Cutter Consortium: Agile Product & Project Management

Business Environment Determines Degree of Team's Innovation

1 May 2008 22:27:22 GMT

Stein, Erik | E-Mail Advisors | 01 May 2008 | Agile Project Management

Imagine, for a moment, that you have an integrated team that is to build some software product. This team includes all the necessary stakeholders to define, assess, and refine the product; it contains the people who understand the need and have all the required skill sets and tools to accomplish the task. Call this the A Team. The A Team might be creative and highly innovative. Or not. What makes the difference? Whether the team uses an agile or a waterfall process? Whether the team uses Java or C#? No. The difference is in the surrounding business environment, the business model itself, and the culture created and sustained by management. The software development practices per se do not determine the creativity or innovativeness of the team.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080501.html

Shortening the Tail

24 Apr 2008 22:17:18 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 24 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

In working with a number of software companies over the years, I've come to find a single metric that is very effective in determining how "agile" these organizations are: the length of the tail. The tail is the time period from "code slush" (true code freezes are rare) or "feature freeze" to RTM (release to manufacturing). It is the time when companies do some or all of the following: beta testing, regression testing, product integration, integration testing, documentation, defect fixing. The worst "tail" I've encountered was 18 months -- 18 months from feature freeze to product release, and most of that time was spent in QA. Routinely, I find software companies whose tail is four to six months.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080424.html

"The Big Splash": Discovering How Wet Our Leadership Behaviors Can Be

1 Apr 2008 18:17:48 GMT

Spann, David | Executive Updates | 01 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

This Executive Update is a bit of a departure from our usual writings as it instead illustrates an important lesson by presenting a story, which is compiled from my many experiences helping leaders make meaningful changes within individuals, teams, and their organizations.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0807.html

How to Increase Productive Velocity, Part 1

17 Apr 2008 18:14:29 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 17 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

If you start with agile management, you will hit a point of frustration eventually: the more reliable your planning process becomes, the more frustrating are its results. You will find that your real velocity is way beyond what you would like it to be -- and probably beyond what you promised to your stakeholders. One measure you have to take now is quite obvious: if you have too much to do, reduce expectations. Try to find alternatives that are easier and cheaper to implement. This gives immediate relief and is the right thing to do tactically.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080417.html

Employing Google's Free-Time Policy in Your Business

16 Apr 2008 18:07:18 GMT

Phillips, Dwayne | E-Mail Advisors | 16 April 2008 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

I have met many engineers, programmers, administrators, and others who have great imagination (I used to be one of them; sometimes I stray back into that fold). Ideas come to them, and they try those ideas. Sometimes, some of those brilliant ideas work right now in the system we are building. Often, however, that isn't the case. Poor odds don't deter these imaginative people. Close oversight is necessary; well, maybe not necessary, as there are other choices.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2008/itj080416.html

New Workshop Added: Agile Management

17 Apr 2008 16:53:14 GMT

Spann, David | Training/Workshops | Agile Project Management
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This 3-day Agile Management course is designed for teams that will be working together on a project/initiative and that want to increase customer satisfaction, technical quality, and business value. To that end, the team will work collaboratively, through periods of instruction/learning, and then immediately apply the lessons learned using their project/initiative's actual data. For example, during the business case section of the course, the team will define its project's objectives, business value and elevator speech to assure everyone understands and agrees with why it is important.

http://www.cutter.com/workshops/agilemanagement.html

The Agile Project Management Revolution

15 Mar 2008 15:45:50 GMT

Bauer, Martin | Executive Updates | 15 March 2008 | Agile Project Management

With any new approach, there will be those who think it's the best thing since sliced bread, those who think it's just a fad, and those who simply don't care. When it comes to agile project management, however, everyone should be paying attention, because it really does matter. It's not just a management fad; it's a wake-up call for an industry that has an awful track record and is in need of serious help.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0806.html

Disassembling the Nokia Test

10 Apr 2008 15:32:59 GMT

Brosseau, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 10 April 2008 | Agile Project Management

The Nokia Test is a quick assessment of practices to determine whether your Scrum implementation is up to snuff, based on how it is done at Nokia. Let's take it apart to see whether there are any user-serviceable parts inside. The first few elements identify whether or not you are really iterative.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080410.html

When Applying a Standard, Use Your Judgment

10 Apr 2008 15:30:07 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 10 April 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Enterprise Architecture; Business Intelligence; Agile Project Management

I was talking to someone recently who had used a requirements approach about which I was skeptical.

