities. The Project Management Institute came first, last year unveiling the PMI-Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP®) certification as a new addition to its laundry list of professional marks. The Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering is not far behind, as it is currently in the throes of putting the finishing touches on its version of such a credential.

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090521.html

The Immaturity of Maturity

14 May 2009 15:33:44 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 14 May 2009 | Agile Project Management I remember a time when I was deeply interested in maturity. I was a teenager in the 8th grade and my classmates and I talked a lot about who in our class already was "mature." Our metrics were indicators such as having been on vacation without parents, having thrown a party without parents at home, and having dared to resist teachers, in addition to physical indications such as pitch of the voice. I think most Western teenagers share similar experiences.http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090514.html

Opening the Door for Agility with Lean and Six Sigma for Growth Practices

11 May 2009 14:49:07 GMT

Valente Pereira, Ana Paula | Executive Updates | 11 May 2009 | Agile Project Management

The Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) is an open source initiative that aims to produce a customizable process engineering framework that supports a broad variety of project types and product development styles and takes open source collaboration to the process-authoring domain. The framework allows collaboration around any process definition, associated practices, and method content. It is a central community that intends to provide a communication framework to facilitate convergence of best practices across domains.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0909.html

Defining Agile Software Development for Portfolio Management

7 May 2009 16:06:34 GMT

Ambler, Scott W. | E-Mail Advisors | 07 May 2009 | Agile Project Management

The goal of portfolio management within an IT environment is to help improve the overall efficiency and effectiveness of IT efforts within an organization. You do this by ensuring that all projects and existing systems are visible, planned for, and aligned to the goals of your organization. Critical activities within your portfolio management discipline include project identification and selection, project monitoring and governance, and IT inventory management. Enterprise disciplines, such as portfolio management, are important because successful IT departments look beyond the needs of a single system. Studies have shown that organizations that manage their IT investments must successfully generate as much as a 40% higher return than their competitors.1 Portfolio management is arguably one of the most misunderstood aspects of IT activities, perhaps because of its cross-system scope and because there is so little written about it at the practitioner level.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090507.html

Flex Your Agile Triangle and Add Value

30 Apr 2009 15:53:25 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 30 April 2009 | Agile Project Management

I have been thinking about measuring performance, again. Part of this thinking results from reading Implementing Beyond Budgeting: Unlocking the Performance Potential by Bjarte Bogsnes. I also went back to the numbers in the Standish reports that have been quoted for years indicating poor software development performance. According to these "Chaos" reports, in 1994 82% of software projects were challenged or failures, while in 2001 that improved to 72%. As a reminder, these reports defined results in the following terms:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090430.html

Software Product Support: Part I -- The Lesson of Victor's Russian Car

24 Apr 2009 15:43:52 GMT

Bennatan, E.M. | Executive Updates | 24 April 2009 | Agile Project Management

Several years ago, according to BusinessWeek,1 Victor Tsernialov, a 36-year-old Moscow software consultant, scraped together enough money -- $6,050 -- to buy a new car. He chose a 1999 Russian Lada and has regretted it ever since. He complained of Soviet loutishness, poor-quality spare parts, and high prices. The car even had engine trouble on the drive home and cost him $1,800 in repair bills during the first year alone.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0908.html

In Time of Testing, Remember Values, Communication, Slack, Part II: Tips to Stay Afloat

23 Apr 2009 15:42:50 GMT

Spica, Daniel | E-Mail Advisors | 23 April 2009 | Agile Project Management

My last Advisor (see "In Time of Testing, Remember Values, Communication, Slack, Part I," 26 March 2009)1 raised this question: how do you perform in such difficult times while maintaining the company's values? Is it possible at all? The answer is "yes," and the evidence can be found in history. People and their companies can stay well despite difficult times, as have many ancient armies. Let's look at what practices should be implemented. Remember these three rules:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090423.html

Getting to the Root of Corporate Change -- Motivation

22 Apr 2009 15:37:03 GMT

Rosen, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 22 April 2009 | Enterprise Architecture; Business-IT Strategies; Agile Project Management

As an architect, I'm constantly challenged to help organizations come up with better ways to do things. Unfortunately, in IT, we don't usually bring in architecture before there is some kind of mess to clean up. The typical scenarios include: complexity has gotten out of control, costs are too high, it takes too long to do anything, systems are brittle and can't be changed, a change in one place breaks something somewhere else, and on and on. You know the litany of problems.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2009/ea090422.html

