Summary
Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber spoke at Agile2006 on code quality as a corporate asset. InfoQ presents video of his talk, The Canary in the Coalmine. Schwaber discussed how a degrading core codebase paralyses a team and negates any Agility gained through process improvement. He proposed strategies for management to identify, track and stop this downward spiral.

Bio
Ken Schwaber (www.controlchaos.com) codeveloped Scrum with Jeff Sutherland in the early 1990s. A 30-year IT veteran and an Agile Manifesto signatory, he subsequently founded the AgileAlliance, a nonprofit organization dedicated to training and supporting Scrum practitioners.

About the conference

Read more about this video…

Summary
Bob Martin of Object Mentor presents the first of his five principles of agile design. Beginning with an explanation of the real purpose of object-oriented design - the management of dependencies - Bob walks through a code example to illustrate how dependencies can be managed with abstractions, and that good designs are those in which high-level abstractions do not depend on low-level details.

Bio
"Uncle" Bob Martin helped create the Agile Manifesto, is a leading authority on Agile software development, and has authored books on Agile Programming, XP, UML, O-O Programming, and C++. Bob is the founder, CEO, and president of Object Mentor, whose professionals provide process improvement consulting, o-o design consulting, training, and development services. http://www.objectmentor.com/

About the conference

Read more about this video…

Summary
Like other leaders in the Agile community, Scott Ambler is passionate about expanding Agile practices to include all contributors to software success. Recently he has been teaching teams how to integrate database roles into the iterative, incremental rhythm of their teams. InfoQ captured Ambler's talk on Database Refactoring at Agile2006.

Bio
Scott Ambler is Practice Leader Agile Development within the IBM Methods group in Ontario, Canada. He has worked in the IT industry since the mid 1980s, with object technology since the early 1990s, and is a recognized leader in the Agile software community. He is a Fellow of the International Association of Software Architects, and an Eclipse Process Framework (EPF) committer. www.ambysoft.com

About the conference

Read more about this video…

Summary
Prominent practitioners and writers introduced four popular approaches at Agile2006 in the "Agile Styles" talk. In the first half of the presentation, Alistair Cockburn talked about his Crystal Methodologies and David J. Anderson presented Feature Driven Development (FDD).

Bio
Dr. Alistair Cockburn (alistair.cockburn.us) is a renowned project witchdoctor / IT strategist, author of "Agile Software Development: The Cooperative Game," and co-author of the Agile Manifesto. David J. Anderson (www.agilemanagement.net) helped create FDD in the late '90s, authored "Agile Management for Software Engineering," and co-authored the APLN's Declaration of Interdependence in 2005.

About the conference

Read more about this video…

Summary
Tim Lister explains the principles of Agile Project Leadership in the framework of the Declaration of Interdependence.

Bio
Tim Lister has over 30 years of software development experience, is a keynoter and author of books including "Managing Software Project Risk", and "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams". Tim is currently working on tailoring SD processes using software risk management techniques at Atlantic Systems Guild Inc.

About the conference
The Agile Alliance organizes the Agile series conference, which bring together all the key people in the Agile space to talk about techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of agile software development.

Read more about this video…

Summary
This second Agile2006 Agile Styles video looks at DSDM and Lean. Jean Tabaka covered the history and principles of the venerable DSDM methodology, founded in 1994 and now accepted in the UK for use on government contracts. Mary Poppendieck gave real examples of how the 7 Lean principles provide competitive advantage, and discussed the relationship between quality, speedy delivery and low cost.

Bio
Jean Tabaka is an Agile Coach / Facilitator (rallydev.com) who moved to agile after studying DSDM in the 1990's. She authored "Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders." Mary Poppendieck (poppendieck.com) teaches and consults worldwide on Lean principles for software. Her approach identifies real business value and enables product teams to realize that value.

About the conference
The Agile Alliance organizes the Agile series conference, which bring together all the key people in the Agile space to talk about techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of agile software development.

