Agile software development is a group of software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams.
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What makes Agile software development so appealing?
Agile software development is becoming a pretty fun buzzword these days.
As a developer, I understand the pragmatic value of iterative development, but (most often) it isn't a developers choice to ...
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12answers
2k views
What programming language and framework has best support for agile web development? [closed]
If I would like to quickly set up a modern website, what programming language + framework has best support for this? E.g. short and easy to understand code for a beginner and a framework with support ...
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7answers
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Story points for bug fixing tasks: Is it suitable for Scrum?
I'm just wondering if we should assign story points to bug fixing tasks or not. JIRA, our issues-tracking software, does not have story point field for Bug type issues (it's only for Storys and ...
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2answers
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Should I buy Clean Code after reading The Clean Coder?
I"m currently reading The Clean Coder by Robert C. Martin. It's a great book and I'm learning a lot from it.
My objective is to become a "professional" programmer so I'm trying to learn the most I ...
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4answers
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Are there any studies on the Efficiency/Effectiveness of Agile vs Waterfall
In a meeting the other day a claim was made that agile was only 60% as efficient in development time when compared to waterfall. I am not looking to validate or refute this claim. I am interesting ...
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8answers
671 views
Is agile more than just small waterfalls?
I've mostly used the waterfall methodology on my projects, but now I'm expanding my horizons into agile methodologies. From what I've read so far, and maybe I've read the wrong things, agile means ...
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6answers
483 views
A backlog of “bite-size” tasks in parallel to the “main” feature backlog?
After over two years of working in a highly siloed, "lone-wolf" development department structure, we're adopting Agile SCRUM. Great. I like Agile; as a dev it keeps you focused, busy, and productive ...
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4answers
1k views
How can a single developer make use of Agile Methods? [duplicate]
I am a freelancer and work as a single developer. In all cases, I am the person wearing different hats. I am the Scrum Master and I am the only person in the development. What I am not is the Product ...
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3answers
635 views
Advice/guidelines for managing a distributed development team
What are some strategies, methodologies and best-practices for managing a distributed team?
What can be done to encourage and enforce communication between the various team members?
Is it possible ...
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5answers
963 views
How do you keep track of a requirements document on an agile team?
I understand that User Stories dominate the agile world, but how are these artifacts stored, so that new developers who join the team can come up to speed with the requirements?
What if the User ...
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How to adopt agile methodology for developing firmware/embedded-systems-software?
I've always wondered how to apply agile methods really are in large complex embedded system software (100+ engineers). Firmware development has some unique characteristics that make it difficult to ...
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9answers
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Should I try persistence in flat file before database?
Somebody explained to me that since in agile development, policy and the application logic should be more important than details such as persistence method, persistence decision should be taken at the ...
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6answers
1k views
Can fixed scope + fixed deadline + fixed price contract ever be made to work with “agile”?
Some projects we run internally using scrum, whilst still being "fixed everything" to the customer. Mixed success on our part (the customer likes the visibility of the burndown chart).
Any ...
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9answers
733 views
How can architects work with self-organizing Scrum teams?
An organization with a number of agile Scrum teams also has a small group of people appointed as "enterprise architects". The EA group acts as control and gatekeeper for quality and adherence to ...
15
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5answers
874 views
How to introduce Agile to a team that uses rigid non-Agile methods?
Consider a company that is proudly certified for some non-Agile methodology, uses it as a selling point to its customers to demonstrate accountability.
How do you go about introducing Kanban or ...
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7answers
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What electronic user-story-mapping tools can you recommend? [closed]
Agile software development relies heavily on a work item type called user stories. For example, you have a backlog full of user stories and you can select a few of them to work on during the next ...
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5answers
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When to do Code Review
We have recently moved to a scrum process and are working on tasks and user stories inside of sprints. We would like to do code reviews frequently to make them less daunting. We are thinking that ...
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5answers
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Scrum - how to carry over a partially complete User Story to the next Sprint without skewing the backlog
We're using Scrum and occasionally find that we can't quite finish a User Story in the sprint in which it was planned. In true Scrum style, we ship the software anyway and consider including the User ...
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16answers
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Weeding out real agile from buzzword agile in an interview
I've been interviewing for co-ops (paid internships) lately and a large number of the companies I've been interviewing with have been saying they use Scrum or some other agile methodology (scrum being ...
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7answers
456 views
How does agile work when replacing a working system?
In an ideal Agile world, you quickly build a small, but useful subset of the desired end system, and give it to users. They're excited, because it's useful, they start using it and give feedback. You ...
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5answers
321 views
Agile software development: How do you react *financially* to changing user requirements?
There's one thing I've always wondered when reading about all this "agile development" stuff here on SE and other sites:
In "traditional" software engineering, you
collect the user's requirements,
...
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8answers
1k views
In Scrum, should tasks such as development environment set-up and capability development be managed as subtasks within actual user stories?
Sometimes in projects we need to spend time on tasks such as:
exploring alternate frameworks and tools
learning the framework and tools selected for the project
setting up the servers and project ...
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7answers
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Should I listen to my employer and use CASE tools?
My employer (Not a Developer) thinks that CASE tools will help us improve our development process and documentation. I am not sure about that, we are a small team of 5 developers building mobile ...
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11answers
985 views
Is continuous creation and deletion of tables a sign of an architectural flaw?
Recently I had a discussion with a developer who mentioned that during program development, they routinely create and delete tables and columns on a regular basis while working on new features and ...
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7answers
910 views
Can Agile software development be used in projects defined by a contract?
