Out team is now using < href="http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/">Jira and Greenhopper from Atlassian for Agile project management. This excellent software package is very cost effective, and is meeting all of our needs for managing multiple projects. Notable features include planning using story points, an interactive task board, burn down charts, email notification, and integration with source code repositories. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
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Attended a technical talk at Union College in the area of software copyright law. The presenter was the legendary Richard Stallman of the Freedom Software Foundation. Very interesting views on the effects of proprietary software on society. While I do not agree with all that he said, I think we can all agree that certain proprietary platforms have “unduly influenced” technological innovation.
One of the issues with running any software project is “how do we determine when we are done?”. In Agile, we walk towards the project end state in an iterative fashion. To define when we are done with the tasks in an iteration, we need to:
- Define the set of features we will be developing
- Define the tasks required to design, develop, test, and validate each feature
- Assign and track the completion of each task along the way
To accomplish this last item, our team uses a tool called SeeNowDo. This tool allows us to define the features and stories to be included in the iteration and assign the tasks required to develop each feature to specific individuals. The tool also allows team members, customers, and managers to see the amount of work the team believes is left to complete the feature. SeeNowDo is freely available at http://www.seenowdo.com
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
Our team employs an agile development methodology, promoting a project management process that encourages frequent inspection and adaptation, a leadership philosophy that encourages teamwork, self-organization and accountability, a set of engineering best practices that allow for rapid delivery of high-quality software, and a business approach that aligns development with customer needs and company goals. Conceptual foundations of this framework are found in the Six Sigma methodology.
