Traditional project management methods often approach all projects in the same plan driven manner regardless of the level of uncertainty and change represented by the project.  As a result projects fail to meet their anticipated business objectives and overall confidence in the team's ability to deliver is lost.  Agile methods are becoming well established to address these issues in software development efforts, but agility is not just for software.  Agile methods like Scrum can be applied to any project effort that entails significant uncertainty to deliver improved business results in ever evolving business environments, and do so in a manner that demonstrates visible, predictable progress toward today's most important business priorities. Based on a real-life client experience, this presentation will show how Scrum can be used to manage a complex supply chain process and ensure that business objectives are met.

How to determine if a developer is “done” with a particular piece of code is often not well defined. As result software development projects can incur significant rework of features previously thought to be completed, and the quality of the overall solution can be compromised in an effort to make amends. For Agile teams in particular, there must be a clear and consistent meaning of “done” and the team must be able to quickly demonstrate it. Here is one way to define and quickly validate what it means to be “done”. 

Success of a project is often described as being on time, on budget, and performing all the expected work. Certainly you want the road construction project in your neighborhood to be completed on time, on budget and you want the entire road constructed (one and ¾ lanes just won..t do). Most engineering efforts lend themselves to these success criteria and meeting them is a reasonable, if sometimes difficult, expectation. If you are looking for your software development efforts to be on time, on budget, and to deliver all the requested functionality however, statistics show you stand a very good chance of being disappointed. But is that a failure? I don't think so.

To the uninitiated, and some who are, software development is a deep mystery. It is a unique domain with its own language that often intimidates those who are not members of the club. Some even consider it a dark art that is best left undisturbed. Although few are completely happy with the results they get from their software development efforts, little action is taken to remove the mystique and make the changes necessary to get the full value from their efforts. Here are four ways to get started.