There is considerable confusion about the various roles within an Agile development team these days. There are many titles available with little explanation of how they relate to Agile development. Amidst the confusion, here is a primer on the basics of Agile Development Roles.

Asking questions is how we all learn and grow in our careers. It is how we gain understanding, gather necessary information, and ensure relevance and accuracy towards what we are tasked with doing. Asking questions bridges the gap between intent and ability to generate a valid and accurate response. There are times when asking questions will cause problems at work, though. Sometimes, your questions may not be welcome, and there may be several reasons for that.

In a software development setting, a Total Quality Management (TQM) department is a dedicated team or function responsible for establishing, promoting, and overseeing the implementation of TQM principles and practices throughout the software development lifecycle. The primary goal of this department is to ensure that the software products and the processes used to develop them meet the highest possible standards of quality, ultimately leading to increased customer satisfaction.

Part of project management is determining what risks your team will face as they progress. Whether you are starting a new project or working on an existing one, it is a good idea to identify the risks your project will encounter as it progresses. A few key areas to look into: Complexity, Budget, Trends, and Project Comparisons.

In software development, quality management encompasses everything from Quality Assurance (QA) to Quality Control (QC) and, ultimately, Quality Engineering (QE). All of these areas play a role in application security and compliance. Quality is often perceived as a cost for organizations, so when budgets are cut, these areas usually bear the brunt. This is a slippery slope for a company, especially if it is trying to meet specific standards required for various security compliance regulations. Reducing quality from the budget will have far-reaching consequences over time.

Many teams today have specific “go-to” people on a team. There is often a person who is the only one who has dealt with a specific feature or issue, and they are always the one that the team turns to when work needs to be done. What happens if that person is unavailable or busy with something else? Is the team sharing knowledge, or are they using the specialist’s capability as a crutch? Should someone be allowed to continue as the single point of failure?

I won’t lie; the technology industry currently faces a challenge with attracting new talent. This isn’t a new thing, though. I have known many individuals who had just graduated from college with degrees in Computer Science, Information Technology, or Information Systems, and thought it would be easy to find a job upon completing their academic studies. Sometimes it is, if you know the right people. Often, they struggle to get their careers started, though. Few will secure their dream job right out of school, and honestly, I would be concerned if that was all they had achieved in their careers anyway. For those getting started, here's a tip: try to secure a support or testing gig first.

Ethics is the philosophical study of morality. There are many theories around morality, many of which were initially derived from traditional and religious beliefs. Governments and other ruling bodies enact laws due to disagreements regarding ethical issues. Technology is a scientific tool, designed without regard to ethics or morals. It simply exists, and those who use it will do so in accordance with their own ethical beliefs. When considering digital technology, who decides the ethics of its use, how it is utilized, and how they are enforced?

Many people are currently going through the interview process. It is unfortunate, but this is the time we live in. Hiring managers often have multiple interviews at the same time, which can consume their day. Couple that with the regular day-to-day work that must be done simultaneously, and how do they provide feedback to their teams and Human Resources (HR) to determine whether someone should be hired or promoted to the next level of the hiring process?

Employee feedback is essential to any organization, including what goes from management down the chain. It is vital for career growth, performance, and team cohesion. What happens if managers don’t provide feedback to those they oversee?

Core Values are a set of ideals and guidelines that a person or organization uses when making decisions, solving problems, and building relationships. Many organizations have aligned themselves with Core Values and advertise them to their employees and clients, but do they follow them?

Whatever your thoughts on using Agile, it does promote better communication. Collaboration is a central tenet for Agile, and communication is required for proper collaboration. Sadly, many organizations form information silos around their divisions and teams. This happens for many reasons, but it is a significant issue that should be addressed for any business that wants to stop wasteful development practices.

There are many project management tools in the tech sector. I have worked with Jira, Azure, Asana, and TFS (to name a few). Over the years, I have noticed that organizations like to use them but don’t always use them to their full extent. Since they are paid apps, wouldn’t it be a good idea to try to get your money’s worth?

Project deliverables are essential to everyone on a project, not just the project manager. They are a way to measure the project's success or failure. Deliverables can be as large as a milestone or as small as an email, but all deliverables should be treated with the same quality standards. So, what is a deliverable, and why is it essential to ensure it meets the standards of success?

Many software development companies want to move to a Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) model, but still have long release cycles. There are several reasons this happens. One example is that the company is holding a release until features are complete and is not using a feature flag system. I’ve also seen that they are holding onto the idea that they can only release at the end of a sprint. While I get the concept from a project management perspective, after all, it does make release tracking easier, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Recently, I was asked what I usually do to set up a new Quality Department. I have done it several times over my career, and here are a few lessons I’ve learned. It isn’t a difficult task, but it requires analysis and project planning.

Total quality management (TQM) is a top-down organization concept that dedicates quality to every function of an organization. It was developed in the 20th century and was initially created for product manufacturing. Over time, it was adopted by numerous agencies to gain a competitive advantage in their market. TQM is a way to harness an organization’s resources to improve effectiveness and efficiency with support, training, and guidance.

Over the years, I have worn many hats in various roles. I have managed projects, products, processes, development, and testing throughout them. One requirement has always been to make our work as efficient as possible. While I see the business value of efficiency, bringing value to the development sphere while keeping costs down, I always look at effectiveness first.

Over the years, I developed a series of training documents and videos for my teams that discuss Story Point estimation. They discuss how they are used and why they are essential. Since I did a previous post about Velocity, it is crucial to lay the groundwork for Story Points so that teams can estimate adequately.

Team velocity is a crucial tool for effective project management. Not only does it track team delivery, it also allows for the projection of delivery potential.