Jared Richardson

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Jared Richardson, co-author of Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful
Software Projects, is a speaker, consultant, and mentor. Jared has been in the industry for more than fifteen years as a consultant, developer, tester, and manager.

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  • Southern Fried Agile!

    There's an Agile conference in Charlotte this Friday called (wait for it!) Southern Fried Agile. (I'll bet you didn't see that one coming, did you?) It'll be a great mix of topics and speakers and is a steal at this price. It's $70 for the entire day.

    I'm speaking on Agile Testing Strategies (Defect Driven Testing anyone?), and you can find a complete list of speakers and topics on this page

    I'd hoped to do a more complete write-up on the conference, but I've been very busy lately. Let me say that it'll be great chance to hear several excellent speakers (and me!) without breaking the bank.

    If you're in the southeastern region, let me encourage to come out! If you're not, let me encourage you to host an event of your own just like this one!

    Southern Fried Agile

    Have fun
  • Some of My DZone Articles

    Here are a few links to my DZone articles that you'll enjoy.

    Embrace Your Inner Stupid talks about ongoing learning and humility.

    Code Like Kudzu deals with removing obstacles. Probably not the best choice of metaphors. :)

    What is Great Software? delves into more than "It compiled. Ship it!

    Agile Isn't Latin is a rant about people who invoke Agile to rationalize their laziness.

    Exerciese, Good Choices, and DDT is another call to arms on starting today.

    Tips and Suggestions for Your First Iteration is exactly what the title would lead you to th
  • Stepped Down As the Agile Zone Leader at DZone

    I twittered and posted on FaceBook about stepping down and several people have pinged me privately to ask why. There's no big secret in it... I'm staying really, really busy these days. Let me walk you through it.

    I'm commuting weekly to Columbus, Ohio. There are no direct flights, so it's 5+ hours on planes, in airports, waiting for thunderstorms to disperse, or it's an 8 hour drive. I've been driving (which is much more fun than small seats in regional jets.)

    In Columbus (actually Dublin, Ohio), I'm working with a company that's making the jump from a traditional model to an Agile software process. We're working with developers, testers, support, sales, leadership, and more. It's a very fun and very rewarding engagement, but it's also very involved and requires long hours some days. Agile transformations are hard work, but really fun too.

    I've started sketching out a new book... I'm leaning towards a quilting or alchemy metaphor, but it will be a book on how to blend v
  • Stop Whining and Get Started!

    I talked to a few friends this week who are at companies who hired them, and told them at the time that they were an "agile shop". But now that it's time to get working, they're being told that we're not agile yet, and it's not the right time. But we're going agile RSN (Real Soon Now.)

    At the core of this issue is the same problem that countless other shops encounter. Do we do things the right way today, or do we fall back into old habits? It's easy to sit back and decide to make the right strategic moves, but, when the pressure is on, just fall back into our old habits.

    If you really see the value in the core Agile practices, then DO THEM. Today.

    People, this is just like exercise. If you wait until you feel like lifting weights, you'll never start. If you take your pain and soreness into account, the aftermath of exercise the next day, then you'll stop exercising and eventually die young.

    People, Agile practices really work, but only if you use th
  • Dzone Agile Posts

    I've written three DZone posts for the Agile Zone this week. So far I'm focusing on basic Agile practices, taken from XP, Scrum, lean, etc. I'm a very pragmatic person, and I try to focus on what works.

    If you'd like to read them, you can find them here:

    DZone has a comment system set up. Feel free to join and start a discussion.

    Update: DZone just posted a video interview with me as well The Pitfalls of Agile Going Mainstream