Development Manager

Jim Trentadue describes the first year his organization used the cloud for its non-production needs: development, testing, training, and production support. Jim begins by describing the components of a cloud environment and how it differs from a traditional physical server structure. To prove the cloud concept, he used a risk-based model for determining which servers would be migrated. The result was a win for the organization from a time-to-market and cost savings perspective. Jim shares his do’s and don’ts for moving to the cloud.

Scrum has become very popular in agile development shops, but most organizations that adopt Scrum run into challenges when they expand beyond a few teams. Ken Paugh believes that you can overcome the challenging patterns of scaling Scrum by focusing on lean-flow (removing delays between the steps of a development organization’s workflow). Ken begins by discussing how cross-functional teams are a manifestation of the lean mantra of removing delays. He discusses ways to manage projects spanning multiple teams, including creating teams that don’t meet the definition of classic Scrum.

Have you ever watched a medical drama with scenes featuring doctors making split second, life-or-death decisions? As software professional, there may be less at stake when it comes to your decisions, yet you often need to act under time pressure, limited information, and conditions of uncertainty. How do you decide whether a particular course of action will help or harm your project? Are you rational: Do you identify, weigh and compare your options? Or are your decisions more intuitive: Do you size up the situation quickly and simply “know” how to act?

As agile practices become mainstream, compelling patterns are being revealed about defect rates, time-to-market, and effort/staffing. Industry data from QSM Associates reveals that many companies grapple with collocation, pair programming, offshoring, and combining agile with waterfall methods. Some of the best teams find significant schedule and quality implications that are literally redefining the economics of software; others are not. What factors make a meaningful difference?

When the World Trade Center collapsed, the telephone switching systems in the basement correctly diagnosed which lines were still working and continued to connect calls for several days using backup power. One factor contributing to this remarkable product reliability was the AT&T/Bell Labs practice of early systems architecture reviews. Michael Dedolph shares an architecture review method based on the Bell Labs Systems Architecture Review Board (SARB) process and discusses how that method was institutionalized and managed.

How do you know if you have too much process, too little, or just the right amount? If you ignore process completely, unpredictability and chaos can follow. If you define the process to the nth degree and follow it religiously, the work grinds to a halt. Janet Gregory shares her experiences about how to find the tastiest balance of process and creativity for your projects and organization. She proposes that a formally defined process is sometimes necessary, but that it should be the exception.

Unfortunately, many people focus solely on their jobs and day-to-day task delivery rather than building their career. This often results in careers that happen by accident, rather than by design. How can you build a personal brand that you can refer to when making conscious choices about your next career move? How can you build your dream career while delivering the greatest value to your organization? Jennifer Bonine describes the tools she uses in leadership sessions to help people begin the process of defining their own personal brand.

Learning organizations seem like a great idea to just about everyone. But how do you actually create them? In many organizations, attempting to promote learning can seem daunting at best and impossible at worst—especially when you don't feel particularly empowered to do so. Matt Barcomb focuses on what you can do from multiple perspectives. He first discusses what a learning organization is and why the concept is important for the future of many organizations. Next, Matt shares approaches and considerations for growing learning environments, including common organizational pitfalls.

Organizations invest high levels of effort setting up elaborate employee performance tracking systems. In fact, these costly and onerous processes may even drive the wrong behaviors if inappropriate metrics are selected or employees learn to game the system. However, a simpler and more effective approach to personnel development is right in front of us. Bob Payne describes the Lean A3 problem solving and communication tool that can be used to improve processes and create a learning culture.