research-article

Thoughts on weak links and Alexandrian life in Scrum

Author:

Pamela M. RostalAuthors Info & Claims

PLoP '08: Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs

Article No.: 13, Pages 1 - 19

https://doi.org/10.1145/1753196.1753212

Published: 18 October 2008 Publication History

Abstract

This paper looks at the Scrum software development process through a lens that emphasizes small worldness, nestedness, and scale-freeness, all characteristic of networks that feature weak links between their modules. Scrum has gained popularity over the past decade as a means of delivering valuable software to its host organization on a regular basis. Since weak links characterize natural and social systems at every scale, practitioners of Scrum should be able to improve their teams' processes by applying lessons learned from studying weak links. When practitioners look for weak links directly, they may find the task daunting and ask the question: "How can I tell whether weak links are strengthening or weakening my team's Scrum process if I can't even find them?" For the answer, this paper looks to Christopher Alexander's characteristics of wholeness, integrity, or life -- strong centers, levels of scale, echoes, alternating repetition, and, in particular, the characteristic called deep interlock and ambiguity -- which may correlate with the presence of weak links.

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Cited By

Quillien JRostal PWest DArora SLeavens G(2009)Agile anthropology and Alexander's architectureProceedings of the 24th ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object oriented programming systems languages and applications10.1145/1640089.1640131(529-546)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1640089.1640131
Quillien JRostal PWest D(2009)Agile anthropology and Alexander's architectureACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/1639949.164013144:10(529-546)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1639949.1640131

Index Terms

Thoughts on weak links and Alexandrian life in Scrum
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
      2. Software management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
    1. Collaboration in software development
      1. Programming teams
    2. Software verification and validation
      1. Process validation

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Information & Contributors

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

PLoP '08: Proceedings of the 15th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs

October 2008

295 pages

ISBN:9781605581514

DOI:10.1145/1753196

General Chair:
Joseph Yoder
The Refactory, Inc.
,
Program Chair:
Ademar Aguiar
FEUP & INESC Porto, Universidade do Porto, Portugal

Copyright © 2008 Copyright is held by the author(s).

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SIGPLAN: ACM Special Interest Group on Programming Languages

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Hillside Group: Hillside Group

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 18 October 2008

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PLOP '08: Pattern Languages of Programs

October 18 - 20, 2008

Tennessee, Nashville, USA

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Cited By

Quillien JRostal PWest DArora SLeavens G(2009)Agile anthropology and Alexander's architectureProceedings of the 24th ACM SIGPLAN conference on Object oriented programming systems languages and applications10.1145/1640089.1640131(529-546)Online publication date: 26-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1640089.1640131
Quillien JRostal PWest D(2009)Agile anthropology and Alexander's architectureACM SIGPLAN Notices10.1145/1639949.164013144:10(529-546)Online publication date: 25-Oct-2009
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1639949.1640131

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