Free eGuide: Scrum or Kanban for Agile Development: Which is Right for Your Team?

Title: Scrum or Kanban for Agile Development: Which is Right for Your Team?

Primary Category: Information Technology

Short Description: By now you've likely heard of Agile development and building products in small incremental pieces, so you can get real feedback along the way. In fact, you may even be considering using Agile on your next project. But where do you start?

Long Description: Agile can take a lot of forms, with Scrum or Kanban being two of the most popular. Each form has advantages and disadvantages, but both will help your team get the right feedback they need to build great products. So which one is right for you? Let's find out.

Continue Reading

Free eBook: "What Makes a Great Business App?"

"What Makes a Great Business App?"

The Three Attributes You Cannot Ignore

What if building, using, and changing custom apps was easy? What if apps were powerful enough to run even the largest organization? What if they could unify everything—process, data, systems, apps, and even people? This is Appian, the one application platform for your success.

Continue Reading

Free eBook: "Systems Engineering for Dummies"

Short Description: Learn how to speed time-to-market, ensure business agility, deliver high-quality smart products, and cut costs.


Long Description: This IBM eBook explains what systems engineering is and how it can help you simplify the development of smart, connected products.

Continue Reading

Contact Centers vs. Call Centers - Free Infographic

Too often, "call center" is used interchangeably with "contact center". The false belief that the two types of systems are the same is shattered in our newest infographic. We make it easy for you to compare the 10 most potent differences between the two systems, including:

• Management
• Efficiency
• Process

And much more!
Let us help you compare the two systems and in doing so, discover which system could make the biggest difference with your business. Download our infographic today!

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: "Designing Quality Software: Architectural and Technical Best Practices"

You’ll learn about coupling metrics, dependency management, and logical architecture. The card will also provide a comprehensive list of design rules, programming rules, testing rules, environment rules, and common sense rules that you can put into practice right now to start building better software.

Contents Include:

• Abstract
• Structural Erosion
• Large-Scale System Design
• Design Rules
• Programming Rules
• Hot Tips and more …

Refcardz are FREE cheat sheets made just for developers. It’s the easy way to stay on top of the newest technologies!

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: Getting Started with Git

Since its inception in 2005, Git continues to grow as the de facto standard for version control in both local and distributed environments. With its beginnings rooted in the open source community, and Linus Torvald’s original authorship, Git’s many features encompass social-driven collaboration that exceeds that of other version control systems.

In this Refcard, you’ll learn about:

• Why Get Git?
• Create a Repo
• Typical Local Workflow
• Viewing
• Branches
• The Remote Workflow … and More!

Continue Reading

Free eGuide "The Essential Design Patterns Cheat Sheet"

A fundamental foundation to building maintainable and scalable software.

Understanding how the patterns work, why they provide a benefit, and when to use them helps to ensure that software is built from reusable object oriented components. This DZone Refcard provides a quick reference to the original 23 Gang of Four design patterns, as listed in the book Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Each pattern includes class diagrams, explanation, usage information, and a real world example.
Contents Include:

• Chain of Responsibility
• Command
• Interpreter
• Iterator
• Mediator
• Observer
• Template Method and more

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: Future-Proofing the Enterprise

"Future-Proofing the Enterprise"

A single, unified solution for managing Macs and mobile devices, Centrify User Suite, Mac Edition, helps you meet the challenges of consumerization and an increasingly mobile workforce.

While most solutions require setup of a parallel infrastructure for managing Macs, Centrify provides seamless, centralized management of Macs from Active Directory, letting your IT department leverage existing expertise, tools and processes.

By managing user identity and authentication in Active Directory, Centrify User Suite, Mac Edition, extends Group Policy-based security management to Mac and mobile users. In addition, the solution supports smart-card login to Active Directory by Mac users.

Your employees reap the rewards that come with effortless access to information, applications and services. And the enterprise benefits from a unified, integrated management solution that maximizes security, streamlines operations and reduces cost.

Continue Reading

Free eBook: Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, 3rd Edition

Programming Interviews Exposed: Secrets to Landing Your Next Job, 3rd Edition"

Be prepared for your next job interview with this tried-and-true advice.

In today's tight job market, competition for programming jobs is hotter than ever. This third edition of a popular guide to programming interviews includes new code examples, information on the latest languages, new chapters on sorting and design patterns, tips on using LinkedIn, and a downloadable app to help prepare applicants for the interview. Like its earlier editions, this guide covers what software companies and IT departments want their programmers to know and includes plenty of helpful hints to boost your confidence.
 

  Looks at current job search and hiring processes, such as the rise of LinkedIn and other social networks as recruiting resources
    Addresses the most important languages for a programmer to know and features examples in multiple languages
    Includes new programming questions designed to sharpen your knowledge
    Features all-new chapters on design patterns and sorting, including how to deal with memory constraints and mobility issues

Walk into your next job interview with confidence, knowing you have thoroughly studied this newest edition ofProgramming Interviews Exposed.

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: 10 Things Your Team is Afraid to Tell You About Your DR Plan

"10 Things Your Team is Afraid to Tell You About Your DR Plan"

Learn what CIOs need to know about disaster recovery management.
You lead a top-notch IT team. The challenge is, they may not have the time, expertise, or support needed when it comes to building a truly comprehensive Disaster Recovery plan.

To avoid costly downtime, it is important to truly understand how your company addresses recovery management. This checklist reveals 10 truths about DR that IT teams are most likely reluctant to tell their CIOs, and provides you with questions you can use to ask your team about your recovery management strategy.

Continue Reading

Free eBook: Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success (Expert)

"Ace the Programming Interview: 160 Questions and Answers for Success"

Be prepared to answer the most relevant interview questions and land the job.

