VersionOne Buzz
VersionOne In The News
- May 15 2012
Action & Influence Partners with VersionOne for Agile Lifecycle Management
Action & Influence, Inc announced today that it is officially partnering with VersionOne to bring continued value to the agile community and clients whom both enjoy business optimization with Action & Influence and Agile Lifecycle Management with VersionOne.
Read the announcement
- Apr 26 2012
VersionOne Opens In-town Atlanta Office
This spring we were pleased to open the doors to our new kick-ass in-town office. While I normally work in our corporate home-base in Alpharetta, I had the opportunity this week to visit the new one in Midtown.
It was cool. Way cool. High ceilings, color, modern fixtures, and plenty of open space for pair programming and collaboration. Next door is a fun little Cuban joint with an outdoor swing and a reputation for margaritas that’s worth a return trip. Best of all, I was able to have lunch with some of our software developers at a local brewery while partaking in what I believe to be the southeast’s best people-watching venue, Little Five Points. (If you’re familiar with the Atlanta area, you’re nodding your head).
“The Loft,” as we call it, is there so we can continue to attract the city’s top software talent and create green commute options in support of our GA Clean Air Campaign initiative. Check out today’s announcement here or cruise our current software job listings. Who knows, maybe you or someone you know will be checking in to 620 Glen Iris Drive every day.
- Apr 20 2012
Reducing Agile Project Costs with Amortization
Application Development Trends magazine posted an article earlier this week that tells those using agile to “amortize” your agile project. If your first reaction is like mine, you’re thinking, “What the hell does that mean?”
It means breaking down initiatives that traditionally require a large up-front effort into smaller chunks so that only those efforts that you need right now are addressed and paid for. You “amortize” the cost of application development over a period of time so you can start getting the benefits faster while paying for it while you go.
Makes sense, right?
The article goes into some interesting examples of how this can be done. Check it out and let us know what you think.
- Apr 18 2012
Charting the Course to Agile: SD Times Special Report
Did you see SD Times Mar. 30th special report, “Charting the Course to Agile?” SD Times. Victoria Reitano delivers some practical tips and compelling reasons why you should always include a roadmap in your agile transition.
A huge part of this roadmap is agile lifecycle management tools, say the experts she interviewed… including our very own President and CEO Robert Holler:
“Visibility is what tools provide. The transition to agile lifecycle management is all about bringing better visibility to the cycle in order to help the team understand what it’s doing right and where it can improve. This is essential when a team is transitioning to agile because everything is moving much faster.”
In case you don’t have time to read the whole story, I’ve thrown together the ESPN highlights I found most interesting:
- It’s important to establish up front how you’re going to know if the agile transition was successful.
- Start with a team who is interested in agile, then go agile one piece of the process at a time.
- Teams have a variety of tools that need to be integrated so that each department can see and understand what the other departments are doing.
- Development managers need to be able to see all the different divisions in order to make informed decisions. For the PMO, this is hard when teams are using different tools that are not integrated.
- Agile is allowing stakeholders and users to collaborate much more humanly with the developers, which is having a very positive effect on end-value.
- PMOs are more successful with the agile transition when they have developed a community within the company around the methodology. Focusing on how agile helps each individual position and explaining the ‘why’ and ‘how’ of their transition makes all members of the organization feel included in (and more accepting of) the process.
What are your thoughts on creating a roadmap for the agile transition? Anyone been through it recently – what are you recommendations?
Additional agile project management resources:
- Webinar: Creating and Scaling Blended Agile Teams
- Webinar: Best Practices for Scaling Agile
- White paper: Agile Manager’s Roadmap for Project Management Success
- Apr 16 2012
An Eventful Day for Santeon Execs
It was an eventful day for executives at Santeon Group, one of our consulting partners, last Friday as Chairman and CEO Dr. Ash Rofail delivered an inspiring keynote to those at the Technology Innovation Summit (“InnoTech”) in London. Dr. Rofail discussed how innovative software development approaches can help entrepreneurs enter new markets with greater degrees of success.