Some Tips on Assessing Certification for Agile Practitioners

16 Apr 2009 15:05:28 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 16 April 2009 | Agile Project Management

When the times get rough, competition gets tougher; that's a general law. Software companies have dozens if not hundreds of employees on their "underutilized" lists. The companies that view their employees as assets and not as cost fight to keep their jobs. This is good news for the employees, for the society, and I think for the companies, too: they protect the investment they've made in the education of their people and expect loyalty in return. The increased competition also leads to innovation, which is good news, too -- at least in theory.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090416.html

Scaling Agile: Choosing Key Components

9 Apr 2009 13:21:34 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 09 April 2009 | Agile Project Management

Preparing for a couple of conference presentations recently, I started thinking about a graphic to illustrate the key components of scaling agile projects, many of which have been discussed in prior Advisors. Visualize a house structure with a roof, a foundation, and three pillars (see Figure 1). The roof is business goals -- the rationale for implementing agile methods and scaling to larger agile projects. The foundation is agile values or principles -- principles that need careful interpretation as to how to apply them to larger teams. And finally, the three pillars: organization, product backlog, and process/practice. Each of these pillars then has three levels (the graphic has three levels, but the actual number on projects or programs depends on the project size).

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090409.html

What's at the Intersection of Agile and Offshore?

8 Apr 2009 13:19:10 GMT

Cottmeyer, Mike | E-Mail Advisors | 08 April 2009 | Sourcing & Vendor Relationships; Agile Project Management

Companies today are trying to lower costs and increase staffing flexibility by taking some, or even all, of their development activities overseas. Many of these same organizations have teams that are using agile development practices to increase quality and improve project performance. What happens when these two trends in our industry intersect?

http://www.cutter.com/content/sourcing/fulltext/advisor/2009/src090408.html

A Systems View of Agile Methodology Adoption: Part II -- Guiding Principles

7 Mar 2009 13:14:33 GMT

Brenner, Rick | Executive Updates | 07 April 2009 | Agile Project Management

In Part I of this two-part Executive Update series, I presented a variety of issues that arise in large organizations that attempt to deploy agile software development methods across a broad range of such projects.1 I categorized these issues as emphasizing people, culture/politics, or process. Here in Part II, I outline seven guiding principles for successful efforts to adopt agile methodology. These principles serve to limit the incidence and consequences of phenomena like those described in Part I.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0907.html

Reconfiguring the Business

31 Mar 2009 13:06:50 GMT

Gat, Israel | Executive Updates | 31 March 2009 | Agile Project Management

This Executive Update applies agile thinking to various critical aspects of strategy and execution for companies who produce software, embed software, or use software as an integral part of their business processes. The essential point to remember is simple: agile principles are indivisible. To succeed, agile principles must be applied not just to R&D but also to the customer and the company simultaneously.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0906.html

Lessons in Learning: The Story Behind the IT Sector's Chronic Training Gap

1 Mar 2009 14:34:26 GMT

Goatham, Robert | Executive Reports | 01 March 2009 | Agile Project Management

Tapping into the full potential of an organization's human capital, especially in a project environment, remains a difficult challenge. In this Executive Report by Robert Goatham, we look at the cognitive processes by which individuals develop expertise and the educational roadblocks that prevent organizations from maximizing the contributions of their resources. By outlining alternative learning processes, the report challenges organizations to reconsider the effectiveness of their educational infrastructure and consider alternate models for learning.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2009/03/index.html

In Time of Testing, Remember Values, Communication, Slack, Part I

26 Mar 2009 14:31:40 GMT

Spica, Daniel | E-Mail Advisors | 26 March 2009 | Agile Project Management; Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Business-IT Strategies; Innovation

It is sad but true that the economic crisis has now also appeared in Poland. Somehow, many of us here in Poland have been under the mistaken assumption that we would be undisturbed by the current economic crisis; that this was only an American and Western European problem. Of course, it couldn't remain that way. The unfortunate side of globalization is that the entire globe experiences the good with the bad. No one can predict how long the current crisis will last, just as no one was able to predict that the catastrophe would occur. The experience shows, however, that we should not count on the economic wizards or at least not to worry too much about their words. In my opinion, the best solution is to work hard and wisely. And while you are working, continue to think about a few rules that remain true.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090326.html

Systems Approach Deals with the High-Risk Team Member

26 Mar 2009 14:30:29 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 26 March 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Agile Project Management; Business-IT Strategies

What do you do when a team member is actually creating higher risk for the team, and yet you need that person and/or the organization insists you keep him or her? This is actually a far more common quandary than we care to believe. These instances exist because organizations often have policies that allow no "easy out" for employee dismissal and don't really invest themselves at getting to the root of the problem. Instead, they assume that such issues will work themselves out over time (which actually exacerbates the problem).

