Welcome to the October 5th edition of the Carnival of Agilists - the blogroll pointing you to some of the latest thoughts in the agile community.
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
- Diana Larsen shares some thoughts on using anonymity to get the most out of your retrospectives.
- Simon Baker writes about using whiteboards to help with timelines for retrospectives.
- Radical Collocation - does it help a team? Pete Behrens discusses.
Working software over comprehensive documentation
- Scott Ambler shares his thoughts on using Test Driven Database Development. You can read a summary here, and the full PDF here.
- The biggest buzz in the last week is on Steve Yegge, and his deep criticisms of agile development methodologies.  There’s been a lot of discussion about this, and it’s probably best to share a bunch of opinions on the topic, and let everyone think about it for themselves.
- Steve’s original rant: Good Agile vs. Bad Agile
- And for more community discussion:
- Most importantly, what do you think?
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- When Requirements Attack! er… When Requirements spawn other Requirements - suggestions and advice from Johanna Rothman.
- Brad Appleton provides an ongoing overview of the surveys and trend analysis in Agile development
Responding to change over following a plan
- The simplest definition I’ve seen yet on why projects fail.
Fun
- Software Development Limericks by Kevin Barnes.
Spotlight
Something new I thought I would add for this carnival - a spotlight on one blogger who has contributed quite a bit to the conversations of the last year.   My hope is that each Carnival Editor will pick one person each time they do this, to give more of a “deep view” of a particular blogger.  This Carnival, the focus is on Glen Alleman - one of my favorite agile/related bloggers, and a list of my favorite posts from him.  I don’t always agree with him, but his calm, thoughtful and experienced commentary on software development is always a great read.
Some of my favorite posts of his:
- Managing a Critical Path - Parts One, Two and Three
- Wicked Problems
- Work Queues
- Estimating via Monte Carlo Simulation
- Agile Project Management
- Software vs. Building Construction
- Project Manager Incompetence
- Things not to do in Project Management
Previous Editions
All previous editions of the Carnival are referenced at the Agile Alliance website.
Join in the Fun!
Have something that you think is worth sharing? Don’t be shy! We love new ideas and insights. Send us a link to your post at agilists.carnival@gmail.com.
Future editions will be on the first and third Thursday of each month. If you would like to participate, please send us a link to your post at agilists.carnival@gmail.com. Or, if you prefer, use this handy dandy carnival submission form.