Brad Appleton ACME Blog

Summer of Books

2008-08-10T07:20:50Z

I'm going on some long needed (and hard earned) vacation. I won't be blogging again for about one month (so this will likely be my only entry for July). I've got a lot of REALLY GREAT and interesting books to try and catch up on. I hope to Read More......(read more)

Assigning Code Ownership-Policy Ownership

2008-08-06T08:13:50Z

Jurgen Appelo has an interesting article on StickyMinds entitled " Code Ownership Re-Visited " Jurgen prefers the term "artifact assignment" rather than "code ownership" and explains there are 4 methods of artifact assignment Read More......(read more)

Four Rules for Simple Codelines

2008-08-04T19:20:29Z

Some of you may be aware of Kent Beck's Four Rules of Simple Code that state simple code: Correctly runs (and passes) all the tests Contains no duplication ( OnceAndOnlyOnce and The DRY Principle ) Clearly expresses all the ideas/intentions we needed Read More......(read more)

Iterative and Incremental redefined redux

2008-07-06T15:05:01Z

The agile community has written much about this in the past year or so: Iterative vs Incremental - from the first (and original) Wiki Web The Neglected Practice of Iteratation - by Jeff Patton Difference between Iterative and Incremental Development Read More......(read more)

Traceability Matrix in an Agile Project

2008-07-06T14:59:37Z

InfoQ.com summarized an email-list discussion thread on the subject of using a Traceability Matrix in an Agile Project . I contributed quite a lot to the thread, and InfoQ apparently included many of the key things I said along with the related URLs to Read More......(read more)

The Laws of Codeline (Thermo)Dynamics

2008-07-06T14:46:28Z

Some of the discussion with my co-authors on our May 2008 CM Journal article on Agile Release Management spurred some additional thoughts by me that I hope to refine and work into a subsequent article later this year. Release Management is about so much Read More......(read more)

An Agile Approach to Release Management

2008-07-06T14:09:59Z

My Agile SCM co-authors Rob Cowham, Steve Berczuk, and myself have written an article for the May CM Journal on An Agile Approach to Release Management We're relatively pleased with the article, and all collaborated together quite well. Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Software Teamwork - Taking Ownership for Success

2008-07-06T14:04:29Z

My review of Jim Brosseau's Software Teamwork: Taking Ownership for Success is available in the May issue of the Agile Journal . It is nothing less than outstanding! I found Software Teamwork to be an immensely helpful, intensely practical, profusely Read More......(read more)

Distributed Version-Control Guide on InfoQ.com

2008-07-06T13:54:21Z

Nice little guide on InfoQ.com about Distributed Version Control - that's twice in two months that the " agile " section of InfoQ.com has had a decent article on the subject! Read More......(read more)

From PMBoK to Agility

2008-07-06T13:46:32Z

I recently learned that Michelle Sliger , author of the wonderful 4 part series of articles on Relating PMBoK to Agile Practices , is co-authoring a book with Stacia Broderick entitled the Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility . You can even Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Implementing ITIL Configuration Management

2008-05-27T14:14:32Z

I started reading through the book Implementing ITIL Configuration Management , by Larry Klosterboer. I'm really not what I'd consider an expert on ITIL nor IT Service Management , but I've had more than my fair share of exposure to it and Read More......(read more)

Three Pivotal Practices to Eliminate Waste

2008-05-27T13:59:05Z

I received my program for the Better Software Conference & Expo this coming June 9-12 in Las Vegas (alas, I will be unable to attend). The description for the keynote that will be given by Jean Tabaka caught my eye. Jean Tabaka is an Agile Coach from Read More......(read more)

Rise of the Development Environment Architect

2008-05-12T15:14:01Z

Peter Eeles and I must be subconsciously on the same page. Because at the same time I was blogging about Software Architecture Views and Perspectives and Software Architecture Quality Attributes and their direct applicability to SCM/ALM solution architecture Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Programming Groovy and Groovy Recipes

2008-05-12T15:00:00Z

I just received an advance copy of Programming Groovy from the Pragmatic Programmer's Bookshelf . This complements their work that came out last month on Groovy Recipes . From the Programming Groovy book webpage: Groovy brings you the best of both Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Outside-in Software Development

2008-05-12T14:59:29Z

My review of Outside-In Software Development is in this month's edition of The Agile Journal . Kessler and Sweitzer's Outside-in Software Development should resonate deeply with all those who genuinely value the principle of customer collaboration Read More......(read more)

Software Process-Line Architecture and Common Processes

2008-05-12T14:55:22Z

Extending the analogy of software architecture views and quality attributes for software process architecture , I'd like to spend some time discussing how software product lines relate to software process architecture and "common processes" Read More......(read more)

Commonality and Variability Management

2008-04-23T14:59:27Z

Continuing the previous discussion on software product-lines ... Central to the notion of product-lines and product-families are tracking and managing three different kinds of software assets: common/core assets that are shared by all the products in Read More......(read more)

Software Product-Line Architecture and Product-Families

2008-04-23T14:30:12Z

Extending the analogy of software architecture views and quality attributes for software process architecture , I'd like to spend some time discussing software product lines . According to the SEI website on software product-lines , A Software Product Read More......(read more)

Software Process Architecture Views and Quality Attributes

2008-03-18T14:04:19Z

After my previous postings on Software Architecture Views and Perspectives , Software Architecture Quality Attributes and Software Modifiability Tactics , the question remains as to what all this has to do with Agile processes or with CM. Well, about Read More......(read more)

2008-03-18T14:01:41Z

Software Modifiability Tactics

2008-03-09T16:23:37Z

Getting back to the subject of my previous blog-entries on Software Architecture Views and Perspectives and Software Architecture Quality Attributes , I wanted to talk more specifically about the quality attribute of Modifiability . The Modifiability Read More......(read more)

Distributed Version Control Systems

2008-03-03T07:28:19Z

A colleague of mine had a question for me about Distributed Versions Control Systems (or DVCS). There are a growing number of such systems these days: Mercurial , Bazaar , git , svk , BitKeeper , Gnu Arch , darcs , Monotone , Codeville , Arx , just to Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Lean Project Management

2008-02-19T07:47:36Z

My review of Lean Project Management is in the February 2008 issue of the Agile Journal. Lean Project Management: Eight Principles for Success , is actually a second edition of the eBook Eight Secrets to Supercharge your Project with CCPM . It is available Read More......(read more)

Software Architecture Quality Attributes

2008-02-18T15:04:08Z

Following on to my previous blog-entry about Software Architecture Views and Perspectives , the book " Software Architecture in Practice " also describes a method called Attribute-Driven Design or ADD. This is not yet-another-design-method like Read More......(read more)

Software Architecture Views and Perspectives

2008-02-18T14:11:36Z

I'm fairly interested in the literature on Software Architecture Views and Perspectives. Folks here may remember by work on Dimensions and Views of SCM Architecture as one of the reasons why ... The text of the entire 2nd edition of the " Software Read More......(read more)