Read more about this video…

Summary
This half hour presentation looks at a Fortune 500 company's effort to achieve faster time to market by transitioning from RUP to Agile. At Agile2006 Hussman & Stenstad revealed the gradual process from readiness assessment and chartering through education and practice to the creation of an adaptive culture with a "living plan", sharing lessons learned along the way.

Bio
David Hussman leads DevJam www.devjam.biz, an international collaboration of Agile practitioners. He has coached agile teams all over the world and created software for domains from digital biometrics to education. Tor Stenstad www.torstenstad.com is executive information officer for the Decisioning Support Engine team at Minneapolis-based GMAC-RFC (Residential Finance Group).

About the conference
The Agile Alliance organizes an annual international Agile conference, which brings together the key people in the Agile space to talk about techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of Agile software development.

Read more about this video…

Summary
Ron Jeffries' upcoming book looks at how tracking "Running Tested Features" is the essential element of Agility, from which all other practices and activities necessarily follow. Deborah Hartmann interviews Ron who takes to the whiteboard to explain how, when supported by XP's "simple design" practice, RTF helps teams deliver consistently without building up costly technical debt.

Bio
Ron Jeffries, an independent consultant in XP and Agile methods (www.XProgramming.com) has been developing software longer than most people have been alive. Ron was the on-site coach for the original XP project, authored Extreme Programming Adventures in C#, and Extreme Programming Installed, and co-created Object Mentor's popular XP Immersion course.

Read more about this video…

Summary
At Agile2006 InfoQ interviewed Alistair Cockburn, methodology creator, author and long-time leader in the Agile community. Topics discussed ranged from the history of the Agile movement to the future of methodologies, with a look at User Stories and Use Cases along the way. This interview uncovers how his research for IBM may have sparked the creation of the Agile Manifesto.

Bio
Dr. Alistair Cockburn (alistair.cockburn.us) is an internationally renowned project witchdoctor and IT strategist, best known for his book Agile Software Development which describes software development as a cooperative game, and for helping craft the Agile Manifesto. He is a principal expositor of the Use Case technique for documenting business processes and behavioral requirements for software.

Read more about this video…

Summary
In this offbeat presentation from Agile2006, Jean Tabaka compares impediments and obstacles encountered by an Agile mentor with those detailed in Homer's classic. In this 73 minutes presentation, discover who plays which classical roles in Agile adoption: Cyclops, the Sirens, Poseidon, Circe, Cicones, the Lotus-Eaters, and even the good-and-faithful dog Argus.

Bio
Jean Tabaka is an Agile Coach (rallydev.com) who moved to agile after studying DSDM in the 1990's. Jean is a Certified ScrumMaster and Practitioner, a Certified ScrumMaster Trainer, and a Certified Professional Facilitator. She holds a Masters in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University and is the author of "Collaboration Explained: Facilitation Skills for Software Project Leaders".

About the conference
The Agile Alliance organizes the Agile series conference, which bring together all the key people in the Agile space to talk about techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of agile software development.

Read more about this video…

Summary
Last year Agile coach Alexia Bowers walked a mile in a project customer's shoes, and told us how it felt in this Agile2006 Leadership Summit presentation. She stressed the need to strive for creative solutions instead of simply cutting scope.

Bio
Alexia "Lex" Bowers co-founded Ternary Software, spearheading its initial adoption of Scrum and XP. As an Agile PM and practitioner she helps teams understand WHY the practices work while working with them, hands on. Lex holds Masters degrees in Software Eng. and in Cognitive and Neural Psych., and is fluent in models of personality type, team dynamics, and organizational theory.

About the conference
The Agile Alliance organizes an annual international Agile conference, which brings together the key people in the Agile space to talk about techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of Agile software development.

Read more about this video…

Summary
Per Kroll is responsible for developing and managing RUP at Rational. In the interview, Per shares insights from his book 'Agility and Discipline', Agile practices for distributed development, how RUP is changing to support teams that want to customize it, and RUP vs. Agile.