At the same time in a land far far away, Santeon’s Executive Vice President Dr. Ahmed Sidky (“Dr. Agile”) drew a record-breaking crowd for his keynote talk at Agilepalooza in Portland, OR. More than 170 people gathered to hear Dr. Agile discuss the topic of “Enterprise Transformation using Agile Methods.”Find the next AgilePalooza near you: http://agilepalooza.com/
- Mar 28 2012
AgilePalooza Event Coming to Portland – April 13th
If you’re in the local software community – Portland area (or anywhere near it), clear some time on your calendar for this event! Our popular AgilePalooza event is coming to Portland, Oregon on Friday, April 13th for anyone interested in learning more about agile practices and collaborating with recognized coaches and trainers to advance agile methods.
Engaging workshops and presentations from Dr. Ahmed Sidky, Diana Larsen, Dave Sharrock and Steve Ropa.
Check out more on AgilePalooza Portland and register here: http://agilepalooza.com/Portland2012/default.asp
- Mar 01 2012
SD Times on the Growing Need for Automated, Connected Requirements-Management Tools
Today SD Times published the following article on how the nature of software development is making automated, connected requirements management tools virtually a must. The complexity of software products, changes to those products, quick development schedules and the need to trace ideas to features are all factors in this growing trend among agile software practitioners.
Many requirements-management tools are integrated with bug-tracking tools, agile project management tools and testing tools. Additionally, some agile software tool providers are including visual prototyping—either as a standalone tool or integration to an outside tool—to these requirements-management tools.
VersionOne CEO and President Robert Holler said the biggest change in gathering requirements is that it is no longer a separate process.
- Feb 28 2012
The State of Agile Development
Agile development is change, and change is hard. Wouldn’t we all agree?
Agile leader and product manager Dave Moran said a couple of things in his recent reaction to our State of Agile Development Survey results which really struck me as interesting:
- If you’re using agile development as a vehicle for software development improvement only, without really changing how the business specifies software features, you most likely won’t gain much ground on the speed-to-market front.
- Adopting agile development might allow you to build a lot of features a little bit faster; but if you want speed-to-market, you need to figure out what not to build.
- True change involves changes in mindsets and behaviors at all levels of the organization.
So true. Check out Dave’s blog post at SoftwareResults.us or cruise the survey results yourself. I’ve also put together some additional resources which our customers have found useful in overcoming cultural challenges during the agile transition:
Selling Agile – How to Get Buy-In from Your Team, Customers and Managers (how to best sell agile in your organization)
Agile ROI Part I – The Business Case for Agility (the concept of agile business value and why companies are adopting agile)
Agile ROI Part II – Building the Business Case for Agility (a method for building a financial business case for agile adoption within your organization)
Creating and Scaling Blended Agile Teams (how to integrate agile practices into the overall organization with minimal disruption to day-to-day work)
- Feb 08 2012
Agile + Earned Value Management
Agile and Earned Value Management (EVM) are inherently different approaches to managing projects, but they can complement each other in support of flexibility and bottom-line value. How do you bridge the gap between an agile project management approach and the Earned Value Management and measurements that many organizations require?
Check out this Projects AtWork article by VersionOne’s own Katia Sullivan, Product & Agile Consultant, which gives three practical tips to making Agile EVM work for you rather than against you:
1. Find a common language between execs and those “in the trenches”
2. Measure in the context of EVM
3. Translate agile metrics into common EVM terms
If you like the article, check back soon. Katia is working on Parts 2 and 3 right now!
- Feb 02 2012
Wall Street Journal: In Agile Development, More Stand-Ups = Fewer Sloths
Today an article by the Wall Street Journal said that sitting down for your agile development meetings is synonymous with “sloth.” Now, I’m fairly new to agile, but do practice stand-ups in my own team every day. And I would have to agree, stand-ups are much more productive and effective at getting teams to gel and get down to business.
Stand-ups are now the preferred method of meetings, embraced by 78% of scrum and agile development teams. I like the article‘s explanation on why people are favoring the stand-up (a.k.a. “daily scrum”) and WSJ’s advice on some highly debated questions around how stand-ups should be handled:
- Table or no table?
- How often?
- What time of day?
- How long should stand-ups last?
- What to do with late-comers (sing, “I’m a Little Teapot?”)
The article comes at the same time VersionOne began releasing the results of our 2011 annual State of Agile Development Survey — the most talked about and anticipated survey on agile adoption trends.