"How many times have you worked on a project that used this approach?" I asked.

"I'd guess 25 or 26," he replied.

"Did it work?" I asked. "It didn't," he replied.

"Why are you recommending it on this project?" I asked, as my voice got louder.

"It is a standard," he answered, after a little consideration.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080410.html

Avoiding Buyer's Remorse with Agile: Part II

1 Mar 2008 17:17:51 GMT

Spann, David | Executive Updates | 1 March 2008 | Agile Project Management

Leaders who want to implement an agile approach need to build bridges between functional areas, so that any new processes are deemed appropriate by all the internal stakeholders. To build these interconnections, leaders must stay focused on creating a process of organizational change, establishing team working agreements, and developing and improving the skills and behaviors of the people who lead agile initiatives. This Update examines each of these areas.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0805.html

Underestimating End-User Training for Business Performance Management Initiative

1 Apr 2008 16:56:34 GMT

Hall, Curt | E-Mail Advisors | 01 April 2008 | Business Intelligence; Agile Project Management

Many organizations continue to underestimate end-user training requirements for their business performance management efforts. This finding comes from a recent Cutter Consortium survey conducted in January 2008 of 101 end-user organizations (based worldwide). The survey was designed to measure the extent that organizations are implementing business performance management and the techniques and tools they are using and the issues they are encountering.

http://www.cutter.com/content/bia/fulltext/advisor/2008/bia080401.html

Leveraging Metrics to Benefit from the Agile Approach

27 Mar 2008 20:44:10 GMT

Hazra, Tushar K. | E-Mail Advisors | 27 March 2008 | Agile Project Management

A US healthcare company CIO and his core IT team have been using an agile development approach in their projects for just about a year now. When I came across this company last year, the CIO and most of his key team members were getting ready to support the rollout of 10 large-scale systems-integration projects across the enterprise. Around the same time, the CIO had also assigned a few of his direct reports to resolve various issues stemming from the company's new "managed services" projects. In a meeting early last year, the CIO raised a couple of issues that his teams were confronting: how do teams elsewhere in the industry determine the extent of agility or flexibility they can obtain from using agile systems-development or -integration approach in a project? And, can metrics help them determine the progress of their use? If so, how often should they review the metrics?

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080327.html

Y2K Redux: When Management Woke Up to Risk

27 Mar 2008 20:43:01 GMT

Pritchard, Carl | E-Mail Advisors | 27 March 2008 | Enterprise Risk Management & Governance; Agile Project Management

While teaching a class recently, I had a few minutes to chat with a corporate VP about his forays into risk management. His name is Ira Brackman, and he passed along a copy of an article he wrote almost 11 years ago for a short-lived publication called Year 2000 (focusing on the computer world's Year 2000 crisis). The article was titled "Year 2000 Risk Management and Cost Reduction Strategies for Survival and Success."

http://www.cutter.com/content/risk/fulltext/advisor/2008/erm080327.html

Avoiding Buyer's Remorse with Agile: Part I

15 Feb 2008 19:38:57 GMT

Spann, David | Executive Updates | 15 February 2008 | Agile Project Management

Are you a corporate leader or upper-level manager considering whether to implement one of the agile methodologies, such as XP, Scrum, Dynamic Systems Development Method, or others, because you have heard about its ability to deliver increased quality, business value, and customer satisfaction? If so, you are not alone. In fact, in a recent analysis of benchmarking data, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Michael Mah found that companies implementing traditional development practices are three times slower and expend eight times the effort/cost of agile practices.1 Similarly, Israel Gat, BMC's VP of distributed systems management, recently said, "In an era characterized by requirements changing faster than traditional development cycles, agile development has helped BMC reach a level of proficiency that enables us to respond to our customer needs much more quickly."