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090326.html

A Systems View of Agile Methodology Adoption: Part I -- The Issues

12 Mar 2009 19:57:30 GMT

Brenner, Rick | Executive Updates | 12 March 2009 | Agile Project Management

The success rates of adopting agile methods on a large scale have been disappointing. We have made good progress at the project level, but from portfolio to enterprise, success has been elusive. Even when we have somehow skirted resistance, delays, politics, and bureaucracy, results have not met expectations.

At the project level, we've developed truly sophisticated processes for agile teams to use. We have even addressed the physical elements of the working environment. It is now fair to conclude that when operating as intended, agile teams are unsurpassed in productivity and output quality.

What then is happening? What prevents us from scaling up? What accounts for the unmet expectations at the portfolio scale and the enterprise scale?

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0905.html

Seeking the Wind Beneath Agile's Wings

5 Mar 2009 19:45:38 GMT

Augustine, Sanjiv | E-Mail Advisors | 05 March 2009 | Agile Project Management

Agile methods (Scrum, XP, Crystal, DSDM, Feature-Driven Development, etc.) have moved into the mainstream over the past few years. Earlier in their adoption cycle, industry leaders such as BMC Software, British Telecom, Capital One, DTE Energy, and Yahoo! discovered that, when implemented appropriately, agile methods accelerate project delivery times, increase customer and employee satisfaction, and enable flexible changes in business requirements. These companies adopted agile methods and, as a result, realized faster throughput and higher business customer satisfaction on individual projects. Based on this evidence and growing success, the move toward agile methods is now a widespread industry phenomenon.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090305.html

Thoughts on a Project-Volatility Metric: Part II -- Putting the Metric to Use

13 Mar 2009 19:36:44 GMT

Kellen, Vince | Executive Updates | 03 March 2009 | Agile Project Management

In Part I of this two-part Executive Update series, I examined the notion of project volatility and set forth the assumptions that underlie my own project planning approach.1 Here in Part II, I delve more deeply into the definition of project volatility and the use of a project-volatility metric.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0904.html

After a 40-Year Courtship, It's Time for the Business Analyst and the Project Manager to Get Hitched

1 Feb 2009 14:18:49 GMT

Wysocki, Robert K. | Executive Reports | 01 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

The need for a new type of professional has quietly emerged below the radar and onto the project landscape. This needed professional is either a senior-level project manager (PM) who has an intimate knowledge of the design and development of business processes or a senior-level business analyst (BA) who has a solid command of project management. Author Robert K. Wysocki calls this either a BA/PM or a PM/BA professional depending on their primary focus. In this Executive Report, Mr. Wysocki brings some substance to this professional position by defining the role, the position family, and proposing professional development programs for your consideration.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2009/02/index.html

Agile Roots: Complex Adaptive Systems

26 Feb 2009 14:09:28 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 26 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

Every so often, I like to revisit some of the threads of thought that wove themselves into the agile movement. One of these is complex adaptive systems (CAS) theory, which could be considered a science of adaptation. CAS concepts, found in several agile methods, are an important backdrop to many agile principles and practices.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090226.html

Forecasting Executive (and Team) Behavior

26 Feb 2009 14:08:21 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 26 February 2009 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Business-IT Strategies; Agile Project Management

Anyone who has been in the work force more than a matter of weeks has had the experience. You think you know what management wants. You believe you're working in the organization's best interests. You want to show some measure of independence and personal vision. And you act. No sooner do you show just a modicum of initiative, you are crushed like a grape!

