Agile Methodologies
Agile development methodologies are revolutionizing the way we implement software systems.
Sam Guckenheimer, the group product planner for Microsoft's Visual Studio Team System, has written an excellent book entitled "Software Engineering with Microsoft Visual Studio Team System." The first chapter compares and contrasts Agile methods with the traditional Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC, or waterfall) approach. In this little essay, I summarize Guckenheimer's findings, and sprinkle in some thoughts about how our organization might consider using Agile methods.
Have you ever had difficulty translating a set of requirements into a set of tests? Do you find regression testing to be a major bottleneck whenever you implement changes in your system? (Or do you have quality issues because you forgo regression testing?) Does your development team ever dump complex functionality into a "smart UI" that becomes difficult to maintain and extend? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should check out FIT (the Framework for Integrated Testing).