I thought I’d share a few key data points from the 6,042 people we polled:
- Top 2 agile tools being used: (#1) Excel – 61% (#2) VersionOne – 37%
- The #1 driver of agile adoption is Accelerated Time to Market (22%)
- Kanban use increased from 18% to 24%
- Top 2 benefits realized: Ability to Manage Changing Priorities (84%) & Project Visibility (77%)
- The number of people planning a future agile implementation rose 13% to 17%Read the article and then check out the rest of the survey results at: http://bit.ly/AsvWvK
- Jan 20 2012
Mile High Code’s Takeaways from Mike DePaoli’s Agile Training
Thanks, Mile High Code for the nice recap you gave of Mike DePaoli’s agile software training last week focused on continuous improvement and re-factoring! We’re glad you enjoyed his talk and hope others who missed the sessions will take a moment to check out your post.
Key points covered:
- Agile management & leadership
- Task estimation
- Problem solving
- Team cadence
- Agile tips on velocity, burn-down & story writing
- Task switching exercise
Learn about VersionOne’s list of agile software training including Agile eLearning, Certified ScrumMaster class and agile team workshops. Or check our our agile Training Class Schedule.
- Jan 19 2012
Agile Metrics: It’s Not All That Complicated
One of the hardest parts about moving from traditional to agile project management is trusting that things are progressing even if we are not constantly looking at reports. On Monday, Jan. 23 VersionOne Agile and Product Coach Katia Sullivan will present “Agile Metrics: It’s Not All That Complicated,” a presentation covering agile reports from the perspective of each of the typical agile roles (Facilitator, Implementer and Customer). She will also share decision-making scenarios based on agile metrics.
The session will be facilitated by the PMI Washington, D.C. and 1 PDU is available for Certified PMs. Get the details.
- Jan 17 2012
VersionOne Sponsors Agile Leadership Conference in Houston
Agile leaders will gather at the Agile Leadership Conference in Houston on January 20 & 21, 2012 to help agile leaders in the community develop, refine and invigorate their agile leadership skills.
VersionOne is proud to sponsor this unique event format, which offers speaker panels, open space sessions, interactive learning exercises, as well as informal networking at an evening cocktail reception. Details and registration. Hope you can join us!
- Jan 11 2012
Scrum Gathering Atlanta 2012
VersionOne is pleased to be the title sponsor for the Scrum Gathering Atlanta 2012, May 7-9th! Scrum community members from around the world will gather at the Marriott Atlanta Buckhead to share their Scrum experiences and collaborate with their fellow Scrum development users. Event info. Share using the hashtag #sgatl.
- Jan 09 2012
Sage to Discuss Customer-Driven Approach to Product Management
In software development product management is about listening to your customers and encouraging their feedback so that you can deliver the features that matter most to them. A customer-driven approach to product management is extremely valuable – but not always easy.
VersionOne is hosting a webinar on January 18th to share how our customer, Sage uses the VersionOne agile software development tool to:
- Improve feedback & stakeholder collaboration
- Quantify & justify release prioritization
- Manage projects from idea through to delivery
Learn more and register.
- Dec 22 2011
Innovation Games Announces Integration with VersionOne Agile Management Tool to Help Prioritize User Stories
The Innovation Games Company announced the integration of its revolutionary SaaS offering, Innovation Games Online, with VersionOne’s leading agile management tool. VersionOne customers can use the Innovation Games virtual market game, Buy a Feature Online, to solve one of the hardest problems in agile software development: determining the priority of user stories with customers and stakeholders.
- Dec 22 2011
Making Beautiful Music: How Small Agile Software Teams Work & Interact
If there were 10 commandments of agile, certainly one of them would be to keep teams small and cross-functional. When you do so, you get everyone on the agile software development team (testers, programmers, product owner, documentation specialists and business peeps) working in beautiful harmony.
Agile teams who pull this off are more likely to properly define customer needs, overcome changing requirements, and reduce the number of defects found in testing.
How do you get these groups into a rhythm of agile software development? It’s an art - very similar to the art of making music, says Steve Ropa, author of a new CM Crossroads article, “Making Beautiful Music – The Art of Small Teams.” In it Steve discusses:
- What roles are important to agile development teams?
- How do agile development teams work and interact?
- How do small agile teams make it easier to manage changing customer requirements?
- What’s velocity got to do with it?
