Agile Articles

graphic depicting a feature list from plan a that changes in plan b
Agile | 5 min read

Why Your Software Feature List Will Change (And That’s a Good Thing)

Every software consultant has experienced this moment: A client arrives with a detailed feature list, meticulously crafted and approved through multiple layers of their organization. They’ve secured funding, aligned stakeholders, and are ready to build. There’s just one problem—that list is going to change. Significantly.  I recently managed a project that perfectly illustrated this reality. […]

RAcecars
Agile | 6 min read

Agile and The Indianapolis 500

The Indianapolis 500 has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. And after years of building software at SEP — an Indiana company through and through — the similarities are striking. The pre-race strategy sessions. Testing assumptions during practice sessions. Real-time adjustments during pit stops. The moment when weather […]

Jeff Patton presenting at AgileIndy 2024
Agile | 18 min read

Agile Indy 2024 Trip Report

From the AgileIndy site: AgileIndy is a user group devoted to raising awareness, acceptance, and support to people who explore and apply agile values, principles, and practices to make building software solutions more effective, humane, and sustainable. This year’s conference took place on Friday October 18th at 502 E Carmel Dr, Carmel, IN 46032. A […]

Inside SEP Episode 50: Migrating to Cloud-Based Applications with Jon Fuller
Agile | 4 min read

Navigating the Cloud: Key Considerations for Building or Migrating to Cloud-Based Applications

I often have to pull folks at SEP into early conversations with our clients to help explain and understand the technical nature of the clients world. One of those people is our Director of Software Engineering, Jon Fuller. Jon’s experience and approach make him one of the best in our walls at asking great questions […]

Software Podcast Episode 49: Finding Success with Digital Transformation
Agile | 4 min read

Don’t Miss Insightful Advice For Finding Success with Digital Transformation

In the world of software consulting, it’s pretty common to hear horror stories from clients about failed ‘Digital Transformation’ efforts. What most people embark on is a really hard and not-so-simple endeavor. Sometimes, though, I get to hear some success stories. My interview with Josh Haines from Rolls-Royce is the latter. He shared how he’s […]

Agile Indy Kickoff
Agile | 17 min read

AgileIndy is Back! A 2023 Conference Experience Recap

I was able to attend the AgileIndy conference again this year. What I will do here is give a summary of the content of the talks I attended. Or at least some notes that I took. These notes do not entirely capture the talk itself. If you want more information, hopefully, that will be a […]

Agile | 6 min read

Five Strategies for a Happy and Healthy Software Maintenance Team

Software Maintenance Teams provide a broad array of services, customized to the industries they support. As a software development consultancy, our portfolio includes industries like energy, aerospace, healthcare, medical devices, precision agriculture, and others. The products we build live on Desktop, Embedded, Mobile, Web, and Cloud platforms. With such a diversity of industries and platforms, […]

Focus your Perspective
Agile | 8 min read

Focus Your Product Perspective

Have you ever tried to work with someone with the best of intentions, but it ends in a shouting match? Or walking away with the same or more problems than you started? A colleague was dealing with helping their client with upcoming milestones, and it felt like a similar situation was inevitable. He wanted to […]

Agile2023 Conference Closing Party
Agile | 8 min read

Agile2022 Conference Reflective

While attending Agile2022 this year, I couldn’t help but reflect back on my long history with this conference. I attended my first Agile conference in 2008 in Toronto. The following year in 2009, I was a speaker. Since then, I have presented or attended nearly every year since. I’ve been a reviewer, helping review and […]

Agile | 4 min read

A Matter of When, Not If

Prologue You are enjoying a brisk December evening by the fireplace. The tea in your cup warms your hands and fills your nose with fragrant aroma. Then you realize that Christmas is in a week. The Stories in our Heads Are you anxious? Maybe you don’t have time to get presents shipped in time. Maybe […]

Agile | 4 min read

10 Things I Learned in My First 10 Episodes of Podcasting

I’ve had the opportunity to interview talented, driven and successful leaders in Indy tech. We often don’t get to hear how software products get built and what it took to make them a reality. These stories of success and challenge have been encouraging for me to hear so I summarized some of my biggest lessons […]

Agile | 8 min read

One Lead’s Journey to Successfully Improving My Software Forecasting With Monte Carlo Simulation

What is this? Forecasting is not a skill I use frequently, which means it takes me time to remember each of the steps and the small details I’ve forgotten. There’s a lot of great information out there, but reading it and refreshing my memory takes longer than I’d like it to. My goal here is […]