A couple a months ago I was asked to put together an article for the quarterly AgileTODAY magazine as part of the 2012 Agile Australia conference workshops. After a whiteboard session with Craig Smith, I put together these 8 tips which…
Software
7 Deadly Sins of Automated Software Testing
by Adrian Smith • Tue 3 Jan 2012 • 9 Comments
When Craig Smith and I were planning our presentation for Agile 2011 – we toyed with the idea of listing 7 anti-patterns for automated testing. I’ve taken these patterns and loosely matched them to the classic seven-deadly-sins. This metaphor also allowed me…
Agile 2011 – Building Quality In
by Adrian Smith • Tue 23 Aug 2011 • 0 Comments
Craig Smith and I presented a session called Accelerating the Speed To Cool On The Road To Building Quality In at Agile2011 in Salt Lake City. The talk was based around work that we have been doing at Suncorp to…
Agile Australia 2011 – Startups
by Adrian Smith • Thu 23 Jun 2011 • 0 Comments
Startup businesses face significant risk in the search for a sustainable, profitable and scalable business model. Consequently, the success rate for Startups is low, making them a typically high risk investment. Agile methods offer a way of reducing the risk…
Agile for Startups
by Adrian Smith • Tue 4 May 2010 • 0 Comments
I presented a session at the Brisbane Agile Academy Meetup group on Agile for Startups. I discussed some of the Agile principles and practices relevant to a startup and demonstrated some of the tools used by Ennova. Despite numerous technical…
How Do Scientists Really Use Computers?
by Adrian Smith • Wed 30 Sep 2009 • 0 Comments
Gregory Wilson published an article in the American Scientist discussing the results from a web-based survey of how scientists use computers. Its worth a reading as it highlights the differences between the the scientific community and the IT industry. For…
Designing an Estimation Process
by Adrian Smith • Sat 15 Aug 2009 • 0 Comments
In many organisations (especially larger commercial or government) it is common for the project governance processes to require an estimate of project costs before funds can be released and the project launched. Therefore, it is necessary to develop an estimate…
Agile Systems Integration
by Adrian Smith • Mon 23 Feb 2009 • 0 Comments
Before I started work on a recent project, I was asked if Agile methods could be applied to a systems integration project. Naturally I said yes, (responding more from instinct rather than first hand knowledge) – but as soon as…
KBE System Definition
by Adrian Smith • Sat 17 Jan 2009 • 1 Comment
Dave Cooper of Genworks published an AIAA paper where he defines the minimum set of features for a Knowledge-Based Engineering (KBE) system. These features include: Functional Coding Style: programs return values, rather than modifying things in memory or in the…
Cloud Computing Explained
by Adrian Smith • Sat 20 Sep 2008 • 0 Comments
The launch of Google’s Chrome browser has triggered media hype around cloud computing issues. The ABC’s Background Briefing has a very entertaining podcast and the show page has some great links for further information. My favorite is the song about…