In case you missed it, check out the article. It’s well worth the read.
- Dec 20 2011
Feature Groups vs. Epics in VersionOne
Great Twitter question this morning from @paulambro, Paul Ambro – software engineering manager and agile practitioner:
“Why use Feature Groups instead of Epics in VersionOne?” I checked with our product specialists and ‘Survey Says’:
You should use Feature Groups to categorize the work you are delivering for agile reporting and tracking (specific reports and filtering on Feature Groups). Use Epics to decompose the work within a Feature Group.
For more info, check out this Knowledge Base article on the difference between Goals, Epics and Feature Groups.
Great question, Paul; thanks for asking!
- Dec 19 2011
Agile Software Team Communication: Product Owners Are from Mars, Testers Are from Venus
What would you say are the biggest barriers to a successful agile software project? Right at the top of the list has got to be communication between the Product Owner and the Tester. Sometimes it’s like they’re from different planets! But once agile software teams come to terms with the relationship theory, they can advance from “being right” to “getting better” in their agile software projects. Check out this STPCon interview with VersionOne’s JoEllen Carter and Jerry Odenwelder, “Product Owners Are from Mars, Testers Are from Venus.”
- Dec 14 2011
What is Kanban & How’s it Different from Scrum?
Ever wonder about the difference between Kanban and Scrum? Both Kanban and Scrum:
- Focus on releasing software early and often
- Require highly collaborative and self-managed teams
- Are built on the basic premise of “Stop Starting, Start Finishing”
But there are distinct differences and between the two.
Learn how they are different, ‘what is Kanban?,’ the benefits of Kanban software tools, and how VersionOne is supporting multiple teams using multiple agile methodologies to track the status of their items; set WIP limits for each process stage; and optimize their team’s flow.
- Dec 14 2011
Finding the Right Agile Tool for the Job
Choosing an agile methodology? That’s easy. Scaling across a large enterprise? That’s hard, and a real challenge for the most seasoned Scrum Master or agile team, says SD Times.
According to SD Times’ article, “Finding the Right Agile Tool for the Job,” the key to successful agile adoption is to change the corporate culture. The goal: getting everyone on board. The message (often): Failure is necessary in order to ultimately succeed. The necessity: the right agile tools for the job.
“(Agile tools) shouldn’t be there as a hammer; they’re there to help from a visibility and accessibility point-of-view,” said Robert Holler, CEO of VersionOne.
Read the article
- Dec 12 2011
User Support: VersionOne Quality Center Integration
From time to time, we’ll post user questions that come into our “VersionOne-Users” Google Groups feed… Just in case others are having the same issue. Here’s one question that has come up regarding the VersionOne Quality Center integration and how to fix it:
“I tried VersionOne Quality Center Integration. It is pushing the test to QC and description to QC test name and details fields respectively, but does not do the mapping for the rest of the fields like setup and steps. Does anyone have any idea how to make it work? Any help is appreciated.”
Get the fix in our support thread. Are you a developer? Check out more user tips from our “VersionOne-dev” group here.
- Dec 08 2011
Agile Teams at Scale: Beyond Scrum of Scrums
We’ve heard many Agile success stories…at the team level. But what happens when a product can’t be delivered by one team? What do you do when the “team” that’s needed to work on a particular product is 20 people? Or 20 teams? Agile methods depend on effective cross-functional teams. Monday, Dec. 12 is the next VersionOne AgileLIVE presented by Esther Derby, 12pm. Info and registration
- Dec 06 2011
Agile Coaching: A Kanban Exercise from @SolutionsIQ
Kanban when applied within a system enables synchronization between the rhythm of demand (customer) and rhythm of production (producer). This blog from @SolutionsIQ offers excellent details on setting up and facilitating a Kanban exercise. Agile Coaching: A Kanban Exercise
- Dec 05 2011
AgilePalooza Irvine: VersionOne to Host Agile Conference for software community Dec. 9
David Hussman, who owns and leads DevJam, will be at the next AgilePalooza, Dec. 9th in Irvine, CA. AgilePalooza is a fun, low-cost event that brings internationally recognized coaches and trainers to the software community for a day of collaboration, education and advancement of agile methods. More info
- Aug 10 2011
Agile Advantage Trusted Advisor Program Connects Enterprise Agile Consultants with Opportunity
Agile Advantage Partner Program Press Release
Agile Advantage™, Inc today announced its Trusted Advisor Program. The new program helps enterprise– and government&ndashfocused Agile consultants and coaches introduce the AgileEVM decision support application to their clients, and provides additional strategic consulting opportunities…
- Aug 10 2011
Agile Advantage Adds Data Imports From Leading ALM Tools Rally and VersionOne
Agile Advantage Integration Press Release
Agile Advantage™, today announced the availability of automated data imports from the industry’s leading Agile Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools, Rally® and VersionOne®. The new import capability saves time and enables better strategic decisions, better software, and better business results
- Aug 23 2010
VersionOne includes enhanced roadmapping facilities to align product delivery and strategy
AgileTube Video Spotlight on Agile Journal
Patrick Egan, Publisher of the Agile Journal talked with Robert Holler, CEO of VersionOne about their Summer Release which features enhanced product roadmapping, project workspaces and a new Salesforce.com integration, CaseConnect. You can view this video to hear the entire interview.
