Agile Artisans

You Might Be An Agile Redneck If ...

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I saw a retweeted Twitter entry from a user named Agile Redneck, and I'd listened to way too much of XM Radio's comedy station Blue Collar Comedy. And I was inspired. Between conferences and clients, we've all seen a lot of insane "Agile" teams. So I started twittering a few. Then a few more. I finally decided to turn this into a blog entry.

Please don't let it stop here though... post your own. :) I have no idea who started the Agile Redneck account, but let's help them out with the crazy stuff we've seen too.

If you have your daily standups once a week, you might be an Agile redneck
If you think Agile is a synonym for XP or Scrum (or both!), you might be an Agile redneck
If your "continous integration" system requires you to push a button, you might be an Agile redneck
If you don't know what work your pairing part

Leaving Pillar and Returning to Logos

Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

If you've been keeping up with me on my Twitter account, then you know I've been commuting to Columbus, Ohio from North Carolina each week for the last four months. When I started working at Pillar, the intention was pretty clear to all parties. I was to work in North Carolina and help Pillar expand into another region. Unfortunately, the execution suffered a bit. For a variety of reasons, Pillar wanted me to work in Ohio for this first engagement... not ideal, but I was willing to do it. We agreed that I'd be there for one or two months... that was stretched to six. However, when they started asking if I'd continue to working in Ohio after this engagement, it became clear that working in North Carolina while associated with Pillar wasn't going to happen, so I started talking to several North Carolina companies.

At nearly the same time my former employer, Logos Technology, contacted me to see if I'd be interested in returning. The timing was perfect, and t

Southern Fried Agile!

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There's an Agile conference in Charlotte this Friday called (wait for it!) Southern Fried Agile. (I'll bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?) It'll be a great mix of topics and speakers and is a steal at this price. It's $70 for the entire day.

I'm speaking on Agile Testing Strategies (Defect Driven Testing anyone?), and you can find a complete list of speakers and topics on this page

I'd hoped to do a more complete write-up on the conference, but I've been very busy lately. Let me say that it'll be great chance to hear several excellent speakers (and me!) without breaking the bank.

If you're in the southeastern region, let me encourage to come out! If you're not, let me encourage you to host an event of your own just like this one!

Southern Fried Agile

Have fun

Some of My DZone Articles

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Here are a few links to my DZone articles that you'll enjoy.

Embrace Your Inner Stupid talks about ongoing learning and humility.

Code Like Kudzu deals with removing obstacles. Probably not the best choice of metaphors. :)

What is Great Software? delves into more than "It compiled. Ship it!

Agile Isn't Latin is a rant about people who invoke Agile to rationalize their laziness.

Exerciese, Good Choices, and DDT is another call to arms on starting today.

Tips and Suggestions for Your First Iteration is exactly what the title would lead you to th

Stepped Down As the Agile Zone Leader at DZone

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I twittered and posted on FaceBook about stepping down and several people have pinged me privately to ask why. There's no big secret in it... I'm staying really, really busy these days. Let me walk you through it.

I'm commuting weekly to Columbus, Ohio. There are no direct flights, so it's 5+ hours on planes, in airports, waiting for thunderstorms to disperse, or it's an 8 hour drive. I've been driving (which is much more fun than small seats in regional jets.)

In Columbus (actually Dublin, Ohio), I'm working with a company that's making the jump from a traditional model to an Agile software process. We're working with developers, testers, support, sales, leadership, and more. It's a very fun and very rewarding engagement, but it's also very involved and requires long hours some days. Agile transformations are hard work, but really fun too.

I've started sketching out a new book... I'm leaning towards a quilting or alchemy metaphor, but it will be a book on how to blend v

Stop Whining and Get Started!

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0000

I talked to a few friends this week who are at companies who hired them, and told them at the time that they were an "agile shop". But now that it's time to get working, they're being told that we're not agile yet, and it's not the right time. But we're going agile RSN (Real Soon Now.)

At the core of this issue is the same problem that countless other shops encounter. Do we do things the right way today, or do we fall back into old habits? It's easy to sit back and decide to make the right strategic moves, but, when the pressure is on, just fall back into our old habits.

If you really see the value in the core Agile practices, then DO THEM. Today.

People, this is just like exercise. If you wait until you feel like lifting weights, you'll never start. If you take your pain and soreness into account, the aftermath of exercise the next day, then you'll stop exercising and eventually die young.

People, Agile practices really work, but only if you use th

Dzone Agile Posts

Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000
I've written three DZone posts for the Agile Zone this week. So far I'm focusing on basic Agile practices, taken from XP, Scrum, lean, etc. I'm a very pragmatic person, and I try to focus on what works.
If you'd like to read them, you can find them here:

3x5 Cards: What a Waste!

Hard Stop Iterations: No Where to Hide

The Best Way to Keep Your Product Moving Forward

DZone has a comment system set up. Feel free to join and start a discussion.
Update: DZone just posted a video interview with me as well The Pitfalls of Agile Going Mainstream

Many Changes in the Last Year

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000
The last year has had a lot of big changes for me. The year has gone by so quickly that I've not blogged about most of them, but I'm starting to blog more frequently, and I wanted to catch you up on what I'm doing and where I've been.
This site, Agile Artisans, has suffered from neglect. I'm not speaking at nearly as many conferences and have intended to convert the speaking column at the right to a Twitter feed. I post a lot of quick items on Twitter than I would've put into a blog entry in years past. I've not updated the writing pages, etc, either.
My professional status has also changed a great deal. Last year at this time I was working with NFJS One, but I resigned last fall. Shortly thereafter I was no longer speaking at the NFJS events. :( Not unexpected, but disappointing anyway. Over the last six years I've met an incredible array of attendees and speakers. It's a great experience that was a great career move for me.
Last fall, after leaving NF

Five Things You Can Do to Boost Your Career

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0000
The economy is starting to recover in spots. Are you ready for it? How well positioned are you to take advantadge of the recovery?

When things begin looking good again, will you be in survival mode, treading water until your strength gives out? Or will you have positioned yourself well enough that you maximize your return?
Here are five things you can do today to position yourself as an 'overnight success' in the next year or two.

Join your local user group. Whether you're into Java, .Net, Ruby, or Agile, there's probably a great group in your neighborhood already. Meetup.com is a great place to start looking for one.

Join a few national mailing lists. Both Yahoo Groups and Google Groups house thousands of mailings on topics from Agile to lean to test automation and more.

Attend local miniconferences. Here in Scrum on Wikipedia

Agile Software Development on Wikipedia

Continuous Integration on Wikipedia

Anything from the Pragmatic Programmers
Practices of an Agile Developer

Ship It! is more of general title, but I'm very close to the author, so had to include it. ;)

Mike