The 'Agile Release Train' has been popularised as part of the Scaled Agile Framework - a set of guidelines aimed to bring agile software development to the enterprise and programme delivery. In the framework, the train metaphor is used to describe a series of iterative releases set to a strict schedule that multiple teams must abide by... Continue Reading →
Last week, my team released a beta version of the product we have been working on for the last six months - SQL Lighthouse. This week, everyone on the team has been reminded how motivating it is to see an idea you've been working on start to gather recognition and, more importantly for us, users. At... Continue Reading →
Back in August last year my team and decided to release our product on Wednesdays. In fact, I said we were going to release every Wednesday. At the time, our deployment processes were already automated, we were breaking our work down into small valuable chunks and our automated test suite was comprehensive, trustworthy and performant.... Continue Reading →
The group of talented engineers I currently lead have formed into a great team over the last year. Recently, I've been considering what I thought that was down to (as it would be quite useful to know!). Was it simply the somewhat fortunate mix of personalities who were allocated to the project? Was it blind... Continue Reading →
In my view, the drive to inspect and adapt is the most important concept to have been popularized by the agile software development movement. It's an idea that got me hugely excited and engaged in the subject when I first came across it in 2005. This essence of this is that 'we will always know... Continue Reading →
In my previous post, I explained how leaving an extended period between releases of your software is just as risky an approach as forgoing regular dental check-ups. So if you bought that argument, it seems sensible to deploy pretty often, right? The problem is, and where the dental metaphor decays (sorry), is that software development... Continue Reading →
As a project manager, the process of releasing software can be fraught with anxiety and dread. I can think about numerous times in my career where, in the shadow of an approaching release deadline, the thought of having to ship our application was akin to contemplating an imminent visit to the dentist. In fact, even... Continue Reading →
Leading Agile Teams 