- Aug 17 2010
Workspaces and Product Roadmapping Added to VersionOne’s Toolbox
As agile and lean practices evolve and diversify, development tools and systems often need to become more customizable to support a team’s unique workflow. This doesn’t mean just having support for different methodologies like Scrum or XP (and variations on those methods), it also means having support for teams of varying maturity and capability. VersionOne’s Summer release includes a high degree of customization, which is instrumental in taking agile practices to the next level.
The VersionOne Summer platform release includes four primary new features. The first is product roadmapping. This new aspect of their software allows developers and managers to define, manage, and communicate a product strategy with user-friendly drag-and-drop roadmap building.
- Aug 17 2010
The Benefits of Product Roadmapping – An Interview with VersionOne’s Bob Vincent
The new workspaces and project roadmapping in the VersionOne platform are great for planning long term product strategies and easing into agile adoption. Roadmapping communicates an overarching strategy to developers, which is important for tracking requirements and keeping the team focused. It’s also important because it keeps executives up to date on the project’s goals. Bob Vincent of VersionOne will tell you why Power Points just won’t cut it sometimes.
Bob Vincent is the Product Manager at VersionOne. The latest update to the VersionOne platform was released this week with new features like Product Roadmapping, Project Workspaces, and a Salesforce.com integration.
- Aug 17 2010
Measuring Agile: Metrics, Analytics, and Reporting (Interview with Jerry Odenwelder)
Most agile adopters are using the basic metrics such as burn downs (sprint or project) and velocity. Teams experimenting with other methodologies are using newer metrics like cycle time. VersionOne includes most of these reports and the ability to customize your own reports. Users can also have program reports and they can email reports in this summer’s release.
Jerry Odenwelder is the product manager at VersionOne. The latest update to the VersionOne platform was released this month with new features like Product Roadmapping, Project Workspaces, and a Salesforce.com integration. Reporting and analytics also got an upgrade in this release.
- Aug 09 2010
A road map in agile product planning
Agile product management now has a road map; that’s according to VersionOne, which added product road-mapping to today’s VersionOne Ultimate Edition suite as part of its Summer 2010 quarterly release, offered at no charge to the company’s customers.
The VersionOne agile project management software is designed to simplify project planning; centralize requirements, defect and test management; and automate reporting
- Aug 09 2010
Workspaces and Product Roadmapping Added to VersionOne’s Toolbox
As agile and lean practices evolve and diversify, development tools and systems often need to become more customizable to support a team’s unique workflow. This doesn’t mean just having support for different methodologies like Scrum or XP (and variations on those methods), it also means having support for teams of varying maturity and capability. VersionOne’s Summer release includes a high degree of customization, which is instrumental in taking agile practices to the next level.
- Mar 11 2010
VersionOne extends agile project management solution
VersionOne announced Monday the availability of VersionOne Ultimate Edition, an extension of its agile project management solution that offers greater team visibility through new Test Management, Ideas Management and Agile Analytics capabilities.