I recently had a conversation with a fellow developer about Agile Software Development. While I understand the principle, it seems that continuously changing requirements creates the potential for the ...
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8answers
534 views
How do you make a manager understand Agile?
I have a problem with a senior director who doesn't understand iterative development (much less Agile). He is insistent that our software design specification (SDS) be complete before any line of code ...
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5answers
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How to start a development project when there are too many potential stakeholders
I've just taken on a new job at a college as (the sole) Web application developer.
The college has a number of disparate but all pretty badly coded legacy systems. Mostly built in PHP they deal with ...
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5answers
677 views
Should technical debt be scheduled as a feature or a chore (or a bug)?
I've added a couple of user stories that address some technical debt to my Pivotal Tracker board. Should I consider them as features (keeping my velocity level) or as chores/bugs (lowering my ...
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9answers
472 views
Are there any arguments that can make a contractor reconsider working on fixed price?
I've been working for a contractor who brings in some good projects, but they are all fixed-price and often fixed-time.
As a result he always has me making a quote over loose requirements, which ...
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6answers
360 views
Rewriting software using Agile methodologies
Suppose you have to rewrite an entire application using Agile methodologies, how would you do it?
I guess you could write a big bunch of user stories based in the behavior of your current system. And ...
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4answers
4k views
What is an integration test exactly?
My friends and I have been struggling to classify exactly what is an integration test.
Now, on my way home, I just realised, that every time I try to give a real world example of an integration ...
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9answers
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How relaxed (or not) should a sprint be?
What should be the attitude towards getting stories done that are assigned to a sprint? Obviously you want to prioritize getting them done in the sprint, but to me the whole point of agile is to be ...
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Are project managers useful in Scrum?
There are three roles defined in Scrum: Team, Product Owner and Scrum Master. There is no project manager, instead the project manager job is spread across the three roles.
For instance:
The Scrum ...
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4answers
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Dilemma of QA vs. iterations
In my company, we successfully working with agile practices - but without using iterations. The main reason is that we can't find a clean way to fit in QA in an iteration cycle.
We understand QA as ...
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8answers
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Long term planning and agile?
My team recently went through the process of laying out a nearly one year plan for our work. We separated the plan into three phases. Each phase will include a couple of launches.
I wonder, from an ...
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7answers
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Funding Agile Projects
The company I work within is tentatively moving towards an Agile project management strategy - having experienced the "joys" of waterfall one time to many. Key to this is a shift in emphasis towards ...
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2answers
415 views
How to handle technological “Dogmatism”
I left a job (to relocate to another country) where I programmed in Javascript and Haskell (some python) most of the time. I really liked it because people were objective, positive, mathematical, and ...
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2answers
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Is it Ok to change estimates in the middle of an iteration?
We have started using Agile/Scrum in a team of 4 developers. We did our story estimations and ordered the stories Primed stories in the product backlog.
We started with the point based estimation on ...
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4answers
687 views
How much detail about a user story can a developer expect?
The biggest drawback of agile development I have experienced is that people not involved in development focus on the mantra that a user story (3-10 ideal person days) should not contain more than 1-3 ...
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3answers
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Pair Swapping: What are the Pros and Cons?
The general idea that is espoused by most Agile / XP theorists seems to be that pairs should swap regularly. For example each programmer should swap pairs once per day; half the people swap at the ...
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7answers
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How can Scrum be adapted to an academic environment?
I'm currently working with a professor at my university to develop new curricula for the Software Engineering and Capstone Design courses offered in my college.
Up until recently, both courses used ...
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7answers
564 views
Does it make me a bad programmer if I dislike the Agile methodology? [closed]
I like the small iterations. I like the unit tests. I like code review. What I don't like is the starting off with little or no documentation. Am I alone in this? Do I simply have a ...
11
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7answers
925 views
How to stop / avoid Over Time on a Scrum Team?
Actually, I'm helping a small software shop on their Scrum Implementation. Recently the Scrum Master reported me that he has a problem because the Team is working Over Time to achieve the Scope ...
11
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7answers
496 views
Will giving new recruits a separate subproject from experienced developers help the newbies ramp up more quickly?
We have 7 developers in a team and need to double our development pace in a short period of time (around one month). I know there is a common sense rule that "if you hire more developers, you only ...
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10answers
671 views
Which programming methodology would be a good fit for us?
Unfortunately, somebody has taught our upper management the word "Agile" and now they want us to move towards it. I have a peripheral understanding of agile (in principle) but have never used it in ...
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5answers
564 views
Keeping agile with zero-bug policy
In our project we work in a zero-bug (a.k.a zero-defect) methodology. The basic idea is that bugs are always higher in priority than features. If you're working on a story and it has a bug it must be ...
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5answers
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Velocity does not plateau over time, why?
I have plotted my team burn up chart and its velocity per iteration. To me it looks really bad (velocity fluctuates a lot). What should I be looking for to diagnose the root cause of this behaviour?
...
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3answers
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How to handle estimates for programmers joining the team?
Iteration has already started, new programmer joins the team, task X has already been estimated to be 30 hours by a different developer.
What is the best practice in this situation?
new developer ...
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8answers
970 views
How to report the progress of my project (Agile) to my employer (who is not a programmer)?
I have a problem on reporting progress to my employer. I am a part-time programmer, handling a software project for my school's (non-technical) department.
Contact person:
1. The staff who actually ...
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7answers
429 views
How do you deal with the costs of too-rapid change?
Like most modern developers I value Agile principals like customer collaboration and responding to change, but what happens when a product-owner (or whoever determines requirements and priorities) ...
