Author Archives: Eric Lefevre-Ardant

About Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Independent technical consultant.

Team split into feature teams, after all

Posted on September 18, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

You might remember from a previous post that I was regretting the fact that the development team had not wished to split into feature teams. I even suggested that it should not have been an option to them. Well, be … Continue reading →

Posted in agile, offshore, scrum, valtech | Comments Off on Team split into feature teams, after all

Moved this site to WordPress

Posted on September 13, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

I was using Blogger so far, but I have decided to move to WordPress, mostly because of the support for Categories (similar to tags). I had to host WordPress on my site, which is unfortunate, as it means that it … Continue reading →

Posted in misc, personal | Comments Off on Moved this site to WordPress

Luke, I’m your ScrumMaster

Posted on August 28, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

I am now a Certified ScrumMaster.

Posted in agile, scrum | Comments Off on Luke, I’m your ScrumMaster

Last year’s project goes live

Posted on August 10, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

The project that I worked on for 6 months last year finally goes live! No small satisfaction, considering that only very few (3? 4?) projects that I worked on ever go live on the internet, where everyone can see them. … Continue reading →

Posted in java, valtech | Comments Off on Last year’s project goes live

How To Show Sub-Iterations in the Iteration Backlog

Posted on July 13, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Once issue that we have with our customer is the definition of iterations. They want us to work with 6-week iterations, and release a previously-agreed scope at the end of the 6-weeks. The reasons for this according to them is … Continue reading →

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Team Did Not Split In Feature Teams

Posted on July 13, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

On our project, there is a total of 21 tech people (plus managers and translators). 3 of us are onshore. 18 offshore. You would expect this to lead to a natural split into 4 teams, right? 1 onshore, 3 teams … Continue reading →

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Buildix

Posted on July 6, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Those fine people at ThoughtWorks have just blessed the world with Buildix, a bootable CDROM that integrates CruiseControl, Trac and Subversion. With this, you get an immediately available development platform. I cannot wait to test it.

Posted in test | Comments Off on Buildix

Reshape to your will, or play with strengths?

Posted on July 5, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Last week, I attended a 3-hour session on wine. It wasn’t just wine tasting; the guy (only gave his first name, Alexis) also gave plenty of details on how wine is produced, etc. He also explained the differences between wine-making … Continue reading →

Posted in offshore, process | Comments Off on Reshape to your will, or play with strengths?

Javaday 2006

Posted on July 5, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Last week, I went with 3 others Valtech guys to Javaday in Versailles. Javaday is an interesting concept. It lasts only one day, and has no entrance fee. Even the lunch sandwiches are free. With such a premise, you would … Continue reading →

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As a user, always choose the English language

Posted on June 30, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

I always make a point of using an application or a website in English. This helps getting the “real” experience, as the developers intended it, and avoid crappy translations. I don’t go as far as changing the local settings of … Continue reading →

Posted in misc | 1 Comment

We’ve sunk to a new low

Posted on June 28, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

As I write this post, I am still under the shock. In French, we have sayings that go like this (I’m sure they translate well in English): “we had reached to bottom of the pool… and we have started digging”, … Continue reading →

Posted in offshore, process, valtech | Comments Off on We’ve sunk to a new low

First Retrospective Meeting

Posted on June 28, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Last Monday, we held the first retrospective meeting on our project. I had pushed for it to take place, and I thought it would go better than the Sprint Review. As it happened, it did not. First, I contacted people … Continue reading →

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Team Morale Matters for Evaluating How Projects Are Doing

Posted on June 27, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

Yesterday evening, I attended a internal presentation on Project Metrics (if you’re interested, the promoted process was QGM). As a technical guy, I took note of an important thing. We were in the middle of a part describing the goals … Continue reading →

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Offshore Team Start Working on Saturdays

Posted on June 27, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

As part of the actions for this iteration, the offshore managers (the ones based in Bangalore, not the ones based in Paris) have announced that the development Team will work on Saturdays from now on. My colleagues and I, in … Continue reading →

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free.fr offers 10 GB Personal Websites

Posted on June 23, 2006 by Eric Lefevre-Ardant

My webhost, who is also my ISP, now offers free upgrades to 10 GB for all (free) personal websites! No idea what I will do with that, considering that I have yet to reach the 1 GB threshold, which was … Continue reading →

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