Agile Otter Blog

Eric Ries has suggestions on why/how to move your engineering practice forward and gain speed and reliability while you're at it: So how can I help the engineering manager in pain? Here's my diagnosis of his problem: He has some automated tests, but his team doesn't have a continuous integration server or practice TDD. Hence, the tests tend to go stale, or are themselves intermittent. No amount of fixing is making any difference, because the fixes aren't pinned in place by tests, so they get dwarfed by the new defects being introduced with new features. It's a treadmill situation - they have to run faster and faster just to stay at the level of quality/features they're at today. The team can't get permission from the business leaders to get "extra time" for fixing. This is because the are constantly telling them that features are done as soon as they can see them in the product. Because there are no tests for new features (or operational...

I borrowed this from Dictionary.com, so I kept the first word as a link to the original. I hope that's okay with them. sim·ple      [ sim -p uh l ]     Show IPA   adjective,   sim·pler, sim·plest,   noun adjective 1. easy   to   understand,   deal   with,   use,   etc.:   a   simple   matter; simple   tools. 2. not   elaborate   or   artificial;   plain:   a   simple   style. 3. not   ornate   or   luxurious;   unadorned:   a   simple   gown. 4. unaffected;   unassuming;   modest:   a   simple   manner. 5. not   complicated:   a   simple   design. My hot words are "simple" and "complex." Most people who say "simple" don't mean simple. They mean "easy", with an implied "to think of" or "to type in" or "to do without researching."  Easy is a virtue...