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2009/erm090226.html

Press Release: Bob Fischer Joins Cutter's Agile Team

3 Mar 2009 13:57:46 GMT

Cutter Consortium | 23 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

Cutter Consortium is pleased to announce that Bob Fischer has joined its Agile Product & Project Management practice as Senior Consultant. Bob is an Agile trainer, coach, facilitator, and change agent with specialized expertise in the cultural change required to deploy Agile at an enterprise level. His work is shaped by a core belief that a trained, empowered, and engaged workforce provides an organization with a strong competitive advantage.

http://www.cutter.com/press/090223.html

More on Architectural Decisions

19 Feb 2009 22:23:19 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 19 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

My last Advisor, "The 31-Square-Foot Architecture" (15 January 2009), raised some strong reactions, ranging from "Wonderful" to "Dogmatic Nonsense." Therefore, I'd like to keep to this subject and elaborate a little bit more on architectural decisions in agile teams.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090219.html

Thoughts on a Project-Volatility Metric: Part I -- Definitions and Assumptions

18 Feb 2009 22:17:12 GMT

Kellen, Vince | Executive Updates | 18 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

Obtaining automatic and systematic insight into project volatility can help trigger management intervention earlier when it can make a difference. If volatility can be detected very early in the project lifecycle and assigned to the right potential causes, managers can alter the allocation of resources, architects can rethink the solution design, and users can revisit their requirements without negatively impacting the business benefit needed from the project. But how can managers get a handle on project volatility early in the project's lifecycle?

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0903.html

Scaling Agile: Knowledge Sharing and Documentation

12 Feb 2009 22:13:45 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 12 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

I recently had an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) procedure performed on my knee. The report was full of such words as joint effusion, medial patellar plica, acute medullary bone contusions, and medial femoral condyle. While my doctor could easily read and interpret the report for me, my attempts to understand the report were doomed. This, in part, underlies the problem with documentation: the difference between context and content. Documentation can provide content, but understanding the context requires domain expertise. Knowledge sharing and documentation are definitely issues when scaling agile.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090212.html

Scaling Up Agile Adoption by Scaling Down: Focusing on Individual Skills for Successful Agile Teams and Organizations

1 Jan 2009 14:33:49 GMT

Elssamadisy, Amr | Executive Reports | 01 January 2009 | Agile Project Management

Agile adoption initiatives both succeed and fail, and there is no agreement on why they do one or the other. The current focus for scaling agile seems to be on modifying existing agile practices, adding new ones, and getting the right toolset installed. But I've come to believe that the main reasons for the success of any agile adoption effort are not necessarily the practices, the tools, or even the teams, but rather the actual individuals involved in these initiatives. All other aspects of agile are of secondary importance. In this Executive Report, I explore the imperative role that individuals, their skills, and personalities play in a successful agile organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/reports/2009/01/index.html

Remember the Slack -- Despite the Crisis!

5 Feb 2009 13:35:23 GMT

Spica, Daniel | E-Mail Advisors | 05 February 2009 | Innovation; Agile Project Management

Times of crisis provide the opportunity to ask whether any innovation and agility is still possible. The answer is not simple. One way to treat a crisis is by cutting costs. This is not a bad solution, and it is often very justified, but one must be aware that it may create extra danger for the future. In such a situation, many managers fight solely for the company’s survival and forget about the "slack" -- an element of freedom within the company that encourages innovation and is essential for continued development.1 Unfortunately, such a move has its price: the team may lose faith in the values previously shared in the company.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2009/iea090205.html

To Release No More or To "Release" Always: Part III -- Beyond Agile

2 Jan 2009 13:25:12 GMT

Gat, Israel | Executive Updates | 02 February 2009 | Agile Project Management

Here in Part III, we identify a third "secret sauce" ingredient that further accelerates development and deployment. The critical question then becomes, "What do we do with this ultrafast development and deployment?" We address this question by identifying the business circumstances under which this high speed would be appropriate and also by identifying new business designs that are based on ultrafast development and distribution. We conclude by pointing out directions where additional research and experimentation related to the use of high-speed development appear quite promising.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0902.html

Scaling Agile: Questions That Help Frame Decision Making

29 Jan 2009 19:13:33 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 29 January 2009 | Agile Project Management

There are four critical areas in managing large projects: people, product, plans, and tools. In a previous Advisor, I discussed the collaboration aspect of people in teams (see "Help Agile Scale by Fine-Tuning Collaboration," 11 December 2008); in two others, I covered organization and management style (see "Scaling Agile: People and Organization," 24 December 2008 and "Scaling Agile: Organizational Factors, Management Style," 22 January 2009). A critical part of collaboration (one of the organizational factors) on large projects is the decision-making processes used, which this Advisor addresses.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090129.html