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0804.html

Agile Transitions, Part 9: Integration

6 Mar 2008 15:37:54 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 06 March 2008 | Agile Project Management

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational rollout strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. This Advisor focuses on integration strategy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080306.html

How Software Engineering Is an Oxymoron

5 Mar 2008 15:33:43 GMT

Ferronato, Pierfranco | E-Mail Advisors | 05 March 2008 | Enterprise Architecture; Agile Project Management

I recall a conference presentation titled "Software engineering? An Oxymoron?" that I attended about five years ago. The speaker was pushing the idea that the software development practice had to borrow concepts from the engineering domain, where the formal approach in design and build was a common practice consolidated over 2,000 years. The title was so-named to make the audience realize that software projects fail because of the actual way of realizing software, which is not aligned with the formal classical engineering practice. The point was that we ought to be more strict and formal. This idea, even if very interesting, is not sufficiently analyzed: there are other key points in this comparison.

http://www.cutter.com/content/architecture/fulltext/advisor/2008/ea080305.html

Agile and Usability Testing -- Further Thoughts

5 Mar 2008 15:27:36 GMT

Barnum, Carol M. | E-Mail Advisors | 05 March 2008 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

In the October 2007 Cutter IT Journal, I contributed an article to the special issue on "Fostering Innovation: What Role Does Agile Software Development Play?" That article, titled "Agile and UCD: Can This Marriage Be Saved?," presented a case study of a company that went from waterfall to agile, with the loss of usability testing as an unexpected outcome. In its place, the product manager stood in for the customer/user.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2008/itj080305.html

Is Design Still Dead?

1 Feb 2008 15:07:50 GMT

Orr, Ken | Executive Reports | 01 February 2008 | Agile Project Management

Agile development has moved beyond its niche movement and an increasing number of organizations are adopting agile development for more projects. But regardless of its success, there are still many skeptics regarding its application to very large and/or complex systems. Many older developers and software managers are concerned about what some believe to be one of the major blind spots of agile development: the rejection of up-front design. This Executive Report by Ken Orr returns to a famous paper written by leading software guru Martin Fowler and revisits his major concerns about agile development and design, especially concerns about modeling -- the idea that the code is the design and that being close to the customer is enough to ensure success. The report concludes that design is alive and well, and that over the long run, the agile movement is going to need to consider amending its Agile Manifesto to incorporate the use of more automatic design/application-generation tools in order to meet the needs of the future.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2008/02/index.html

Remember: Agility Is Lack of Rigidity

28 Feb 2008 15:02:44 GMT

Smith, Preston G. | E-Mail Advisors | 28 February 2008 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As agile development becomes more popular and established, it runs the risk of maturing into a rigid, codified system that, of course, would be just the opposite of the agility we cherish. In my experience, management gravitates toward established, predictable, repeatable processes for good reason: they make management's job easier. To an extent, agilists encourage this increasing codification of agile development by writing an endless stream of books describing just how agile "should" be done.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080228.html

Agile Transitions, Part 8: Mapping Your Support Strategy

21 Feb 2008 14:54:25 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 21 February 2008 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational rollout strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. This Advisor focuses on methodology support strategy.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080221.html

The Stata Center Is Leaking! Part 1

21 Feb 2008 14:50:56 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 21 February 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management

In 1943, a very important building was built on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, that became something of a celebrity in its own right. For one thing, like many WWII-era buildings, Building 20 was a "temporary" structure. And like many temporary structures, it outlived its original planning horizon. It was never intended to last this long.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080221.html

An Agile Metrics Chat Webinar

14 Feb 2008 15:25:12 GMT

Mah, Michael C.; Wheeler, Kim; Lunt, Mike | Webinars/Multimedia | 14 February 2008 | Agile Project Management

