Information Radiators

The best way to encourage an open culture is by having information openly available to all team members and other interested stakeholders.

The term information radiator was coined by Alistair Cockburn for any of a number of handwritten, drawn, printed, or electronic displays that a team places in a highly visible location, so that all team members, as well as passers-by, can see the latest information at a glance. In Cockburn's book Agile Software Development, written in 2001, the information radiator formed part of an extended metaphor that equated the movement of information with the dispersion of heat and gas. We'll look at the many different types of information radiator we use with our customers and teams – counts of automated tests, velocity, incident reports, continuous integration status, and so on.

We also sometimes use the term information refrigerator – where information becomes cold and sometimes out of date. The information...