We’re switching to Scrum. I’ve worked in Agile-like environments before, but nothing ‘pure’. It’s always been a mixture of some Agile, XP, and Waterfall which can create process issues if not done right. Â However even if you have a process in place correctly it still depends on the people working through it and I’ve been a part of one successful custom built process implementation.
We’ve got our final day of training tomorrow on the process. I can honestly say I’ve never actually be ‘trained’ in how the software development process works. I’ve done my share of reading and teaching myself, but today was the first time that a consultant was sitting in front of a group that included me.
I think this will be a good thing for not only myself but also for the company I work for. There wasn’t much of a process when I started, but really when you only have one QA person (my boss) at a startup you tend to get a lot of push to production situations (aka Cowboy coding: yeehaw). Â Lately there have been improvements being made to the process pre-development. The inclusion of any standardized process is an improvement.
The pure look at what all the Agile sub-sets are made of can be read at http://agilemanifesto.org/.
The biggest thing I’m taking from all this is that the consultant helping us out isn’t trying to fit our process into a predetermined mold, but rather the other way around. He’s also going to participate in the implementation of our process, which will be very helpful.
I hope to give updates periodically in how we’re moving into this direction.
