Exploration Through Example

Example-driven development, Agile testing, context-driven testing, Agile programming, Ruby, and other things of interest to Brian Marick

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Mon, 28 Jun 2004

A roadmap for testing on an agile project (2004 edition)

I've published a concise description of how I'd want to do testing on a fresh agile project. I call it the "2004 edition" because I hope and expect that I'll have revised and extended my ideas next year.

## Posted at 16:12 in category /agile [permalink] [top]

Now here's a scary picture

## Posted at 11:15 in category /junk [permalink] [top]

At Agile Development Conference 2004: whither the Agile Alliance (a sketch)

I'm this year's chair of the Agile Alliance board, assisted as vice-chair by Mike "Power Behind the Throne" Cohn.

It was announced at the opening of ADC that the two North American conferences have merged. There will be a single conference next year, name to be selected by a community process. The two separate conferences were a historical accident, really, the kind of thing that happens when an act like the Agile Manifesto succeeds so wildly.

Mike, Todd Little of the Agile Development Conference, and Lowell Lindstrom and Lance Welter of XP Agile Universe have done an excellent job of laying the groundwork for a merged conference that retains what's been special about each. The highest priority of the Agile Alliance is to make the merged conference go well, mainly by staying out of the way except when the organizers tell us to clear away obstacles.

(There may also be smaller local conferences, modeled somewhat after the No Fluff, Just Stuff symposia. I'm especially interested in events that could bring customers (goal donors, product owners, etc.) together for a day. Those people have a tough job, and there's not enough institutionalized support for them.)

The second priority is to use the web site as more of a hub for a community of members. The two goals of the Agile Alliance are to support people already in agile projects and to facilitate the creation of more agile projects. That's mostly about people and interactions, it seems to me.

For example, a long-ago coworker just contacted me and asked if I knew of Agile opportunities in the Madison or Minneapolis areas. I didn't, though I could get him one link closer to people who did. But wouldn't it be convenient if he could go to the Members section of the website and directly find people in an area who would be willing to answer questions about it? People join the Agile Alliance because they want to support a movement, not because they get that much in tangible benefits - so let's enable their altruism.

I've been the webmaster for the Agile Alliance for about two months, so I'll be doing the hands-on work (at least for a while). I'm not awfully qualified, but I see this as an opportunity to learn better website management. Mike Cohn is the Customer for our product backlog, so we'll be having frequent(ish) new releases of features.

Let me give a big thanks to Ken Schwaber, who founded the Agile Alliance and has been the chair until now, and Micah Martin of ObjectMentor, who created the website for us and has been its webmaster until now. (And continued thanks to ObjectMentor for hosting the website.)

## Posted at 10:14 in category /adc2004 [permalink] [top]