Tag Archives: Agile

Lightweight Context/Specification BDD in C#

Posted on January 19, 2012 by efarr

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) provides all of the engineering benefits of traditional Test-Driven Development (TDD) while additionally resulting in a specification that non-developers can read and validate. At its heart, BDD transforms the tests of TDD into specifications. Those specifications are … Continue reading →

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Sprint Planning and Decision Fatigue

Posted on September 21, 2011 by efarr

This article explores the physiological and psychological effects of fatigue brought on by making decisions. The fatigue that comes from making decision after decision immediately reminded me of my team’s Scrum sprint planning days. The Scrum method breaks software development … Continue reading →

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Shifting from Scrum to Kanban

Posted on July 6, 2011 by efarr

My team had been following (more or less) the Scrum process for two years. The Scrum rhythm of biweekly planning, demo, and retrospective with daily stand-ups served us well most of the time. However, we have since shifted to a … Continue reading →

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Peopleware: An Aging Classic

Posted on July 3, 2011 by efarr

Some months ago I was telling a friend at work how everyone in the software industry should read Peopleware by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister I have always said that Peopleware should be required reading for anyone who manages software … Continue reading →

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Unit Tests Just a Happy Side Effect of Test-Driven Development

Posted on January 17, 2009 by Eric Farr

Interviewing developers has given me an interesting, although not scientific, sampling of the thinking and mindset of software developers in the Atlanta area. While there have been a few bright spots, most of what I’ve learned has been disheartening. I … Continue reading →

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Craftsmanship over Compromise

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Eric Farr

(Uncle) Bob Martin made a keynote address at Agile 2008 where he spoke about many of the concepts in his book Clean Code. In that talk, he proposed amending the Agile Manifesto to add the value of “Craftsmanship over Crap.” … Continue reading →

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Looking for a ScrumMaster

Posted on December 2, 2008 by Eric Farr

[Update 1/29/2009: I'm happy to report that we are no longer looking!] We (Agentek) are looking for an experienced ScrumMaster. If you know of someone in the Atlanta area that is looking for a position with a growing company that … Continue reading →

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Pair Programming Resources

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Eric Farr

Looking for a Good, Free Resource After introducing the concept of pair programming, I went looking for (free, of course) resources to further explain how it worked and what the benefits are. At first I was surprised at how little … Continue reading →

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Introducing Pair Programming: Trying is Believing

Posted on November 13, 2008 by Eric Farr

I was a long-time skeptic of pair programming. More than anything I think I was resistant because the prospect of sharing a keyboard with another developer sounded unappealing, even if it worked. Like most developers, I like to tinker with … Continue reading →

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