Monthly Archives: June 2012

Agile Australia 2012: Agile Coaching Workshop

Posted on by

See on Scoop.it – catosplace

My workshop from Agile Australia 2012 with Adrian Smith called “Agile Coaching Workshop” is available on SlideShare. The Agile Coach is a critical role in helping leaders, teams or individuals…

I was unable to attend Agile Australia 2012 and as a result missed out on what looks like an awesome “Agile Coaching Workshop” presented by former colleagues Craig Smith and Adrian Smith. These guys have many years of practical experience between them, and as mentioned once before, when they speak it pays to listen.

The slides from the workshop are available on Slideshare and on Craig’s blog (which is where this post links to). Although these are only slides they contain a lot of content that will be useful for those unable to attend the workshop. A preview of the slides had previously been posted and shared by myself too.

For me the section on identifying personal areas of strength and weakness provided me with ideas for improvement – and where I could broaden my skills  in the coaching department. I shall be trying out the Agile Coach Competency Matrix and contacting one of the guys for some advice.

I am not an Agile Coach by title and never considered myself a coach – I feel I am more of a Agile practitioner trying to support teams and leave a legacy that will being maturity and delivery success long after I leave. These slides whilst not making up for missing the workshop may give you ideas for assessing and improving your own Agile skillset.

Am sure the guys would appreciate some feedback on the slides and would love to hear from anyone who attended the workshop. I wonder if either Craig or Adrian would fancy presenting a version of the slides at the Agile APN in Auckland some time?
See on craigsmith.id.au

Jenkins Continuous Integration Cookbook

Posted on by

See on Scoop.it – catosplace

This new book from Packt Publishing has just been added to my collection of technical book purchases (joined by Sonar Code Quality Testing Essential – yet to be released).

This book contains more than 80 recipes describing practical ways to use Jenkins and the best of breed plugins from the over 400 available. The recipes are grouped and extensions are also covered in this must have book.

If you use Jenkins and want to get more out of it this may be just the book you are looking for. Improve your Jenkins security, get more effective use of code metrics and utilise remote testing with some of the many recipes provided. This book will soon  become the goto book for anyone administrating a Jenkins server.
See on www.packtpub.com

Automated Acceptance-Testing using Concordion

Posted on by

See on Scoop.it – catosplace

This introduction to Concordion for acceptance testing is aimed at assessing the tools capabilities from a acceptance testing perspective. It uses a BDD concepts to enable comparisons between the tool and JBehave and as such I feel has missed the point of Concordion as a more specification based tool.

Saying that, the introduction is clear, clean and concise and is recommended for someone new to Concordion. I believe strongly that its strength is the ‘living document’ it provides – this is not a report but a ‘living, breathing representation of the specifications’ which is a cause for the ‘lack of reporting’ prescribed in this introduction.

Whilst it is great to see Concordion examples being posted online, I still feel it is a misunderstood and under utilised tool (something the writer allures to in this introduction). I shall add it to my list of candidate blog posts…until then I highly recommend reading ‘Specification By Example’ by Gojko Adzic.

I would also recommend those looking at BDD Acceptance Tests review easyB as an alternative to JBehave. easyB has the ability to do both BDD stories and specification  – whilst not providing the ‘living document’ that Concordion does, it provides the reporting comparable to JBehave.
See on blog.codecentric.de

An Introduction to Continuous Delivery, Rolf Russell | www.thoughtworks.com

Posted on by

See on Scoop.it – catosplace

Finally got around to watching the first in a series of Thoughworks Continuous Delivery webinars. The series of webinars is set to run monthly from Aug 2011 to July 2012, so at the current time 11 are available online.

This ‘Introduction to Continuous Delivery’ by Rolf Russell provides a great insight into what Continuous Delivery means from a technical perspective and how to overcome some of the obstacles to Continuous Delivery.

Rolf points out that fast feedback, always being production ready and small incremental changes are important concepts for Continuous Delivery. Pipelines for delivery should consider not just code, but infrastructure, configuration and database.

A great introduction to this topic, refreshed a few concepts for me – and got me thinking once more about concepts I am familiar with and how I currently utilise them. Looking forward to watching the rest of this series over the next few weeks.
See on continuous-delivery.thoughtworks.com

Developing Software for Multiple Mobile Devices Infodeck

Posted on by

See on Scoop.it – catosplace

This infodeck shares advice for developing mobile software on multiple devices based  on Thoughtworks experiences. Should you build a native app, a web application or hybrid? This infodeck could help you make the right strategic decision.

Fowler outlines the common development options and provides advice on strategies to suit the application drivers. Cross platform solutions, ‘The Uncanny Valley’, hybrid solutions are among the topics/concepts discussed.

Basically your development strategy needs to reflect the drivers for your application. If the user experience is vital then a native app may better suit your needs, whilst if affordability is a bigger drive then web applications may be a better option. Even hybrid solutions it appears have their place.

This is a really useful infodeck that may just help your team align the right development strategy based on your needs. Sound and useful advice. Would love to hear your thoughts on it and experiences related to the concepts/topics outlined in the infodeck.
See on martinfowler.com

Gradle 1.0 – Build tool evolution, release 1.0 is available now

Posted on by

See on Scoop.it – catosplace

Gradle the latest generation new build tool has finally got a 1.0 release. The project aims to improve upon earlier generations of build tools such as Maven and Ant.

Gradle provides powerful dependency management, a powerful daemon that speeds up build times and has focused on Enterprise scale builds.

Gradle is the build tool for the future, available now. If you are not using it already, you should at least be aware of it and evaluating how it could improve your build process.
See on gradle.org