Developers have been slow to adopt it, but code generation is coming into its own. This article will examine improvements which make this technology a better bet than ever before and discuss which projects can benefit most from code generation.
Code is a developer's signature on a software project, and not all developers play by the rules of good coding standards. Ensure that your development team leaves a coding legacy that not only implements the application at hand but can be understood by others and maintained during future development cycles.
Few know the evolution of Application Lifecycle Management and how the Structured Revolution of the 1970s and '80s was a major turning point in software development. This article presents a retrospective on ALM and Structured Development Life Cycles--those that shaped it, the influencing principles and the related methodologies and tools the movement spawned.
Do you want to supercharge your team, but have been told that slapping is not allowed? You could try free energy drinks and subliminal messages in your PowerPoint slides, but finding out what people value is probably a better way to go. This article explores how better to align project objectives with personal objectives to increase team motivation.
A handy spreadsheet for recording Data Warehouse QA issues, from data transformation to report generation problems.
Software delivery has changed. Projects are expected to deliver high business value and strong customer satisfaction – but faster and with fewer resources. Also, stakeholders are increasingly tech savvy and team members are globally distributed. Adapting to these changes requires next-generation project management. Join this on-demand webinar to hear Mary Gerush of Forrester Research explore the evolution of project management and outline the core capabilities, skills and knowledge that today’s project managers need to succeed.
Your Oracle code may do the job, but is it intelligible? Reusable? Use these standards to make coding simpler and easier to debug, which results in quicker programming for your team and the gift of reusability for future teams.
The next year promises to be an exciting and busy time in healthcare projects. It's is one of the few industries in the United States that has grown during the recession. The trend shows no sign of stopping, and project work is plentiful throughout the industry--especially with new initiatives and new requirements from the government that will have to be implemented.
QA in an Agile environment is very different…are your teams ready? Here we look at how QA needs to evolve in order to best support Agile development practices.
Are you signing a contract to outsource a software development project to a vendor? Ask these questions to make sure you know what you're getting and are getting what you are paying for.
Technical debt describes the cumulative consequences of cutting corners in software development, but it escapes the attention of many project managers as they focus on scope and schedule. That’s a mistake because it impacts both. Here are questions to help you ascertain the real state of technical affairs.
Need to design any job steps as batch procedures? Here's a comprehensive template to use in specifying how the procedure should be coded and all the pertinent associated information.
Are you lucky enough to keep team members for the entire project? If not, utilizing standards in coding, such as these, will help speed up the integration of new team members along the course of the project.
Why is change control so important? With everything a project manager is responsible for, why so much concern over it? What does it really mean, and how do we perform it?
Your project is staffed with skilled programmers, but even they may not attend to all the details that make code comprehensible, maintainable and effective for the project. Your code developers will benefit from having a guideline such as this checklist (it's in programmer-speak!) in hand to review the code for tightness, accuracy, completeness and adequate documentation.
Especially in agile programs, the program architect and the program manager work together to provide business value to the organization. It’s difficult, intense and fun...and full of some myths that need clearing up.
Part 1 of this two-part series introduces the agile engineering principles and practices that, when implemented, enable some teams and their respective organizations to build high-quality software very quickly that will please customers. Organizations embracing these practices--when used in conjunction with agile and lean management practices--can gain delivery advantages on their competitors while managing lower maintenance and support costs in the long term.
Developers need checklists too. Everyone knows that spaghetti code is a no-no, but are your developers programming routines that are also cohesive, efficient, descriptively named, maintainable and necessary? Couldn't hurt to check those programmed routines against a quality standard.
It's not just musical tastes and style of dress that separate the generations, in the workplace, you may find that differences in work ethics, communication styles, values and a number of other issues fall along generational lines. Here are some suggestions to help you bridge the generation gaps.
Is your organization redefining the project manager role to prepare for the future? Are you for your own professional development? A new Forrester Research report makes the case for doing so, and offers recommendations.
Weak links in your testing could mean project failure. Make sure you know what to test and when.
When there's a whole lot of welding going on, you need to know who is doing it, how and where. Use this form.
Ever wonder where that "HTTP 404 or Internal Server Error" message displayed on your browser comes from? And what does it mean?
Use this color-coded form to rate each project risk by probability/impact and priority level.
Staying on top of technology trends is one of the biggest advantages a CIO can grab. Here's a look at what's hot for this year, so you can keep your sites on the ever-moving technology target.
Gamification of project management practices can potentially do two things better than traditional approaches: engage teams by making tasks fun and improve performance by recognizing achievement on a regular basis. Skeptics abound, but shouldn’t we embrace gaming tactics that work? It's not such an alien concept anymore.
