This paper presents a high level overview of the work done by Team IHMC (Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition) to win the DARPA Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC), held June 18–20 2013. The VRC consisted of a series of three tasks (driving a vehicle, walking over varied terrain, and manipulating a fire hose), to be completed in simulation using a model of the humanoid robot Atlas. Team IHMC was able to complete all of these challenges multiple times during the competition. The paper presents our approach, as well as a bird's-eye view of the major software components and their integration.

Summary of Team IHMC's virtual robotics challenge entry

Since the first descriptions of design research (DR), there have been calls to better define it to increase its rigour. Yet five uncertainties remain: (1) the processes for conducting DR, (2) how DR differs from other forms of research, (3) how DR differs from design, (4) the products of DR, and (5) why DR can answer certain research questions more effectively than other methodologies. To resolve these uncertainties, we define educational design research as a meta-methodology conducted by education researchers to create practical interventions and theoretical design models through a design process of focusing, understanding, defining, conceiving, building, testing, and presenting, that recursively nests other research processes to iteratively search for empirical solutions to practical problems of human learning. By better articulating the logic of DR, researchers can more effectively craft, communicate, replicate, and teach DR as a useful and defensible research methodology.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/23735082.2017.1286367

The logic of design research

This paper outlines lessons learned from a senior UX, product and software development consultant's experiences in conceiving, designing, developing and launching MiniDates.com, a complex consumer dating application. Key decisions and moments over our 15 month process are highlighted, including what we worked and what didn't, what we should have done that we didn't, and what we encountered that we couldn't have foreseen,  in the belief that we can help other UX and product-focused startups and Agile teams be more effective. Key lessons include: 1. Beware fads and advice from others; 2. Optimize your team and the development process as much as possible; 3. Beware of seemingly innocent technological and architecture decisions; 4. Ensure UX planning, design and customer validation are up-front in your process; 5. TEST, TEST and TEST some more- at all levels of the business and at all stages, not just the software itself.

Applying Lean Startup: An Experience Report -- Lean a Lean UX by a UX Veteran: Lessons Learned in Creating a Launching a Complex Consumer App

Agile software development approaches have had significant impact on industrial software development practices. Today, agile software development has penetrated to most IT companies across the globe, with an intention to increase quality, productivity, and profitability. Comprehensive knowledge is needed to understand the architectural challenges involved in adopting and using agile approaches and industrial practices to deal with the development of large, architecturally challenging systems in an agile way. Agile Software Architecture focuses on gaps in the requirements of applying architecture-centric approaches and principles of agile software development and demystifies the agile architecture paradox. Readers will learn how agile and architectural cultures can co-exist and support each other according to the context. Moreover, this book will also provide useful leads for future research in architecture and agile to bridge such gaps by developing appropriate approaches that incorporate architecturally sound practices in agile methods. Presents a consolidated view of the state-of-art and state-of-practice as well as the newest research findings Identifies gaps in the requirements of applying architecture-centric approaches and principles of agile software development and demystifies the agile architecture paradox Explains whether or not and how agile and architectural cultures can co-exist and support each other depending upon the context Provides useful leads for future research in both architecture and agile to bridge such gaps by developing appropriate approaches, which incorporate architecturally sound practices in agile methods

Agile Software Architecture: Aligning Agile Processes and Software Architectures

Technical and professional communicators spend a good deal of time managing teams and documentation projects, and their organizations are increasingly introducing new project management practices. ...

Introducing Agile Project Management Strategies in Technical and Professional Communication Courses

Get ready to kick some software project butt. By learning the ways of the agile samurai you will discover: * how to create plans and schedules your customer and your team can believe in what characteristics make a good agile team and how to form your own how to gather requirements in a fraction of the time using agile user stories what to do when you discover your schedule is wrong, and how to look like a pro correcting it how to execute fiercely by leveraging the power of agile software engineering practices By the end of this book you will know everything you need to set up, execute, and successfully deliver agile projects, and have fun along the way. If you're a project lead, this book gives you the tools to set up and lead your agile project from start to finish. If you are an analyst, programmer, tester, usability designer, or project manager, this book gives you the insight and foundation necessary to become a valuable agile team member.The Agile Samurai slices away the fluff and theory that make other books less-than-agile. It's packed with best practices, war stories, plenty of humor and hands-on tutorial exercises that will get you doing the right things, the right way.This book will make a difference.

Jonathan Rasmusson

Papers

The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software