Extreme Programming Resource

By Brian Rabon

Have you ever tried something new that worked well but you didn’t understand why it was working? When we first started implementing Agile we had tremendous success. For instance, we turned a twice failed custom CRM implementation into a home run for a leading insurance company and had many other similar victories. It really is a great project management tool, but there are still many people who don’t know the basics of Agile.

So here is a brief overview of Agile Project Management and what it accomplishes for you.

Agile Software development is a term coined with the signing of the Agile Manifesto in 2001. At this signing some of the world’s most prominent minds came together to rally against the current “heavyweight” (aka waterfall) development methods at the time. From this genesis Agile emerged as a legitimate alternative development methodology. Today Agile adoption is spreading like wildfire and even organizations, such as the Project Management Institute are starting to take notice.

The term Agile refers to a family of methodologies including; Extreme Programming, Lean, Scrum, etc. According to the latest industry data, Scrum enjoys the largest market share at 49.1% (Version One “The State of Agile Development” 3rd Annual Survey: 2008). Each methodology has its own unique differences, however all Agile methodologies share the following characteristics:
• Develop the highest value features first
• Short iterations, frequent releases
• Fixed resources and time, scope remains variable
• High visibility, high bandwidth communication (aka face-to-face)
• Small cross-functional, self-managing teams
• Inspecting and adapting (continuous improvement)

Author, Blogger, speaker and founder of The Braintrust Consulting Group, Brian M. Rabon, CSM, CSP, MSEE, PMP, has successfully implemented both Extreme Programming and Scrum at multiple companies and experienced firsthand the benefits that Agile Project Management can bring. Brian also consults with businesses large and small in order to align their project management efforts around delivery and providing business value. For more information please visit http://www.yourpmpartner.com to learn the combination to unlocking a true return on your project management investment.

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By Ryan Mutt

Project management (PM) is a well planned approach for a process from start to end. It is concerned with the planning and guiding of the project from start to finish. Any process needs to be guide in usually five stages. They are initiation, planning, execution, controlling and closing. PM can be applied to almost all type of projects but especially it is applicable in software development projects to control the complex process. It is an organized effort and it is planned very carefully. To accomplish a specific project, PM is essential.

PM is handled by project manager to implement the project successfully towards its goal. For successful completion of any project it is necessary to have a proper PM. The main objective of the PM is to attain its goal successfully.

Numbers of approaches are there to manage the activities of the project. They are:

The traditional approach-This approach aims towards the completion of the project in sequence or in traditional manner. For the completion of the project there are five stages in this approach. They are:

* The stage of initiation
* The stage of design or planning
* The stage of production or execution
* Monitoring and controlling systems
* The stage of completion

Extreme PM- To execute project task, the critical chain project management give more emphasis to human and physical resources. By this method of planning and managing projects all the constraints are exploited and priority is also given to it. In critical chain project management all the projects are planned and managed only when the resources are ready.

Extreme PM- Complex type of project is handled in extreme PM. In this PM experts always try to identify the different models which is ‘light weight’ such as Agile Project Management.

Scrum techniques and extreme programming for the development of software are used in this method. It is the combination of management of human interaction and process modeling.

Event chain methodology- The complement to the critical path method and the methodologies of critical chain project management is another method that is Event chain methodology. This PM deals with the model of uncertainty. The main focus of this management is towards identifying and managing the events or the chain of events which will affect the schedule of the project. Event chain methodology follows the following principles:

* Event chains
* Tracking with events
* Probabilistic moment of risk
* Tracking with events
* Event chain visualization

Copyright © Ryan Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Read information on ERP Project Management and Definition of ERP.

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By Elizabeth Worsham

You have purchased a great domain name, designed a cool site with great page load times, and have it hosted with a quality web host. Your site is ready for the first visit from Google, beginning the quest for high page rank. Here are five easy tips to get you on the right track.

1. Submit your site. Google bots are busy crawling the millions of established sites that have already been published. They appreciate being notified that there is a new site to see. When you are sure you page does not contain any spelling, grammar, or link errors, submit your site to Google to invite to the web spider to visit.

2. Submit a sitemap. Google offers this free service to help the spiders crawl through your site. Once Google spiders the URL of your sitemap, it can easily visit all your pages quickly and thoroughly, which gets your site indexed properly. Check their webmaster tools to learn how to set up your sitemap and submit it to Google.

3. Use quality content. Include content that is important to your visitors. Google is a search engine, faithful to the visitor that is searching for information. They hold no loyalty to the website owner. They will rank your site higher if the content is useful and applicable.

4. Use fresh content. If your site includes information that is updated frequently, visitors will appreciate it, and therefore Google will. It is pretty sad to see a latest news heading on a website, and the news is from three years ago. Write an article, announce some news, or review a company — keep it current.

5. Get linked. One of the most important things you can do to be rated higher in Google’s eyes is have other high ranked sites think you are important. Get your site’s URL listed on a quality website, that is, one that complements your keywords and site content. One great way to do this is submit your site to a quality reciprocal link directory. Link directories such as Excite Link [http://excitelink.com/] list quality companies and services for searching visitors.

These tips will give you a great start on ranking high with Google. Always keep active in your research of current do’s and dont’s of search engine optimization, and keep track of your experiments. Like my piano teacher used to say — practice makes perfect.

Elizabeth Worsham is a the design director for Extreme Programming [http://extreme-programming.com]. She and her husband Eric own WebCom Resources, a family of successful Internet services.

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