Latest in Industry and Research Publications

  • Scrum’s product vision vs. project mission

    Scrum’s product vision vs. project mission

    As noted previously, Scrum uses the term product to mean artifact. This is fine, as long as the user of Scrum is a software vendor, developing a product for a market. It is confusing, however, if the user is a consulting firm, performing a custom project for a client. If you are a consulting firm,…

  • How project vs. product confuses agile methods terminology

    How project vs. product confuses agile methods terminology

    In a previous blog post I noted how the terms project and product are being confused in open source. However, it is agile methods, specifically Scrum, where it gets really bad. To recap: A project is a human undertaking to create an artifact. A project, by definition, has a start date and an end date.…

  • How Project vs. Product Confuses Open Source Terminology

    How Project vs. Product Confuses Open Source Terminology

    The terms project and product are used with continued confusion. Both open source and agile methods are particularly bad offenders, leading people astray. Adapted straight from the textbooks: Not always, but typically, a project is used to create a custom artifact, while a product is (by definition) made for a market, that is, many different…

  • Looking for examples of open source user consortia

    Looking for examples of open source user consortia

    We are researching the governance of open source software foundations. We are specifically interested in what we call open source user consortia, that is, open source foundations where the users of the software are in the driver’s seat. A primary example would be Kuali, which hosts the development of software for academic institutions. A more…

  • EU survey on open source software and standardization

    EU survey on open source software and standardization

    Open source software and patents are a tricky topic and resolution of the many hairy issues may need new and/or revised laws. Fraunhofer Gesellschaft is currently running a survey for the European Union to gather broad stakeholder input on the topic. I encourage participation. Deadline is Nov 30th, 2018.

  • How UML is actually used (if it is used)

    How UML is actually used (if it is used)

    When I started our software architecture course about eight years ago, I was happy to find out about a book series on the architecture of open source applications. I was thrilled: Not only code, but architecture descriptions! I expected great material for my course. Sadly, I had to realize that none of the chapters in…