After each of Michael Mah's recent Cutter Consortium webinars, in which he described the remarkable productivity and quality numbers that have been achieved by several Agile development groups, we received a large number of follow-up questions — far more than we could answer in the time we had. That's why we're inviting you to continue the conversation on February 14 at 11:30am EST. This is your chance to direct (more) questions to Michael Mah, or to ask BMC Software's Mike Lunt or Follett Software's Kim Wheeler just how they were able to achieve among the fastest time-to-market and lowest defect patterns measured in recently recorded software development.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/webinar/2008/agilechat.html

Flight Attendants and Global Optimization

14 Feb 2008 15:24:13 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 14 February 2008 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Watching flight attendants doing service on a short-distance flight, you can learn a good lesson about global process optimization. There is just enough space in the aisle for a single trolley; overtaking is impossible. In most cases, the first attendant starts his service in row one and then services the rows consecutively. As soon as the purser has finished her post-takeoff checks and has prepared her trolley, she closes up to her colleague, who in turn skips a few rows the purser now services.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080214.html

How Models, Prototypes Can Set You Free, Part 1

14 Feb 2008 15:23:13 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 14 February 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management

For the most part, I've found that the trick in working with people is not to dazzle them with formal modeling, but to use models -- especially visual models and prototypes -- to help define problems that are not easy to put into words. In the right circumstances, visual models and prototypes can improve communication dramatically. The more real the models are, the better most people can relate to them.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080214.html

Transitioning to Agile Project Management: A Roadmap for the Perplexed

1 Jan 2008 19:21:42 GMT

Augustine, Sanjiv; Bankston, Arlen | Executive Reports | 01 January 2008 | Agile Project Management

As agile project delivery methods have entered the mainstream, the burning managerial question has shifted from whether to adopt them to how. Switching to agile often brings swift and dramatic change, but ensuring that this transition is positive in nature requires an informed, pragmatic approach. This Executive Report by Sanjiv Augustine and Arlen Bankston presents a roadmap that distills and elevates six core steps for migrating from plan-driven management (PDM) to agile project management (APM) and illustrates how they're manifested in successful projects today.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2008/01/index.html

The Project Concept Phase: Part II -- Is Crowdsourcing a Good Strategy?

15 Jan 2008 20:15:32 GMT

Bennatan, E.M. | Executive Updates | 15 January 2008 | Agile Project Management

There are many hollow buzzwords floating around, and "crowdsourcing" may sound like one, but it isn't. It is a fascinating term that was coined just a couple of years ago [2], and if you google it, you'll get more than half a million hits. Crowdsourcing refers to the way consumers participate in the creation of the products they use, and it has caught on quickly.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0802.html

Negotiating Resources, Deliverables, and Deadlines Within the Global Organization

1 Dec 2007 20:13:56 GMT

Cohen, Moshe | Executive Reports | 01 December 2007 | Agile Project Management

The business environment is increasingly dominated by multinational work teams in which project groups are often located in different countries and come from many cultures with distinct customs, languages, communication styles, social expectations, and work habits. To be effective, managers must negotiate for the resources they require, as well as the deliverables and deadlines on their projects, with an understanding of how cultural differences affect the way people negotiate. In this Executive Report by Moshe Cohen, we examine ways that managers can discard their existing assumptions and learn to identify new principles and practices that will lead to productive relationships and success on their projects.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2007/12/index.html

Call for Papers: Project Management 2.0: Is Project Management Ready for the Emerging Global Organization Environment?

10 Feb 2008 20:11:31 GMT

Cutter IT Journal invites useful, innovative and thoughtful debate on the complex issues around project management in the new global environment.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers02.html

Agile Transitions, Part 7: Alternative Practice Strategies

7 Jan 2008 20:10:13 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 07 February 2008 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and these transitions involve larger segments of such organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational rollout strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. This Advisor continues on the topic of practice strategies, specifically the variety of alternatives to be considered.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080207.html

Alpine-Style Systems Development

31 Jan 2008 19:44:21 GMT

Collier, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 31 January 2008 | Agile Project Management; Business Intelligence