Programmers are in demand, but to land the job, you must demonstrate knowledge of those things expected by today's employers. This guide sets you up for success. Not only does it provide 160 of the most commonly asked interview questions and model answers, but it also offers insight into the context and motivation of hiring managers in today's marketplace. Written by a veteran hiring manager, this book is a comprehensive guide for experienced and first-time programmers alike.
Provides insight into what drives the recruitment process and how hiring managers think
Covers both practical knowledge and recommendations for handling the interview process
Features 160 actual interview questions, including some related to code samples that are available for download on a companion website
Includes information on landing an interview, preparing a cheat-sheet for a phone interview, how to demonstrate your programming wisdom, and more
Ace the Programming Interview, like the earlier Wiley bestseller Programming Interviews Exposed, helps you approach the job interview with the confidence that comes from being prepared.

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: IT Disaster Recovery Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Hurricane Sandy

"IT Disaster Recovery Best Practices and Lessons Learned from Hurricane Sandy"

Learn how to keep IT services running, should a disaster strike.

When Hurricane Sandy made landfall in October of 2012, it revealed a dramatic breakdown in the recovery plans of many companies located in the Northeastern part of the U.S.

At SunGard, Superstorm Sandy resulted in 342 alerts and 117 disaster declarations. In the process of supporting SunGard customers in their recoveries, SunGard compiled their best practices—and lessons learned—to help you ensure IT availability and uptime when the next disaster strikes.

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: Programming a Game with Unity: A Beginner's Guide

"Programming a Game with Unity: A Beginner's Guide"

By downloading this free guide, you agree to receive regular updates on the latest cool apps, product reviews, and giveaways from MakeUseOf.

Unity puts the basic elements of game creation into the hands of novice programmers in a fast, intuitive way.  A surprising feature of the Internet economy is the rise of indie videogames. Once the exclusive domain of thousand-man, multi-million dollar triple-A studios, a number of toolsets have been developed that bring modern game development resources into the hands of individuals or small, ad-hoc collections of programmers and designers. These indie game development teams have demonstrated an agility and risk-tolerance that, in many cases, allows them to push gameplay innovation faster than their big budget counterparts. A number of shockingly successful indie titles have premiered in recent years, including Minecraft, Limbo, and Super Meat Boy.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of indie game development, Unity has emerged as something of a de-facto standard: its low cost, ease of use, and broad feature set make it ideal for rapid game development. Even large studios such as CCP (Developers of Eve Online) use it for rapidly prototyping game concepts. Unity provides a “game engine in a box” - a physics and rendering engine with hooks for several scripting languages, adaptable to virtually any genre of videogame.

Continue Reading

A free guide for agile teams: The Retrospective Handbook

"The Retrospective Handbook"

A guide for agile teams.

Are you running retrospectives regularly? Perhaps you run retrospectives once a week, or fortnightly. Do you feel like you could be getting more out of your retrospectives and fuelling continuous improvement in your teams? You may already find retrospectives valuable, but suspect there are ways of making them better.

This book condenses down over eight years of experience working with the retrospective practice within the context of real agile teams. It offers you practical advice on how to make your retrospectives even more effective including topics such as:

Best methods to prepare for a retrospective
Picking just the right materials
Facilitating retrospectives with ease
Dealing with common retrospective smells
Retrospectives in different contexts including distributed, large and small groups
A checklist for preparation

Continue Reading

Free eGuide: VDI Your Users Will Love

"VDI Your Users Will Love"

Not all VDI solutions are alike. To deliver the best results for your business, you need to make sure the solution you choose can enable full productivity not just in the office on traditional endpoints, but anywhere people work, on any device they use.

With Citrix XenDesktop, you can provide access to virtualized apps and desktops from anywhere, on any device, with a great experience in any scenario.

Continue Reading

Free eBook-Dysfunction Junction: A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Started with DevOps

"Dysfunction Junction: A Pragmatic Guide to Getting Started with DevOps"

There has been growing buzz about DevOps. DevOps is a methodology that unites the often separate functions of software Development (Dev) and production and Operations (Ops) into a single, integrated, and continuous process.
DevOps is about breaking down the barriers between Dev and Ops. It leverages people, processes, and technology to stimulate collaboration and innovation across the entire software development and release process.

Dev and Ops should always be part of an integrated process, but that's not always as easy as it sounds. You may be stuck in what we call “Dysfunction Junction.” Read this eBook to learn about the pitfalls of DevOps, how you can avoid them, and how to get started on your DevOps journey.

Continue Reading

Free Magazine: History of Cryptography

Title: History of Cryptography
Primary Category: IT - Security
Short Description: An easy to understand history of cryptography.
Long Description: This white paper presents a brief history of cryptography and how encryption-related technologies have evolved and will continue to evolve as well as the measures Internet users should consider when implementing modern encryptions.

Continue Reading

Free eBook Excerpt!: Agile Business - Build the Right Thing

Title: Agile Business - Build the Right Thing
Primary Category: Information Technology
Short Description: Great companies build products that customers love. While this means they build valuable and useful features, it also means they don't build things that aren't valuable.
Long Description: Companies that build the wrong things are easily disrupted. Understand how a unifying vision and customer-centric mindset avoids the wasted time, money, and demoralized morale that come with building the wrong thing. Topics include: Models of Agile Innovation: Explore Agile models that create an innovative, value-focused development environment. The Role of the Product Owner: Filling the gap between the team building the product and the customer using it. The Innovator's Dilemma: Successfully moving enterprises forward against the pull of the past.

Continue Reading