Scaling Agile: Organizational Factors, Management Style

22 Jan 2009 18:58:49 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 22 January 2009 | Agile Project Management

There are four critical areas in managing large projects: people, product, plans, and tools. In a previous Advisor, I discussed the collaboration aspect of people in teams (see "Help Agile Scale by Fine-Tuning Collaboration," 11 December 2008), and in another I covered organization and management style (see "Scaling Agile: People and Organization," 24 December 2008). The organizational issues on large projects are critical to success. This Advisor addresses the issue of management style, or how to scale self-organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090122.html

A Fresh Look at Software Project Estimation: Part III -- The Recklessness of Julius Caesar

19 Jan 2009 18:49:59 GMT

Bennatan, E.M. | Executive Updates | 19 January 2009 | Agile Project Management

So are software development organizations losing valuable information through recklessness? A recent Cutter Consortium survey found that more than a quarter of surveyed software companies do not preserve historical project information. Of course, on the positive side, almost three-quarters do, but the percentage that do not is astounding when you consider that the effort to save this valuable information is so small.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2009/apmu0901.html

The 31-Square-Foot Architecture

15 Jan 2009 16:16:53 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 15 January 2009 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Architecture

How much architecture does an agile team need up front? Most agile methods are surprisingly silent when it comes to this question. Scrum regards architecture as an issue the team has to deal with on its own discretion -- and thus does not include any advice. In Crystal Clear: A Human-Powered Methodology for Small Teams, Cutter Senior Consultant Alistair Cockburn suggests having a lead designer who is responsible for creating the system architecture description -- "usually fairly early in the first iteration" -- but also emphasizes that "the architecture will probably evolve" and gives two strategies to help evolving: Walking Skeleton and Incremental Rearchitecture. XP finally suggests using a metaphor to keep up the technical vision of the system; unfortunately, one of the most neglected practices of XP. XP also relies heavily on refactoring to evolve the architecture in addition to unit tests to scaffold it. In the second edition of his book Extreme Programming Explained, Cutter Senior Consultant Kent Beck finally introduced the architect as a role in the XP team, emphasizing that, "Architects sign up for programming tasks just like any programmer."

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090115.html

Agile Flexibility Takes Time

8 Jan 2009 15:57:15 GMT

Brosseau, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 08 January 2009 | Agile Project Management

I spent quite a bit of time studying martial arts in the past. While I wouldn't say that this made me more capable of coming out of a bar fight unscathed, the effort kept me (relatively) physically fit, introduced me to my future wife, and taught me some valuable lessons. Two lessons that translate quite nicely to the workplace are (1) the notion that you don't become agile overnight, and (2) true agility transcends such traits as flexibility.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2009/apm090108.html

The Yin and Yang of Data-Driven Decision Making

8 Jan 2009 15:55:47 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 08 January 2009 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management; Business Intelligence

IT is sort of caught in the middle of a debate. In one corner stands a group of researchers and enthusiasts who look at the marvels of how the human mind can make quick, accurate judgments and decisions. This group tends to look optimistically at the capabilities of the human mind to work effectively in the environment. In the other corner stands a group that sees our minds as limited, prone to errors, and in need of improvement with logic, training, and tools.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2009/btt090108.html

What Makes Managing IT Projects So Hard to Do?

7 Jan 2009 15:49:58 GMT

Goatham, Robert | Executive Updates | 07 January 2009 | Agile Project Management

It's something of an age-old question: are IT projects, particularly those that involve significant software development, intrinsically different from other types of project? Over the years, people have argued two sides of the story. One camp says that IT projects involve tasks, resources, and processes the same as any other project. The other camp focuses on software development as a highly intellectual activity that is all about people.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0824.html

Introducing Agile Means Confronting Fear and Taking a Leap of Faith

31 Dec 2008 15:43:05 GMT

Ganis, Matt; Hawkins, Tom | E-Mail Advisors | 31 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

When introducing an agile approach to IT development into an environment that has known only a structured, start-to-finish, planned approach, you will likely encounter resistance. Thus, you will find yourself needing to compromise and adapt your methodological approach, to institute control points we call "traffic cops," and to learn to depict what you are delivering in a way that proponents of the previous "waterfall" methodology will not just understand but also accept.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081231.html

