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Next generation Agile: Guide to continuous development

Last updated:November 2014

Editor's note

Today's top trend with software development leaders is continuous development. Cloud infrastructure and mobile applications are still major aspects within the field. Read on to learn how these trends are changing the face of enterprise software development and what project managers can do to keep their teams on top.

1Agile in the clouds

Virtualized infrastructure is an enormously important component in a successful software development organization. Manually provisioning environments is simply too slow and too error prone when compared with the available automated alternatives today. Virtualizing might mean renting from a major public cloud provider like AWS, or investing in your own private cloud. Either way, having the ability to quickly produce and configure development and testing environments that match production is a must.

Check out the articles in this section to learn about public and private cloud options, their benefits and challenges, and how to manage an Agile development team around them.

2Mobile and embedded Agile environments

Mobile and embedded applications may well be the biggest challenge facing software testers and quality engineers. Proliferation of new device types, form factors, firmware and OS versions, and native hardware all present new complications for testers. While mobile territory is still new and does require some innovative thinking, many of the old best practices are still the same. Large development organizations must balance the need for specialized skills in mobile applications with the danger of allowing mobile apps to develop in a separate silo from the rest of the enterprise applications.

Check out these articles to learn about the techniques and technologies that make mobile and embedded software a workable part of today's enterprise application landscape.

3Agile teams and Agile ALM

There's a very human face to today's Agile development trends. The tools and technology are great, but without the people and processes to put them to work, nothing gets done. There is no tool that can transform the corporate culture or instill a spirit of continuous improvement in the team. These are the challenges that project managers must meet head-on. ALM tools can help, but the real work is in getting development teams to engage with the new processes, to shape them and to be shaped by them.

Check out these articles to find out more about the Agile mind-set and managing an Agile lifecycle.

4Agile terms to know

Get a better understanding of how Agile relates to cloud computing, embedded software and mobile in this section. Find definitions related to continuous development and Agile methodologies here.

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