This overview of our Agile development process contains information that you need to know before we start your software project. It explains your role and responsibilities (and ours), describes what happens in Sprint 0 and the development Sprints, and identifies the deliverables that you can expect to receive. After reading it, you should have a [...]

When people try your software for the first time, they’ll be comparing it to every other application they’ve ever used, so it has to deliver a positive user experience (UX). However, when it comes to UX design, developers often drop the ball because they’re unable to recognize and avoid some common pitfalls. The purpose of [...]

On a regular basis, product owners ask me if a given user story should be split in two. There’s no canned answer for this question, in fact, story writing is as much art as it is a science. That said, I generally respond by asking the business owner to think carefully about the story’s business [...]

If you read our white paper “Agile Is No Silver Bullet: Building Great Software Takes Much More”, you know that unscrupulous developers often characterize Agile development as a silver bullet solution for software projects. Sure, Agile is a really good development philosophy—as far as we know, it’s the best one—but it’s no silver bullet. In [...]

Agile is a very useful approach to software development but it can’t be applied in a vacuum. Without solid experience, proper engineering discipline, proven business acumen, open communication, and smart, creative people who exercise sound judgment, Agile is little more than a buzzword. This white paper cuts through the hype and describes how successful teams [...]

If your sales and marketing team has hit the ceiling with a standard Salesforce CRM, you need to learn about Force.com, the Salesforce development platform. With Force.com, software developers build powerful custom applications that expand what your team can do in the Salesforce environment. Organizations that don’t have a Salesforce CRM can also harness the [...]

If you need to buy a CRM system and you’ve read our white paper “Choosing the Right CRM: Why We Recommend Salesforce”, then you might be considering a flexible on-demand CRM system that can grow with your organization. But what about your boss? What if your boss wants to save a few dollars up front [...]

A CRM system is a significant long-term investment that your organization should take very seriously. The right CRM can help push your sales figures to new heights. The wrong one can disrupt your sales and marketing team, forcing them to succeed in spite of a dysfunctional system. Your growing organization needs a CRM that can [...]

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this “book” report, we summarized all the white papers we’ve written about Agile/Lean software development and proper software engineering. In this third and final installment, our Really Serious Person takes a look at Architech white papers related to custom software and marketing automation. So, without further ado… Crush [...]