Breaking the Facade of Truth: An Introspective View into and a Case Study About the "Apparent Truths" of Agile

1 Dec 2008 19:52:35 GMT

Spann, David | Executive Reports | 01 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

Each of the lessons, or "apparent truths," presented in this Executive Report by David Spann was discovered by one or more firms who actually went through an agile implementation process. The lessons include a need for a single definition of agile, a focus on agile as a quality process applied to software development, the anecdotal evidence that companies are drowning in "technical debt," a few lessons related to leadership skills, and a caution about using Scrum.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/reports/2008/12/index.html

Scaling Agile: People and Organization

24 Dec 2008 19:50:07 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 24 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

There exists an agile scaling myth that goes something like this: "Agile development works well for smaller projects, but doesn't scale to larger ones." Whether because of initially reported agile projects that were small or the XP focus (in early years) on smaller projects, the myth has stuck, as project teams of 50, 100, and 500 have been successful. In looking at this myth we need to ask a few questions:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081224.html

Rhythm of Communication Keeps Projects Humming

24 Dec 2008 19:48:15 GMT

Spica, Daniel | E-Mail Advisors | 24 December 2008 | Business-IT Strategies; Agile Project Management

Working on relations between business and IT, we often forget about the most essential problems in this area. Simply by working on models, we lose the real view and the context. It is beneficial to remind ourselves of the essential reasons problems between these two areas exist.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2008/bit081224.html

All-Rounder or Specialists: Whom to Hire for an Agile Project?

18 Dec 2008 19:35:58 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 18 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

In the recent Advisor "Generally, Role Specialization Aids Agile" (26 November 2008), Cutter Fellow Jim Highsmith argued that the idea of generalists in agile projects doesn't scale and that the focus should be more on collaboration than on trying to staff a project from generalists only. "The art of agile management is balancing, and this is one of those areas where balance is required: both generalists and specialists are needed in most project teams," he wrote. So the question is what a good balance looks like.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081218.html

Managing the Project Portfolio: An Agile/Lean Approach

29 Dec 2008 19:23:15 GMT

Rothman, Johanna | Executive Updates | 21 November 2008 | Agile Project Management If you've been succeeding with agile in your organization for a while, you've experienced projects that make more visible progress, are done earlier, and provide a high level of satisfaction for everyone involved.
But some people who try to move to agile in their organizations are not entirely successful. The teams are not dedicated to just one project at a time, or the support from a previous release is overwhelming their ability to move a project forward, or they have too many emergency projects. While these problems don't prevent agile adoption, they certainly don't help. All these problems are symptoms of management's having insufficient tools to manage its project portfolio. But management doesn't need fancy-dancy tools to manage the portfolio. All a management team needs to do is answer one question and select one answer from three options.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0822.html

Help Agile Scale by Fine-Tuning Collaboration

11 Dec 2008 14:47:16 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 11 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

As companies become comfortable using agile methods, larger and larger projects are being undertaken. While the myth, "agile is only good for small projects," is being proved wrong every day, there are still a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to scale agile -- in two dimensions, up and out. The "up" dimension means scaling agile to larger projects, and the "out" dimension pertains to distributing agile projects across multiple sites. Many of the practices required for up and out are the same; for example, studies show that collaboration begins to break down at distances exceeding 50 feet. If that's true, then collaboration and communications practices (beyond those for collocated teams) will be needed whether a big team is situated on three floors of a building or a smaller team is geographically dispersed. With this example in mind, this first scaling Advisor will take up the issue of collaboration.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081211.html

To Release No More or To "Release" Always: Part II -- Toward a New Business Design for Software

11 Dec 2008 14:44:11 GMT

Gat, Israel | Executive Updates | 11 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

Part II of this series suggests that software that is alive and always evolving poses unique opportunities for custom-tailoring solutions directly from R&D. It also describes an effective way to distribute custom-tailored solutions, and it highlights partial disintermediation that transforms the traditional software value chain.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0823.html

Scrum Today

1 Nov 2008 17:10:25 GMT

Dooley, Brian J. | Executive Reports | 01 November 2008 | Agile Project Management

Scrum is a lightweight management process that incorporates many of the elements that later became part of the Agile Manifesto and provides a methodology-agnostic and empirical platform for handling the needs of complex programming tasks where requirements are constantly shifting. It views the programming effort as a brief, timeboxed sprint that uses a small, self-organizing team to produce critical features that have been prioritized by the customer in a way that results are tested and working code is capable of solving real business needs. This Executive Report by Brian J. Dooley provides some examples of successful implementation of Scrum and discusses the challenges in its implementation.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2008/11/index.html

Never Weary of Wariness: Controlling Risks in Agile Adoption

4 Dec 2008 17:08:01 GMT

Van Schooenderwoert, Nancy | E-Mail Advisors | 04 December 2008 | Agile Project Management

Which of the following is a worse problem?

