yesterday i was at the atreyu concert in cologne. all in all it was a nice show, although the first supporting band “engel” had a poor start and killed their equipment right at the beginning, so that there was no bass for a few songs. the second band “still remains” did a better job and managed to heat up the crowd quite well. afterwards atreyu played a good mix of old and new songs. you can find one of them as a video below (i’m sorry for the miserable sound quality). or you can have a look at the photo gallary…

here is a little appetizer for the upcoming new mars volta album “the bedlam in goliath”. the video features the song wax simulacra…

the mars volta will embark on a european tour in the next few months. check out the schedule:

February 17th - Hamburg, Germany - Docks
On Sale Friday, November 23rd
Tickets available at www.eventim.de or www.kartenhaus.de

February 19th - Oslo, Norway - Sentrum
On sale Saturday November 24th
Tickets available at www.billettservice.no or by calling +47 815 33 133

February 20th - Stockholm, Sweden - Cirkus
On sale Wednesday November 21st
Tickets available at www.ticnet.se or by calling +46 8 660 1020

February 22nd - Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega
On sale NOW
Tickets available at www.billetlugen.dk

February 24th - Berlin, Germany - Huxleys
On Sale Friday, November 23rd
Tickets available at www.eventim.de or www.kartenhaus.de

February 26th - Zurich, Switzerland - Volkshaus
On Sale Friday, November 23rd
Tickets available at www.ticketcorner.com or www.starticket.ch

February 27th - Milan, Italy - Alcatraz
On Sale Wednesday, November 21st
Tickets available at www.ticketone.it

February 29th - Madrid, Spain - La Riviera
On Sale Friday, November 30th
Tickets available at: www.iguapop.com, www.servicaixa.com, or by calling: 902.10.12.12

March 1st - Barcelona, Spain - Razzamatazz
On Sale Friday, November 30th
Tickets available at: www.iguapop.com, www.servicaixa.com, or by calling: 902.10.12.12

March 3rd - Munich, Germany - Elser Halle
On Sale Friday, November 23rd
Tickets available at www.eventim.de or www.kartenhaus.de

March 5th - Paris, France - Olympia
On Sale Saturday, November 24th
Tickets available at: www.fnacspectacles.com and www.olympiahall.com

March 6th - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013 Music Hall
On Sale Saturday, November 24th
Tickets available at: www.ticketservice.nl

March 8th - Cologne, Germany - Live Music Hall
On Sale Friday, November 23rd
Tickets available at www.eventim.de or www.kartenhaus.de

March 9th - Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
On Sale Wednesday, November 21st
Tickets available at: www.abconcerts.be or by calling +32 2 548 24 24

March 11th - Glasgow, Scotland - Academy
On Sale Monday, November 26th
Tickets available at: www.pclpresents.com or by calling 08700 600 100

March 13th - Manchester, UK - Apollo
On Sale Tuesday, November 27th
Tickets available at: www.gigsandtours.com

March 14th - London, UK - Brixton Academy
On Sale Tuesday, November 27th
Tickets available at: www.gigsandtours.com

at this years w-jax conference i attended a keynote by scott ambler, who’s one of the guys pushing the agile movement for several years now. in his talk he presented results of surveys about adoption rates of agile techniques and success rates of agile it-projects. there are some interesting numbers in it, despite the fact that they are mostly covering the situation in the states. it would be even more interesting to collect data for these topics in europe, too, and draw some comparisons. for me the most important findings are:

• 69% of organisations have adopted agile techniques so far
• the most effective agile practices are “iterative development” and “regular delivery of working software”
• one-third of projects are done with two week iterations
• 44% of organisations had a success rate of 90% or above for agile projects
• project success rate for agile projects is 10% higher than for “traditional” projects
• only 42% of offshoring projects are successful, but they are considerably more succesful in asia than in the rest of the world
• the number of successful projects is dropping significantly for teams larger than 10 members
• 80% of it-managers and 70% of project managers put the needs of their staff over beeing on time and on budget
• 70-80% of it-personnel see a healthy workplace beeing more important than beeing on time and on budget, but only 53% of business stakeholders share this opinion