Developing the necessary contingent of test cases to completely and accurately test the system you are building involves detailed thinking and can be a hit-or-miss activity if you improvise. Check off the items here to determine if your test cases will reveal all the hidden problems and ensure that all scenarios are addressed.
Do you make trade-offs with maintainability and adaptability in order to meet release dates? Fortunately, this hidden-cost fate is avoidable--but only for organizations that make a commitment. This article introduces you to technical debt and its common symptoms. You'll learn the basic steps to set up a repayment plan, the common causes of technical debt and effective strategies for paying it down.
The key criteria used to determine the successful outcome of a project applied against other engineering disciplines are also applicable to software ones. If we know that, why do software projects have a poor track record of delivery? Read on to find out how we can improve it.
An integral part of a success project is communication. What do you say and to whom? When do you say it? How? Through what media?
The Detailed Acceptance Test Plan document provides and describes the required test activities and timelines for your project team to perform the testing of a system.
Proprietary Content Management Systems are quite expensive, and the prices range from a few thousand dollars to a few hundred thousand. But Open Source CMS are free and quite stable; the cost is incurred in terms of learning, maintaining and customizing the code. This project plan highlights various activities that need to be addressed for a successful and meaningful implementation of a CMS using either PostNuke or PhpNuke.
Use this plan in conjunction with the effort-based project forecasting article and workbook.
Here's a spreadsheet guaranteed to help you manage resources simply, easily, quickly and without expensive project management software. This download consists of an Excel spreadsheet and easy-to-follow directions in Word.
Defining roles and responsibilities is an early and extremely important step in project success. This matrix will keep roles straight while aligning with your overall project plan.
“Storming” is a natural part of team formation, but can produce long-term damage if early team development is not guided. Use steps defined here to achieve dynamic performance more consistently.
Archive project documentation and source code so future project managers don’t have to reinvent the wheel!
Although the role of the business stakeholder has evolved using agile as a methodology, the business need or pesky constraint typically remains for delivering functionality by a particular date. Hence, project success many times is still measured by delivering functionality by a pre-defined date to meet business goals. Here we offer some suggestions to try if your organization is using an agile methodology--yet expected to deliver a large-scale project that has the same constraints that have existed over time.
Lifestyle pressures impact career decisions. As we settle into 2011, what better time to reflect upon our careers, lifestyles and earnings potential? This story looks at our jobs, futures and the financial imperatives that can improve the quality of our lives.
There's a new generation in town...are you Xers prepared to lead Generation Y? There's a whole new set of rules to learn, and adapting to a new leadership style is critical. Here's some help in leading Gen Y...and beyond.
As a manger or coach, if you don’t change a pacesetter’s behavior you run a high risk of being held hostage by one person’s abilities--and pay a cost in team productivity. This article is about a pacesetter as a team member on an agile software development team. We will explain what a pacesetter is, why it’s a problem and the effect that a pacesetter has on agile software development.
Rally Software has extended its Agile ALM platform to meet the needs of global organizations with customization options, full traceability with build and source code, and corporate dashboards to create a single source of record for progress and quality.
Agile vendors have done a good job providing project managers and product owners with planning and tracking tools. But the primary creators of project deliverables are software developers, and they have consistently been an afterthought. To scale across the enterprise, Agile work processes must embrace the individual contributors doing the actual work.
Thomas Jefferson advised to “never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” However, when it comes to Agile-run projects, all potential future requirements should almost always be put off until tomorrow. The focus is on doing only those things that support the current sprint — “today’s functionality.”
When it comes to leading or working as part of a project team, collaboration (or the lack of it) will often determine the success (or failure) of the endeavor, regardless of planning. A new book gathers 42 rules for collaborating more effectively, covering people, processes and technology.
What do the prevailing wisdom purveyors and pundits believe the top information technologies will be over the next 12 months? Since 2009, these predictions have been pretty volatile...can you guess what's hot and what's not for 2012?
In the 21st century, the greatest advances will come from fueling innovation and reducing the cost of production by moving work to where the workers are. This is the foundation of the movement from first-generation outsourcing and second-generation smartsourcing. Outsourcing was about reducing cost. Smartsourcing is about leveraging competencies of organizations, partners and suppliers to achieve a significant increase in total innovative capacity.
As the paths of traditional and agile project management merge, there are some bumps and scrapes as the two groups come to terms with each other. This article explores the circumstances that ease integration.
Are your software development inspections up to code? Use this checklist to find out.
We know, we know...you just want to sit down and eat. But before you do, we have one last lesson from The Sub Shop. How does it know that it's producing a product that meets your requirements? Is the sandwich being produced a quality sandwich? Is your experience a positive one? We can examine this through the quality control step in our quality management process.
