We decided to try a brand new concept for the next Agile Q&A Panel.

It is called the Agile Buffet Table and will be held on May 24th, Thursday.

The topic of the webinar will evolve around the fact that you don’t need to follow all agile principles per se. Instead you can create and implement a process that matches your own needs. Take a look at the agenda for the webinar and see what’s in it for you.

1. What is a buffet?
2. Understanding the buffet table – knowing what to choose from
3. Filling your plate – how to choose ...

Do you have a long list of Agile books you want to read? Here is your chance to get all of them for free.

The only thing you need to do is to share your wishlist with us and circle us on Google+. And that is how you enter the draw.

The idea is to create a place where we all exchange wishlists of Agile books. They might consist brand new books. Or good old classics. That is up to you.

You have probably wondered which reads are recommended by the Agile coaches, or which books are in their own ...

Adopting and scaling Agile is a challenging and long process. For everyone. That is why we would like to invite you to our free Q&A panel on The Challenges of Agile Project Management. The event is hosted by our experts who have more than 60 years cumulative experience coaching and implementing Agile.

Join our moderated interactive panel and get to meet them:

Joel Semeniuk
Microsoft Regional Director, MVP Microsoft ALM, and Executive VP of Agile Project Management at Telerik

Philip Japikse
Microsoft MVP, Agile Practices Evangelist at Telerik

 Steve Porter
Agile Expert and ...

There is an overabundance of tools on the market today. Some of these tools span across various landscape areas of development processes where some tool choices only target specific areas.

“The application development software market will grow modestly through 2015, when it will reach $10.1 billion in revenue. New applications, consumption models, devices and developers are driving evolution of the AD space.”

Gartner
Market Trends: Application Development Software, Worldwide, 2011-2015

To save you time and effort we have compiled 7 of the most important characteristics that organizations should consider when investing in tooling that supports their Agile management practices and teams. ...

We’ve all heard it in our personal relationships, whether it’s a partner, parent, or child.  You ask a question, and the dreaded answer comes – “Fine”.  What’s wrong with that answer, you ask?  It’s not the word.  It’s the deep ambiguity behind it.  What I have learned in 15 years of marriage is that there is always a story behind that simple word, and have learned how to probe to find it.

Think about this in your work environment.  One of the problems with the traditional (or waterfall) development methodology is a lack of continuous, structured communication.  Oh sure, there ...

At a single glance.

That’s what it should take to know when something isn’t right on your projects.

Knowing that something is wrong with your project should be as easy as glancing at a visual indicator. You shouldn’t have to interpret anything. You shouldn’t have to be an expert in metrics or project analysis. You should easily be able to tell that something isn’t right … with a single glance.

Monitor and control systems have been around since the dawn of innovation. We see these types of systems all over industry – simple and intuitive displays representing the health of ...

Imagine the scene.  You are starting a new project.  At the kickoff meeting the stakeholder introduces the mission of the project, the business analyst hands out the requirements document, the project manager hands out the project plan, and the development manager gives his best “Do it for the Gipper” speech.  You look through the project plan and see that it specifies a release date (several months in the future), the resources that will be involved, major milestones to be met, and everyone’s assignments.

The team looks over the stack of paper in front of them, and roll their eyes. “Here ...

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” – Mark Twain

Mark Twain wasn’t a Software Development manager in any way; however, his words still resonate very accurately when it comes to how you can get started adopting Agile project management techniques.

Here are the top 5 practices you can use TODAY regardless of your situation or environment.

1.Don’t call it “Agile” – The term Agile seems to have become fatigued or simply over/misused. In some organizations it ...

Sounds simple.

Why is it so hard then?

First, what do I mean when I say “Know Thy Customer?”  Ultimately I mean that the best teams have customer value at the heart of their software development processes – they truly “Know Thy Customer”.   I’m not saying anything new – however, I do want to talk about how to take this beyond simply “proclaiming” you know your customer or that you have a prioritized backlog down to some ways you can execute and engage.

I’ve made many mistakes in my almost 20 years of developing software.  Lots and lots of technical ...

I’ve said this very often – and I’ll say it one more time.

Agile isn’t just about software development. It can be effective to manage your entire business.

I’m a huge believer that many aspects of Agile should be applied to business – especially management and sales approaches.

In his book Enterprise Scrum, Ken Schwaber introduces the idea of using Scrum at the enterprise level.  I don’t think we need to stop at Scrum to apply Agile to Business development, sales, or virtually any corporate initiative.  The principles hold true.  This is becoming more and more apparent as I ...