Articles

functional testing Kanban chart Kanban for Software Testing Teams

Kanban, a highly effective agile framework, is based on the philosophy that everything can be improved. And it's not just for development teams. The QA team also can use kanban to organize tasks, identify bottlenecks, and make their processes clearer and more consistent.

Sofía Palamarchuk's picture Sofía Palamarchuk
Planning During a Health Care Crisis Save Your Sanity: Planning During a Health Care Crisis

A health care crisis can hit without warning, leaving you both nursing the patient and mired in seemingly endless bureaucracy. In this article, Kathy Iberle shares with us her experience dealing with an elderly uncle who suffered a stroke and how agile methods, like using a visual planning board, can help one prepare and be ready when disaster strikes.

Kathy Iberle's picture Kathy Iberle
Top Twelve Myths of Agile Development

When it comes to agile development, Allan Kelly has noticed a lot of misinformation is being passed off as fact. In this article, Allan takes a closer look at twelve of the most common agile myths he has encountered while training new agile teams.

Allan Kelly's picture Allan Kelly
Visualizing All the Work in Your Project Portfolio

Regarding project portfolios, it can be a big problem for clients to see all the work. Some clients have multiple kinds of projects, so they want to show their work in a variety of ways. Johanna Rothman describes some helpful ways to display the work being done.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman

Better Software Magazine Articles

Scrum Basics Scrum: Back to Basics

So you think you know Scrum? Using the whimsical notion of farm animals and light-hearted visuals, take a refreshing review of the entire Scrum lifecycle as an intuitive set of roles, responsibilities, and handoffs. Particular attention is placed on what the ScrumMaster and product owner are expected to do at each handoff.

Brian M.  Rabon's picture Brian M. Rabon
From Curmudgeon to Kanban

It didn't take long for Stacia Viscardi to realize that as effective as agile can be, a plan-driven mindset may not be the best approach for every project or every team. Breaking the rules and embracing whatever it takes to motivate the team to get a project to doneness—and delighting the customer along the way—is a much better approach, even if it means breaking away from fixed iterations.

Stacia Viscardi's picture Stacia Viscardi
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
Process Frameworks, Not Fixed Processes

The software development field has been consumed with process management ranging from inflexible, predictive waterfall all the way to self-governing, adaptable agile approaches. You probably already utilize a specific process methodology on your projects, but have you considered adopting an evolutionary learning cycle process framework instead?

Ryan Olivett's picture Ryan Olivett Bob Payne

Interviews

Sanjiv Augustine discusses scaling agile Scaling Agile: A Guide for the Perplexed: An Interview with Sanjiv Augustine
Podcast

In this interview, Sanjiv Augustine, the president of LitheSpeed, sheds light on a handful of scaling frameworks, including the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), and the simple scrum of scrums meeting.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Jeff Payne The Fundamentals of Agile: An Interview with Jeff Payne
Podcast

In this interview, Coveros CEO and agile instructor Jeff Payne discusses why you should make the move to agile, its many benefits, and how to transition. He also explains his SQE Training course, Fundamentals of Agile Certification.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Nate Oster discusses the Kanban Racing Challenge The Kanban Racing Challenge: An Interview with Nate Oster

In this interview, Nate Oster explains the Kanban Racing Challenge, the unique benefits of kanban, the concept behind using radio-controlled cars within user-developed obstacle courses, and what he hopes his audience at Agile Development Conference East will walk away with. 

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Cory Foy discusses Scrum and kanban Scrum Versus Kanban: An Interview with Cory Foy

In this interview, Cory Foy speaks about his upcoming presentation at Agile Development & Better Software Conference East, why choosing Scrum or kanban is similar to climbing a mountain, how organizational change is all about experimentation, and why companies should use Innovation Games.

Cameron Philipp-Edmonds's picture Cameron Philipp-Edmonds

Conference Presentations

Agile Dev West 2018, Better Software West 2018, DevOps West 2018 Measuring Flow: Metrics That Matter
Slideshow

Are you considering kanban but not sure how you’ll predict delivery without story points, velocity, and a burndown chart? Or are you part of a Scrum team but feeling like your team could benefit from improved flow within your sprints? In this session, join Julie Wyman and Hunter Tammaro as they explore key kanban metrics for measuring team flow and predictability. In the first half, they will introduce metrics including lead and cycle time, throughput, and the cumulative flow diagram. They’ll review what each represents, discuss easy ways to collect them, and show how they are similar and different from common waterfall and Scrum metrics. In the second half of the session, Julie and Hunter will provide a couple of different sample sets of these metrics for you to work in small groups, practicing how to read them in order to find opportunities for team improvement.

Julie Wyman
Collocated East Logo Scrum, Kanban, or Scrumban: Which Is Right for You?
Slideshow

Agile is on everyone’s minds today, as more and more organizations are eager to reap the benefits of rapid iterations using customer-centric approaches. Organizations tend to run to Scrum first because it is the most recognized agile framework. But is Scrum always the right answer for a...

Heidi Araya
Manage a Complex Test Effort with Lean and Kanban
Slideshow

“How absurd! She swallowed a bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly. I don't know why she swallowed the fly. Perhaps she'll die.” The silly nursery rhyme teaches a serious lesson. Because software products are complex, we seek to manage...

Mike Duskis, 10-4 Systems
Extreme Agile: Managing Fully-Distributed Teams
Slideshow

It is challenging—if not impossible—to find local experts in low-level Linux or specific open-source software projects. However, this isn’t a challenge with a fully-distributed organization which has this talent worldwide. So the challenge becomes how to effectively manage, motivate, and...

Alan Bennett, Linaro

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