Better Software Magazine Articles

Improve Agile Quality—Three Pillars at a Time

A key component to being agile is the adoption of testing from the very inception of the project. According to Bob Galen, to achieve a high degree of quality assurance, there needs to be a careful balance among development and test automation, software testing, and cross-functional team practices.

Bob Galen's picture Bob Galen
Balancing Waterfall Predictability with Agile Flexibility

In this FAQ column, Arlen Bankston highlights the difficulty many companies have making the full transition to agile, straddling between waterwall ways and the new horizons of agility.  Arlen provides techniques that can enable companies to ease into the transition, allowing their organization to make the adjustments without the burden of large plans and commitments.

Arlen Bankston's picture Arlen Bankston
Do You Give Your Manager What She Wants or What She Needs?

High-stress situations arise when you have to respond to management's never-ending tough questions regarding product delivery. According to Johanna Rothman, you can properly set expectations without stress simply by understanding your manager's point of view.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
The State of DevOps Adoption

The current trend of using DevOps to describe every effective automated procedure is creating more confusion and even some dysfunctional behavior as software organizations continue to adopt this build-test-deploy approach. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs describe the DevOps approach you should use.

Is Agile Breaking Product Management?

It can be a challenge for a product manager to know how to lead an agile software team. As product managers take on many different roles throughout a project lifecycle, there can be confusion, resulting in the product manager doing what nobody else wants to do. Steve Johnson offers a perspective of the agile product manager that every software developer should know.

Steve Johnson's picture Steve Johnson
Motivating Teams In a Self-Organizing Environment

A key characteristic of agile is that a team self-organizes to best fit the workload. This, according to Maria Matarelli, can be more difficult than the more traditional approach of a project manager simply telling the team what to do.

Maria Matarelli's picture Maria Matarelli
Being Agile, Even if My Organization Isn't

Many of us work for organizations that claim adherence to agility, yet in practice aren't even close. Agile is definitely here to stay, and if you haven't caught the wave, it is only a matter of time before you do. Brian Rabon  presents insightful techniques that can help you become more agile now.

Brian M.  Rabon's picture Brian M. Rabon
Scrum or Kanban—Which Is Better?

In this FAQ column, Arlen Bankston defines the roles of Scrum and kanban and describes how the two agile methodologies can be complementary, each ideal for different situations, or blended to achieve the desired outcome.

Arlen Bankston's picture Arlen Bankston
The Curious Case of Waterfall Sprints

It isn't unusual for a project team to believe that adopting a mix of waterfall and Scrum can deliver the best of both worlds. According to Steve, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Steve retraces a real project that quickly disintegrated into an absolute disaster.

Alan Turing's picture Alan Turing
Chasing Mavericks: Using Rolling Wave Planning to Transform Agile Teams

By using an approach similar to that used by surfers to catch waves, you can effectively help your team transition to agility. Scott presents a four-stage process that alternates training with coaching and doing with learning.

Scott Frost's picture Scott Frost

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