Collabnet acquires Danube

Is ALM at odds with Agile? Application Lifecycle Management is often perceived as a traditional waterfall technique, but not always. Collabnet clearly believes there’s a convergence between ALM and at least Scrum, a process that is well-known as an “agile-oriented” technique for improving project efficiency and visibility. According to Bill Portelli, CEO of Collabnet, we [...]

Should Training be an Integral Part of a Project Budget to Increase Project Profitability?

Organizations that are “training challenged” must learn to do things differently. This includes delegating authority along with responsibility, being inspirational to employees, building trust and improving communication — all of which are direct benefits of a comprehensive process that incorporates training. Take a look at part two of Should Training be an Integral Part of [...]

What do you mean, SQA isn’t testing?

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and Structured Software Testing (SST) are completely different fields. Every single book on the topic (textbooks, course materials, you name it) make this clear. In fact, most emphasize how important it is that these fields be completely separate. Consider:

Quality Assurance is responsible for auditing and ensuring all aspects of work meet [...]

Articulating the value of training

Training budgets are one of the first to go in a down economy. I first pointed this out in Finding Strategic Learning Funds, but there’s ample evidence to be gathered. When the money isn’t there, organizations start casting about for any program they deem expendable. But the unfortunate truth is that training is the best [...]

Workshop and training topic survey

Hyrax International LLC is running a short survey on training industry focus. Please take a few moments and participate — it’s only six questions long and will be tremendously useful.

Not a panacea, but trying: Comindwork is attractive

Management tools probably don’t bring to mind excitement and visions of “getting things done” the agile way. Nevertheless, it’s an important aspect of running any project — whether agile or not — and there are some tools, believe it or not, that are easy to use, hugely helpful in managing a project and sometimes even [...]

Why heroes are bad

Most project leaders have been there before: The hero saves the day, yet again. Everyone is grateful because, obviously, if not for the hero the project would have crashed and burned. It seems so lucky that the team can benefit from this all-star who pulls the project out of the fire time and again. So, what exactly would we do without him (or her)?

Rocket science made easy

Usability testing is important. It needs to be an integral part of any project plan, which is why I’m glad Steve Krug has written a follow up to his usability classic Don’t Make Me Think. The sequel, Rocket Surgery Made Easy, is an easy read and absolutely gets the importance of practical usability testing across.

Making Scrum work: Common failings in adopting Scrum

Scrum can be remarkably beneficial in many kinds of software projects. But, as with any process, methodology or management technique, when used inappropriately it can cause more problems that it solves. In this article I’ll discuss some of the common misconceptions and “lessons learned” as related to Scrum.

So you think you’re following Scrum?

I have a prediction. If you take the Nokia “Scrum Test” you are going to score somewhere less than 7. That means you aren’t doing Scrum, you’re doing “ScrumButt:”
A ScrumButt is a sort of like Scrum implementation… but some changes that were too painful have been left out… Companies in this category tend to only [...]