I'm a bit of an armchair climber and mountaineer. I don't have much talent or experience, but I'm fascinated by the trials and travails of climbing high mountains like Everest, Annapurna, and others that rise to over 8,000 meters above sea level. These expeditions are complicated affairs involving challenging planning and logistics; a high degree of risk and uncertainty; a high probability of death (for every two climbers who reach the top of Annapurna, another one dies trying!); difficult decisions in the face of uncontrollable variables; and incredible rewards when success is achieved. While it may not be as adventuresome, building complex business intelligence (BI) systems is a lot like high-altitude climbing. We face lots of risk and uncertainty, complex planning, difficult decisions in the heat of battle, and the likelihood of death! OK, maybe not that last part, but you get the analogy. Unfortunately, the success rate in building BI systems isn't very much better than the success rate of high-altitude mountaineering expeditions.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080131.html

Scaling or Not, Agile Dynamics Beat Agile Mechanics Time After Time -- Or, What's Your Personal Agility Quotient?

24 Jan 2008 16:16:57 GMT

Avery, Christopher M. | E-Mail Advisors | 24 January 2008 | Agile Project Management

Industry insiders, experts, and analysts have opined for years that the real problem in scaling agile beyond a few teams is cultural. Agile processes and tools -- i.e., the "mechanics" -- just don't flow well in command-and-control cultures. What's missing? The dynamics of personal agility.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080124.html

The Project Concept Phase: Part 1 -- The Reality Check Between Idea and Implementation

1 Jan 2008 15:50:07 GMT

Bennatan, E.M. | Executive Updates | 01 January 2008 | Agile Project Management

An article in BusinessWeek a few years ago claimed that [all] programmers are artists [3]. If this is true, should we really expect most software projects to have a concept phase? Well, apparently they have, according to a recent Cutter Consortium survey. The survey found that for most software development organizations, the concept phase is an effective means of ensuring that only the right products get developed.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2008/apmu0801.html

Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies Webinar

17 Jan 2008 13:43:12 GMT

Mah, Michael C. | Webinars/Multimedia | 17 January 2008 | Agile Project Management

In this hour-long Webinar, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Michael Mah shares with you how five companies, all ostensibly "agile," produced a range of quantitative results and what the resultant implications were on time-to-market, staffing, and quality.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/webinar/2008/agileproductivity.html

Agile Transitions, Part 6: Rollout Strategies for Your Culture

17 Jan 2008 13:42:13 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 17 January 2008 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational rollout strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. This Advisor continues on the topic of rollout strategies; specifically those dealing with culture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080117.html

On Large Projects, Velocity Matters, Part 2

17 Jan 2008 13:40:54 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 17 January 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management; Innovation

If you get a chance, you ought to tune in to Cutter Senior Consultant Michael Mah's Cutter Webinar titled "Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies." [This morning, January 17, at 11:30 EST -- you can still register now or watch the recording at a later date.] I've been working with Michael recently, and he has been giving me a prebriefing on the findings. I don't want to give too much away, but Michael's research has uncovered a number of organizations that are doing very well on large, agile projects. This is really encouraging, since one of the criticisms of agile development has always been that it wouldn't work on really large projects.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080117.html

Understanding the Surf Line

18 Jan 2008 13:31:24 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 10 January 2008 | Agile Project Management

If you do agile planning, you probably use the "yesterday's weather" metaphor of Extreme Programming: your team collects the backlog of stories or features, sorts them by priority, and estimates them -- let's say, using story points. Then you take the "velocity" -- the sum of story points finished during the last iteration(s). This determines the "waterline": stories above the waterline have a good chance to be finished during the next period; stories below have a good chance not to be addressed.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080110.html

Call for Papers: Project Management 2.0: Is Project Management Ready for the Emerging Global Organization Environment?

