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TFC. Version Control for Multiple Agile Teams. If we have several agile development teams working on the same codebase, how do we minimize the risk of stumbling over each other? How do we ensure that there always is a clean, releasable version at the end of each iteration? This paper describes an example of how to handle version control in an agile environment with multiple teams - it is the scheme that we migrated to at the company described in "Scrum and XP from the Trenches". This paper is not primarily targeted for version control experts, in fact such experts probably won't find anything new here. This paper is aimed at the rest of us, those of us that just want to learn simple and useful ways to collaborate. It may be of interest to anyone directly involved in agile software development, regardless of role - branching and merging is everybody's business, not just the configuration manager. Table of contents Introduction This paper describes an example of how to handle version control in an agile environment with multiple teams.

Maverick Software Development Model. (April 1, 2004) Abstract The Maverick Development Model is concerned with identifying the best practices for a given situation. A model development process is one that produces the correct development process for the current situation and constraints. A model of development differs from development methodologies (such as Waterfall, Spiral, or Agile) in that the goal or desired outcome is the driving force, ever present, and never forgotten. Methodologies are approaches to achieving goals, but to often the reason for the steps of the methodology have been forgotten and no one knows the reason things are done except that the method requires it. There are many good practices that have been accepted over the years and some of them will be presented as well as personal insights and philosophies concerning the software development process and the roles that make it up.

It is time for software developers to become computer scientists. Introduction Why do I go into these past experiences? Work. The Algorithm: Idiom of Modern Science. Data Visualization: Modern Approaches. A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy. A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy A speech at ETech, April, 2003 Published July 1, 2003 on the "Networks, Economics, and Culture" mailing list. Subscribe to the mailing list. This is a lightly edited version of the keynote I gave on Social Software at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology conference in Santa Clara on April 24, 2003 Good morning, everybody. In particular, I want to talk about what I now think is one of the core challenges for designing large-scale social software. Prior to the Internet, we had lots of patterns that supported point-to-point two-way. Prior to the Internet, the last technology that had any real effect on the way people sat down and talked together was the table.

We've had social software for 40 years at most, dated from the Plato BBS system, and we've only had 10 years or so of widespread availability, so we're just finding out what works. So email doesn't necessarily support social patterns, group patterns, although it can. This talk is in three parts. So, Part One.

Personal Observations; Feynman. By R.P. Feynman Introduction It appears that there are enormous differences of opinion as to the probability of a failure with loss of vehicle and of human life. The estimates range from roughly 1 in 100 to 1 in 100,000. The higher figures come from the working engineers, and the very low figures from management. What are the causes and consequences of this lack of agreement? We have also found that certification criteria used in Flight Readiness Reviews often develop a gradually decreasing strictness. There are several sources of information. Solid Rockets (SRB) An estimate of the reliability of solid rockets was made by the range safety officer, by studying the experience of all previous rocket flights.

NASA officials argue that the figure is much lower. Finally, if we are to replace standard numerical probability usage with engineering judgment, why do we find such an enormous disparity between the management estimate and the judgment of the engineers? Liquid Fuel Engine (SSME) Avionics. Object oriented Encapsulation for Dynamically Typed Languages.

Beauty Is Our Business. Beauty Is Our Business : A Birthday Salute to Edsger W. Dijkstra (Texts and Monographs in Computer Science) ISBN 0387972994 This book is a birthday tribute to EwDijkstra, with about 25 articles written by friends. The book title comes from something written or spoken by EwDijkstra. The 'our' refers to computer scientists (with the EMPHasis on science). David Gelernter said in "Machine Beauty - Elegance and the Heart of Technology Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. . - - Beauty must be sometimes complex, see fractal designs. BEAUTY IS UNDEFINABLE. I completely disagree. I agree with both of you. Also agree with both. But WhoDefinesTheBeauty?

Isn't beauty quite a subjective thing? 'Truth is beauty, beauty, truth' -- JohnKeats? In a kinda EWD way, the beauty of software is found in the understanding incarnation, not the source, executable, or executing incarnation. Maybe the word 'beauty' means different things to us.