- Aug 31 2009
Jordi Cabot and Greg Wilson for Modeling Languages
A Survey of Web-Based Software Project Management Tools
Web-based project portals are at the heart of modern software development, but have been studied much less than individual-oriented desktop tools like integrated development environments.- Jul 30 2009
David Rubinstein for SD Times
VersionOne Gets Lean In Its Agile Management Tool
A new version of VersionOne’s VersionOne Enterprise released yesterday includes a new Storyboard that supports “kanban”-style lean software development with a Scrum management front end.
- Jun 15 2009
David Rubinstein for SD Times
Agile Development: Built To Scale
The notion of agile development by now is well known for most every responsible CEO and CIO. With the economy stuck in low gear, organizations need to find ways to shorten development cycles and improve quality, all with the resources they already have on hand.
- Jun 08 2009
David Rubinstein for SD Times
A Survey of Web-Based Software Project Management Tools
So, just how agile is your agile process? While those who preach the dogma of the Agile Manifesto have loosened their belief that agile is an all-or-nothing affair, debate continues over what constitutes an agile development shop.- May 27 2009
David Rubinstein for SD Times
VersionOne Adds Ideas To Agile Platform
Got an idea for a new feature in the software you’re using? With VersionOne’s new product, VersionOne Ideas, users can submit feedback or offer suggestions for new features by communicating directly with the developers writing the code.- Nov 10 2008
John K. Waters for Redmond Developer News
Agile Solution Provider Rolls Out Java SDK
Agile project management tools provider VersionOne has updated its VersionOne Enterprise product to include a Java software development kit (Java SDK).- Oct 24 2008
Jeff Feinman for SDTimes
VersionOne Adds Mapping, Planning Features To Agile Manager
VersionOne Enterprise 8.3, released Tuesday, has a modified project tree that allows the creation of projects separately from a sprint or iteration schedule.- Aug 29 2008
Dr. Dobb’s Journal
Agile Survey Results Released
VersionOne survey results based on those who have practiced Agile methods.- Aug 22 2008
- Aug 06 2008
Darryl K. Taft for eWeek
VersionOne, Danube Deliver Agile Support
VersionOne is integrating its VersionOne technology with Microsoft Team Foundation Server 2008 and is supporting Microsoft Visual Studio 2008.- Jul 22 2008
- May 26 2008
- May 15 2008
Paul Krill for InfoWorld
Agile Project Management Set For Small Teams
VersionOne also set to expand enterprise-level product- Feb 04 2008
- Jan 24 2008
RedMonk Video Screencast
Agile Project Management Across Organizational Boundaries With JIRA And VersionOne
- Jan 23 2008
- Oct 19 2007
- Aug 30 2007
- Aug 21 2007
- Aug 20 2007
- Aug 01 2007
- May 21 2007
Thomas Wailgum for CIO Magazine
VersionOne Customer Farm Credit Services Featured In CIO Magazine For Their Success With Agile
“How Agile Development Can Lead to Better Results and Technology-Business Alignment”- May 21 2007
Thomas Wailgum for CIO Magazine
10 Questions To See If Your Company’s Developers Are Agile
- written by VersionOne CEO Robert Holler and originally published in the VersionOne Resources section here.- May 01 2007
David Rubinstein (editor-in-chief) for SDTimes
VersionOne Offers A New Agile Taskmaster
Update adds virtual taskboard for organizing projects- Apr 20 2007
Geoffrey Wiseman for InfoQ
VersionOne adds Taskboard, Subversion/Fitnesse Integration And Free Community Edition
- Jan 17 2007
- Nov 25 2006
- Nov 06 2006
- Oct 26 2006
Paul Krill for InfoWorld
Visual Studio Users Get Agile Programming link
Fall Release Of VersionOne Platform Is Set- Sep 28 2006
Patrick Egan for CMC Media/Agile Journal
- Sep 25 2006
Deborah Hartmann for InfoQ
Interview With VersionOne’s Michael Leeds About The Agile Tool Evaluator Guide
- Sep 12 2006
- Jul 20 2006
- Jul 18 2006
Kathleen Richards for Application Development Trends
Early Mainstream: Agile Develops In The Enterprise
- Jul 07 2006
- Jul 05 2006
- May 20 2006
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- Apr 18 2006
“The commitment of the VersionOne team to understand and support our modified Scrum process and their level of dedication to our success was a key reason why we chose VersionOne.”Ricki Koinig,
Tools Team Lead,
bwin Interactive Entertainment, AG