9 Jan 2008 14:52:47 GMT

Thomsett, Rob | 31 January 2008 | Cutter IT Journal

Cutter IT Journal invites useful, innovative and thoughtful debate on the complex issues around project management in the new global environment.

http://www.cutter.com/content-and-analysis/journals-and-reports/cutter-it-journal/callforpapers02.html

Software Project Success and Failure: Part II

15 Dec 2007 17:28:00 GMT

El Emam, Khaled | Executive Updates | 15 December 2007 | Agile Project Management

In Part I of this two-part Executive Update series (Vol. 8, No 23), I examined the cancellation rate for software projects, what differentiates those that are cancelled from those that deliver a product, and some of the factors that influence the successful completion of projects, with analysis based on a worldwide Cutter Consortium survey. Here in Part II, I continue my analysis of factors that affect a project's outcome.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2007/apmu0724.html

Software Project Success and Failure: Part I

1 Dec 2007 17:17:17 GMT

El Emam, Khaled | Executive Updates | 01 December 2007 | Agile Project Management

There is a general belief in the information systems community, among developers, managers, and users, that the failure rate of software projects is unacceptably high. It is not unusual to still hear and see references to a "software crisis" at conferences, despite some important paradigm shifts in thinking that have occurred over the last decade (e.g., the introduction of agile methods and the increasing use of iterative development approaches, which have been expected to reduce project cancellation rates). Has this actually happened?

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2007/apmu0723.html

Agile Transitions, Part 5: Organizational Issues

3 Jan 2008 17:00:20 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 03 January 2008 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational rollout strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. This Advisor addresses organizational rollout strategies; specifically those dealing with organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2008/apm080103.html

If Agile Were to Go Mainstream

3 Jan 2008 16:59:13 GMT

Mah, Michael | E-Mail Advisors | 03 January 2008 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management

If agile methods are to go mainstream, it might be when their popularity and legitimacy reach a tipping point. An example that this could be happening is a recent New York Times article called "Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft" (16 December 2007), which Cutter colleague Ken Orr wrote about in a Cutter Trends Advisor titled"Velocity Matters: Google, Microsoft, and Hyper-Agility, Part 1" (20 December 2007). The articles are about Google going after Microsoft's customer base using something called its "cloud" computing framework. But Ken's interpretation of the Google-Microsoft confrontation emphasizes the time-to-market advantages that Google's software development lifecycle has over Microsoft's. Google is apparently practicing a more agile, iterative-style approach (sometimes quarterly) to releasing software, while Microsoft is more tied to the big-bang, multiyear cycle for its products.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2008/btt080103.html

An Agile Approach to Master Data Management

27 Dec 2007 19:53:12 GMT

Ambler, Scott W. | E-Mail Advisors | 27 December 2007 | Agile Project Management

The primary goals of master data management (MDM) are to promote a shared foundation of common data definitions within your organization, to reduce data inconsistency across the enterprise, and to improve overall return on your IT investment. MDM, when it is done effectively, is an important supporting activity for service-oriented architecture (SOA) at the enterprise level, for enterprise architecture overall, for business intelligence (BI) efforts, and for software development projects in general.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071227.html

Velocity Matters: Google, Microsoft, and Hyper-Agility, Part 1

20 Dec 2007 19:47:17 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 20 December 2007 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management; Innovation

A recent New York Times article "Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft" (16 December 2007) talks about the growing perception that Google is set on attacking Microsoft's base with a whole set of Web- and mobile-based software applications. While the article touches on the historical battles between the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt, and Microsoft leaders Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer (when Schmidt was with Sun Microsystems and Novell), it is mostly about the contrast between how Google and Microsoft develop software.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2007/btt071220.html

Agile Transitions, Part 4

20 Dec 2007 19:46:16 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 20 December 2007 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods, and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational rollout strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. This Advisor addresses organizational rollout strategies.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071220.html

New Webinar: Case Study: The Impact of Agile on Productivity at Five Companies

17 Dec 2007 19:55:16 GMT

Mah, Michael | Events | 17 January 2008 | Agile Project Management In this hour-long Webinar, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Michael Mah shares with you how five companies, all ostensibly "agile," produced a range of quantitative results and what the resultant implications were on time-to-market, staffing, and quality. http://www.cutter.com/events/multimedia/agileproductivity.html