The developers have started using agile practices, but managers are not on board. A project manager institutes agile practices for his or her project, and only some of the developers and testers go along with it. The CEO wants agile methods used throughout the company, but there is resistance at lower levels.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081204.html

Time for the Innovation Manifesto?

26 Nov 2008 16:43:41 GMT

Spica, Daniel | E-Mail Advisors | 26 November 2008 | Innovation; Agile Project Management

Innovation is a buzzword that has been overused during the last few years. The sad truth is that almost everyone would like to be innovative, but only a few can be. The good thing is that many could be much more creative than they are; it only requires establishing values and the borders of an environment within which such creativity is possible. I prefer to think about the landscape of innovation rather than the innovation management process. I see it this way because the situation with the process seems to be similar to the software development process. We can work for years trying to find the perfect process definition and then another few years on attempts to apply it, or we can draw conclusions from that lesson.

http://www.cutter.com/content/innovation/fulltext/advisor/2008/iea081126.html

Generally, Role Specialization Aids Agile

26 Nov 2008 16:42:24 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 26 November 2008 | Agile Project Management

The myth surrounding agile projects goes something like this: a small team of developers who can handle any coding task (database, business logic, user interface, middleware, etc.) works hand-in-hand with the end user who talks with the development team about the details of the work requirements. The small-team-filled-with-generalists model may work for some small projects, but it doesn't scale. The problem has been with confusing two parts of the traditional development problem: collaboration and specialized skills.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081126.html

Summit 2009 | Interact with the Experts in IT

24 Nov 2008 17:07:29 GMT

Summit 2009: 4-6 May 2009 Cutter Consortium | Events | 04-06 May 2009 |
Now, More Than Ever ...
IT is being challenged to scrutinize every expenditure and make sure that every dollar is invested -- not just spent -- on high ROI efforts. Summit 2009 is one of those high-value items. Join us at Summit 2009 and explore the issues and strategies you should be considering to ensure you’re maximizing today's return and keeping ahead of the competition.

Summit 2009: Unlike Any Other IT Conference.
You'll get advice that is insightful and forthcoming. You'll have a chance to voice your opinion and hear the opinions of international experts and of other IT professionals. You’ll debate with, and listen to the debate among, some of the most experienced and clear-thinking business technologists today. And you'll return home with ideas to implement right away. Our only agenda is to support you, to give you a forum for thinking about your business world, outside of the box. Don't miss this opportunity.

Register today and save $200.00!

http://www.cutter.com/summit/2009.html

An Agile View of Software Engineering, Part 2

20 Nov 2008 17:03:46 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 20 November 2008 | Agile Project Management

When I wrote my last Advisor, "An Agile View of Software Engineering" (16 October 2008), I did not expect to start such an intense discussion as it turned out to be. The reactions were intense both in terms of quantity and of quality -- a deep discussion on the relationship between software engineering and agile. In this Advisor, I'd like to follow up on some of the thoughts in the discussion.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm081120.html

Managing the Project Portfolio: An Agile/Lean Approach

21 Nov 2008 16:54:42 GMT

Rothman, Johanna | Executive Updates | 21 November 2008 | Agile Project Management

If you've been succeeding with agile in your organization for a while, you've experienced projects that make more visible progress, are done earlier, and provide a high level of satisfaction for everyone involved.

But some people who try to move to agile in their organizations are not entirely successful. The teams are not dedicated to just one project at a time, or the support from a previous release is overwhelming their ability to move a project forward, or they have too many emergency projects. While these problems don't prevent agile adoption, they certainly don't help. All these problems are symptoms of management's having insufficient tools to manage its project portfolio. But management doesn't need fancy-dancy tools to manage the portfolio. All a management team needs to do is answer one question and select one answer from three options.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0822.html