Success to Standish is Failure in Agile
The Standish Group’s CHAOS Report is the largest and longest running research study in the software industry. Standish looks at approximately 34,000 software projects in a range of areas. It includes shrink-wrap applications, operating systems, custom apps, etc. They picked a range of diverse projects to look at. Every ten years the study drops about …
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Read MorePropagate Knowledge
There is a huge amount of professional wisdom in software development. These are things that we have never bothered to write down but are standards nonetheless. This general knowledge is communicated through individual interactions as well as the code we write, so it’s really important that we have high quality interactions within the team and …
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Read MoreDeveloper on Fire Podcast
I had a very interesting conversation with Dave Rael (@raelyard) on the #DeveloperOnFire #Podcast about what excites me as a developer. Listen to it here: http://developeronfire.com/podcast/episode-206-david-bernstein-beyond-legacy-code
Read MoreSwarm on Showstoppers
Swarming is a practice where the entire team works together temporarily to solve a problem. Swarming is most useful for certain kinds of problems, problems that impact the entire team. If no one can do anything until the problem is resolved then it may make sense, and improve morale, if everyone on the team has …
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Read MorePodcast on The Agile Uprising
I had a great conversation with Ryan Lockard (@AgilePHL) and James Gifford (@scrummando) on the @AgileUprising podcast. Listen here: https://coalition.agileuprising.com/t/podcast-released-beyond-legacy-code-with-david-bernstein/627
Read MoreSpike on Unknowns
As an Agile developer, I often start projects without a clear sense of exactly what I’m building. This used to be very difficult for me. I wanted to start with a complete specification for what I was to build, but today I know that it’s more efficient and effective to discover exactly what needs to …
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Read MoreBuddy Programming
Sometimes the practices of Extreme Programming can be a bit too extreme when first introducing them to a team. This is especially true with pair programming. Of all the practices that I teach software developers, I get the most resistance from pair programming, Both developers and their managers are skeptical about pair programming, although each …
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Read MoreStrong-Style Pairing
Pair programming is not about taking turns using the computer or being someone else’s typist. It’s about engaging two minds on the same problem so that a solution can be developed more quickly and with higher quality than if one person was working on it alone. The two roles in pair programming are referred to …
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Read MorePing-Pong Pairing
Another pair programming configuration I like is called ping-pong pairing. In ping-pong pairing the driver writes a test for a behavior then asks the navigator to implement the behavior and make the test pass. Once completed, the keyboard is passed from driver to navigator and the new driver writes the next test for the new …
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