Transitioning to Agile Project Management: Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water Webinar

13 Dec 2007 19:54:14 GMT

Augustine, Sanjiv | Webinars/Multimedia | 13 December 2007 | Agile Project Management

Does your organization have a history of PMBOK-style management? Has it traditionally encouraged PMP certification? More and more organizations like this are incorporating Agile Project Management principles into their existing practices. In this hour-long Webinar, Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Sanjiv Augustine will divulge how your PMBOK-style management expertise can be best leveraged when managing Agile projects. Sanjiv, a well-known Agile practitioner, has personally managed agile projects varying in size from five to over one hundred people and coached numerous project teams; in this webinar, he shares that hands-on experience with you.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/webinar/2007/transitioning.html

Overcoming Obstacles to Test-Driven Development

13 Dec 2007 19:48:11 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 13 December 2007 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

One of the most innovative practices of agile development is a contribution from extreme programming: test-driven development (TDD). Briefly, TDD is the art of building a software system along a growing set of automated developer tests, usually unit tests. This is comprised of a disciplined series of tiny steps to add new functionality:
http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071213.html

Agile Transitions, Part 3

6 Dec 2007 14:41:47 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 06 December 2007 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

The last Advisors in this series identified the eight categories of benefits -- portfolio profile, increase customer satisfaction, reduce time to benefit, reduce risk, reduce cost, improve investment management, improve product management, create a responsive culture -- and described all but the last. This Advisor addresses creating a responsive culture.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071206.html

Emulating the "Bazaar": Open Source-Style Development Within the Firm

1 Nov 2007 14:56:22 GMT

Feller, Joseph | Executive Reports | 01 November 2007 | Agile Project Management

Open source software products are generally developed by geographically distributed communities that share knowledge and collaborate using Internet technologies. This Executive Report by Joseph Feller poses the following question: can firms effectively implement the tools and techniques used by open source software projects to improve their internal software development processes? The report attempts to answer that question by discussing the open source development process, describing the experiences of companies that have tried to internalize open source tools and techniques, and offering recommendations for firms that would seek to do the same.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/reports/2007/11/index.html

Credibility: Using Boosters

29 Nov 2007 14:46:21 GMT

Williams, Laurie | E-Mail Advisors | 29 November 2007 | Agile Project Management

Skeptics can be swayed by credibility boosters. The fact that XP was authored by Kent Beck was meaningful for a percentage of the industry. After all, Beck had already brought the world CRC cards, was very influential with Smalltalk and design patterns, and was a well-known and active figure in the programming language community. XP had more credibility coming from Beck than if it came from John Doe from Anytown, West Virginia. However, Beck and the other 16 consultants had one distinct credibility disadvantage -- they served to gain financially from the adoption of Agile methodologies. At the time, the only way to adopt an Agile methodology was to hire one of them as a trainer or coach or to buy one of their books. Still today, a recent Cutter survey indicates that 17% of Agile transitions are being led by an external coach and 8% by an external training organization.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071129.html

A Consistent Approach, Where Needed

28 Nov 2007 15:58:51 GMT

Brosseau, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 28 November 2007 | Cutter IT Journal; Agile Project Management

It is good to have a standard way of doing the things we do often. My wife has a way of dealing with the laundry as it goes from hamper to washer to dryer to drawers. I have my own system for making sure the dishwasher is as packed as possible while still making sure the items come out clean. We each have our own distinct way of getting the kids ready for school in the morning, and it is best to let one person take the reins if we are both around.

http://www.cutter.com/content/itjournal/fulltext/advisor/2007/itj071128.html

From the Horse's Mouth

21 Nov 2007 14:55:18 GMT

Kellen, Vince | E-Mail Advisors | 21 November 2007 | Business-IT Strategies; Agile Project Management

While it is obvious that firms exist to serve customers, it is not so obvious why business and IT strategy often does not start nor end with the customer. Over and over, I have worked with organizations that, while they genuflect before the customer altar, show up in church only once a year.