Bio
Per Kroll is a director at Rational Software Corporation, where he's responsible for the development and management of the Rational Unified Process. Mr. Kroll has fifteen years of software development experience, working as a trainer, mentor, and consultant on RUP and its predecessors for nine years. He also certifies partners and trains Rational staff in delivering services around the RUP.

Read more about this video…

Summary
Agile, once the territory of "early adopters" is coming into the mainstream and meeting resistance. Does this mean Agile can't work in more traditional teams and organizations? Not necessarily, say coaches Michael Spayd and Joe Little, in this InfoQ interview taped at Agile2006. What's needed is an awareness of the need to facilitate organizational change.

Bio
Joseph Little is a Certified Scrum Practitioner, and helps teams adopting Agile as a master coach and trainer. Michael Spayd, Principal, Cogility Consulting, helps catalyze and facilitate his clients transformation into Agile organizations. They have helped lead some of the largest enterprise Agile implementations in the US.

Read more about this video…

Summary
In this InfoQ interview, author and coach Linda Rising reflected on scientific research suggesting that we may be hardwired to work in small, collaborative teams. She also explained what led up to her popular Agile2006 talk "Are Agilists the Bonobos of the Software World?" which focused on their "make love not war" social rituals. The apes' rituals, that is.

Bio
Linda Rising is an independent software consultant with a background in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in object-based design metrics. A proponent of patterns and their application in the workplace, Linda and Mary Lynn Manns are the authors of Fearless Change: Patterns for Introducing New Ideas, and editor of Design Patterns in Communications Software, The Pattern Almanac 2000, and The Patterns Handbook.

Read more about this video…

Summary
The PM of the Eclipse Process Framework project explained at Agile2006 how IBM's Eclipse-based process tools allow teams to select the practices they want to create a customized methodology that works for them. With a wiki and hooks to insert custom in-house documentation and practices, it provides a framework to configure the approach you want, or to grow into the approach you need.

Bio
Per Kroll is a director at Rational Software Corporation, where he's responsible for the development and management of the Rational Unified Process (RUP). He is also PM for the Eclipse Process Framework. Per has working as a trainer, mentor, and consultant on RUP and its predecessors for nine years. He also certifies partners and trains Rational staff in delivering services around the RUP.

Read more about this video…

Summary
InfoQ presents a one hour video from the APLN Leadership Summit at Agile2006, where a panel of business leaders spoke about their experiences: Bud Phillips (Capital One Financial), Israel Ganot (BMC Software), Steven Ambrose (DTE Energy), Peter George (Cronos Inc.). Topics included top-down vs. bottom-up adoption, making the leap of faith to enterprise adoption and the value of the PMO.

Bio
The APLN was founded in 2004 by a group of people active in writing about, practicing, and evangelizing the movement towards fast, flexible, customer value driven approaches to leading projects. Their intention is to work closely with the Agile Alliance within the software community, but also to work with groups outside of software and IT to help them become better Project Leaders. www.apln.org

Read more about this video…

Summary
Of course, "anything more than 'barely sufficient' process is waste," but what does that mean for your team, or my next project? In this 60 minute presentation from the APLN Leadership Summit at Agile2006, Todd Little shared a model to help choose the right "flavour" of Agile for different kinds of projects, and discussed the importance of 'steering' throughout the project's duration.

Bio
Todd Little (tlittle@lgc.com) is Senior Development Manager for Landmark Graphics, with 25 years' software experience in quality, engineering, consulting, project management and general management. Todd is a member of the Agile Alliance board, IEEE, Society of Petroleum Engineers and is a registered Professional Engineer in the State of Texas.

About the conference
The Agile Alliance organizes the Agile series conference, which bring together all the key people in the Agile space to talk about techniques and technologies, attitudes and policies, research and experience, and the management and development sides of agile software development.

Read more about this video…