Is Scrum Like a Woman?

… sometimes they’re popular because they’re easy.

Sorry, everyone, I just couldn’t resist.
Sorry, women, but as I see it it doesn’t cut the other way.

However, in all seriousness, there’s a lot of stuff that you have to do…

Jeff Patton: Twelve emerging best practices …

On the agile-usability list, Jeff White pointed to Jeff Patton’s article, Twelve emerging best practices for adding UX work to Agile development. He asked for comments from the “more traditional agilists”. I’m not sure how traditional…

What Happens When Requirements Change During an Iteration?

I’m reviewing Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin’s forthcoming book on Agile Testing and ran across the title line in the middle of the text. I answered immediately, drawing the unwelcome attention of all here in the Borders Coffee Shop:

SHORTEN…

Technical Debt

Most of us who work with code have worked with code that slowed us down. Many of us have worked with code that was so bad it made us want to give up on maintaining the code at all. Some…

Rhetoric 101: Flip-flopping

It seems that whenever a politician modifies his or her position on something, they are accused of “flip-flopping”.

Maybe I’m unique in this, but I would like my leaders to be continually evaluating the situation, taking in new information, observing…

Bean Counters Don’t Know Bagels

There’s nothing like a bean counter when it comes to improving your shopping experience. Take Borders, for example. In their little coffee shop, a captive Seattle’s Best Coffee, they have things to eat. These are not to be confused with…

Intention and Desire

Test-Driven Development checks intention. Customer Acceptance Tests check desire.

When a programmer uses TDD, she knows what the customer desires. She thinks about what she intends to make the program do next, as a step toward what is desired. She…