http://www.cutter.com/content/alignment/fulltext/advisor/2007/bit071121.html

Software Productivity -- Bad News and Good News

21 Nov 2007 14:54:11 GMT

Orr, Ken | E-Mail Advisors | 21 November 2007 | Business Technology Trends & Impacts; Agile Project Management

First, the bad news: a month or two ago, I was talking to one of my good friends, who also happens to be one of the world's great students of software productivity. I asked him why it was that there was very little discussion in the press about software productivity. His response was that, from his data, there hadn't been very much improvement over the last decade or so. He said that probably three-fourths of the organizations he'd studied hadn't improved very much, if at all. Of the other 25% or so, roughly half had increased their productivity and the other half had actually decreased theirs. I found this intriguing but not very surprising, considering some of the development organizations that I've encountered over the last few years. My friend suggested that the most likely reason for this lack of productivity increase was the dramatic increase in software complexity.

http://www.cutter.com/content/trends/fulltext/advisor/2007/btt071121.html

Agile Transitions, Part 2

21 Nov 2007 14:52:23 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 21 November 2007 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. Just as agile project teams are taught to adapt to changing circumstances during projects, agile transition teams need both strategies to move forward and the ability to adapt these general strategies to their particular situations. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational roll-out strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. I will address these issues in this series of Advisors. This is the second article on agile vision (see "Agile Transitions, Part 1," 8 November 2007), in which I answer the following questions:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071121.html

Compared to What? A Look at Application Development Benchmarks Webinar

15 Nov 2007 19:45:54 GMT

Mah, Michael | Webinars/Multimedia | 15 November 2007 | Agile Project Management

How much will your next software development project cost? How does that stack up to what organizations of similar size spend? How should you staff that project? What level of reliability should you expect? Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Michael Mah along with his colleagues at QSM, Inc., has analyzed more than 500 IT projects in 16 countries across 16 industries in order to understand:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/webinar/2007/appdevbench.html

The Agile IT Organization: Diffusion into the IT-Savvy Businesshttp://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2007/apmu0722.html

15 Nov 2007 19:43:47 GMT

Lodahl, Thomas M.; Redditt, Kay Lewis | Executive Updates | 15 November 2007 | Agile Project Management

Despite some of the rhetoric we hear, agile development is not a religion. It is a methodology for identifying and building the right application to meet a business need. It involves close interaction between the business client(s) and the developers from the outset, small teams, colocation in a "bullpen" setting, frequent builds or iterations ("Did we get this part right?"), high trust and openness among members, and very high work involvement.

http://www.cutter.com/project/fulltext/updates/2007/apmu0722.html

The Role of Abstractions

15 Nov 2007 19:39:42 GMT

Coldewey, Jens | E-Mail Advisors | 15 November 2007 | Agile Project Management; Enterprise Risk Management & Governance

Software development is about building abstractions, right? We try to understand the customers and build abstract domain models out of their concepts and ideas; out of that we build new abstractions named code, an abstract virtual machine interprets this code, and during the interpretation it uses another abstraction -- the database schema -- to store the information, and so on. After working with software for more than 20 years in university and industry, I thought I knew at least the core rules of abstraction. I found I was wrong when I met Dave West, an agile consultant and anthropologist and learned from him about the different types of abstractions anthropologists talk about:

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071115.html

Agile Transitions, Part 1

8 Nov 2007 19:28:40 GMT

Highsmith, Jim | E-Mail Advisors | 08 November 2007 | Agile Project Management

As more organizations face transitions to agile methods and those transitions involve larger segments of those organizations, the need for transition or transformation strategies increases. Just as agile project teams are taught to adapt to changing circumstances during projects, agile transition teams need both strategies to move forward and the ability to adapt these general strategies to their particular situations. We have found that agile transitions involve six key areas: agile vision, organizational roll-out strategy, practice strategy, methodology support strategy, integration strategy, and development environment. I will address these issues in this series of Advisors, starting with agile vision.

http://www.cutter.com/content/project/fulltext/advisor/2007/apm071108.html