11/18/2009 4:33:49 AM #

Great show, can't wait for #6!  BTW, maybe I'm just blind, but is there a podcast feed?

Ben

bstruthers

11/27/2009 12:32:10 AM #

Awesome!  Thanks for pointing out the feed!

bstruthers

3/9/2010 10:00:56 PM #

I just caught up on this episode, and with all due respect, the discussion on Scrum was very uninformed, and does a disservice to those of us who are not only practicing Agile development, but delivering high quality software using Agile methodologies and engineering practices.

Agile is not about 'getting out something fast', nor does it in any way encourage writing crappy code (quite the opposite, really - when done right, it encourages proper separation of concerns, small but clean components, and other goodness).

As far as estimation goes - if you can't estimate, then no methodology in the world is going to save you.  In transitioning to Scrum in my current project six months ago, we've increased output and quality, greatly improved estimate accuracy, and since we work iteratively, can better respond to change.

Every time someone says something misinformed about Agile (or any methodology for that matter) without taking the time to actually understand what they are talking about, they make it a hell of a lot harder for us who are actually being successful with this tool.  Because the last thing we need is someone saying 'nah that Agile stuff sucks because I heard it on a podcast that it makes us write spaghetti code and deliver crap'.

I would actually recommend taking a look at 'Head First Software Development', since it's a pretty good introduction without being tied to a specific methodology, and does a decent job of focusing on the engineering side (Continuous Integrtion, Testing, etc.).

Thanks
- Bob

Bob

7/7/2010 11:44:29 AM #

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