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  • Bugs, defects and feedback

    In my last post , I talked about how we like to track bugs, with just pieces of paper.  At lot of the responses were interesting, but I think some came back to the issue of “what is a bug?”  Some felt that bugs needed to live in a more durable...
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  • My favorite bug-tracking system

    I’m of the opinion that a process must demonstrate the need for software, before software is put in place to manage that process.  Bug tracking is a process, but often we jump straight to a software solution for managing/tracking bugs before considering...
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  • Fighting technical debt with the wall of pain

    Technical debt, even on the agile-ist of agilista teams, still accumulates.  Debt is inevitable, as initial design is always based on assumptions, not all of which pan out.  I never view that as a failure, as all we can do is make the best decision...
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  • Success and statistics

    The 2009 CHAOS Summary has some interesting numbers: This year's results show a marked decrease in project success rates, with 32% of all projects succeeding which are delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions Wow, terrible...
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  • A sign of team maturity

    You know you have a mature team when, nine months into a project, your testing stats are: 2384 unit tests 606 integration tests 205 UI/acceptance tests And no one is asking to throw a party.  In past teams, we would mark milestones, “500 tests, hooray...
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  • On good design and defining success

    This is for the most part a reaction to conversations on design: Testability in .Net Design and Testability Good Design is not Subjective Believe it or not, I largely agree with all of these posts. The conversation originally started around TypeMock ...
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  • Mike Cohn in town

    Mike Cohn , author of User Stories Applied and Agile Estimation and Planning , is speaking tomorrow night as a part of Agile Austin's Distinguished Speaker Series. The topic is "Succeeding with Agile: A Guide to Transitioning" , with the...
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  • Reacting to change

    When dealing with the possibility of change in requirements in the middle of development, I've generally seen three reactions: Explicitly reject the possibility Ignore it completely, hope it goes away Accept and embrace it Of these three, only two...
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  • Is your process dead?

    Two of the conventional criteria for exhibiting life are: Adaptation Response to stimuli Together these combine into the ability to respond to outside forces. So how do we know if your process is dead? If your team or organization: Does not elicit feedback...
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  • Letting the customer drive the demo

    At the end of an iteration, we have a demo to the customer (and any interested stakeholders) of functionality delivered in that iteration. Something I hadn't tried until recently was letting a user or customer drive the demo. There were some minor...
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  • Stories, requirements, and language

    The negotiation between client and team on what gets delivered is the toughest aspect of software development that I've encountered. Something that's eased this aspect for me is adopting User Stories and abandoning "Function Requirements"...
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  • Flexibility and control

    At our recent Headspring .NET Boot Camp , Jeffrey and I had an interesting conversation with a couple of attendees whose company was considering an all-out VSTS love fest. Already using TFS source control, the company was looking at using the Work Item...
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  • Best tool for the job

    I'm not sure if this is a trap, but I find myself doing this more and more. Let's say you have a short (less than 2 weeks) project to work on, and maybe it's for a church website or something similar. Non-business critical, but the customer...
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  • More on Scrummerfall

    A couple of comments have led me to think that I didn't explain what it is. Let's review waterfall phases: Requirements specifications Design Implementation Integration Testing Deployment Each of these has a gated exit, such that to exit one phase...
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  • For the record

    This is not Scrum: Planning Release planning Backlog creation Architecture and high-level design Development sprints Design Code Test Conclusion System integration System test Release This is Scrummerfall , where we still do a phase-based waterfall model...
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