Welcome to the June 15th edition of the Carnival of Agilists – providing you with a commented digest on what’s been said in the agile blogsphere during the last two weeks.
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Never say “no, not that way!” Taking inspiration from improv theatre, Elizabeth Keogh provides a whole heap of useful tips on fostering learning and change in Creating a spontaneous environment.
Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Brian Marick reports that Tom White and Robert Chatley have been working on sentence style for (unit) tests in Java, aiming to make them more readable and “literate”.
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Joakim Karlsson is well into a public project in which he tries on the different roles in XP; begin reading at the start with The Requirements – A First Approach
- In What it Takes James Carr reminds us of the value of using domain vocabulary when communicating with customers and users
Responding to change over following a plan
- Skip Angel reports on his group’s success using Alistair Cockburn’s “Mission Statement with Tradeoff Priorities” document in The right way to start a project. This approach resonates well with Tom Gilb’s, which I’ve been studying recently.
- Alan Shalloway reminds us that Agile Project Management Is Good – But It’s Not Enough
- Mishkin Berteig recaps some of the pre-requisites for creating good estimates in Fantasy Estimation
Agile at large
- Deb Hartmann announces InfoQ.com Online Community Launched!, including an agile community that is already very active
- Jim Shore is working on a new book entitled The Art of Agile; check out the first draft chapter online at http://www.jamesshore.com/Agile-Book and join the discussion list on Yahoo
- Many of the concepts of agile software development originate in lean manufacturing. And so for some background reading I thoroughly recommend the blog Evolving Excellence by Kevin Meyer and Bill Waddell for their hard-hitting views
Previous Editions
The Carnival is published on the first and third Thursday of every month. All previous editions are referenced at the Agile Alliance website.
Join in the Fun!
Do you have something that you think is worth sharing? Don’t be shy! We love new ideas and insights. Send us a link to your post by emailing agilists.carnival@gmail.com, or use the carnival submission form.