Agile Software Development - making programming fun again

making programming fun again

Agile Software Development

Software engineering done right.

How Projects Really Work


How the customer explained it


How the project leader understood it


How the analyst designed it


How the programmer wrote it


How the business consultant described it


How the project was documented


How much the project cost


What the customer really needed


“CHAOS Report” by Standish Group


Challenged Projects - Reasons

Lack of User Input Incomplete

Requirements & Specifications

Changing Requirements & Specifications

Lack of Executive Support

Technology Incompetence

Lack of Resources Unrealistic Expectations Unclear Objectives Unrealistic Time Frames New Technology


Failed Projects - Reasons

Incomplete Requirements

Lack of User Involvement

Lack of Resources Unrealistic Expectations Lack of Executive

Support

Changing Requirements & Specifications

Lack of Planning Didn't Need It Any

Longer Lack of IT Management Technology Illiteracy


Successful Projects - Reasons

User involvement Executive management

support Clear business

objectives Optimizing scope Agile process

Project manager expertise

Financial management Skilled resources Formal methodology Standard tools and

methodology


What's wrong with “Waterfall”?


What's wrong with “Waterfall”?

Mistakes are hard to find in early stages Expensive to fix mistakes in later stages Customers don't know what they want from the

beginning Developers don't know how long a project will take

from the beginning Business needs change


Effects of “Waterfall”

Death March projects‒ Mis-estimated schedules lead to successive overtime‒ Delays in one stage cause delays in succeeding stages

Conflict between customers and developers‒ Customers don't get the software that they want‒ Developers don't get clear requirements

Process and tool obsession‒ People focus on creating artifacts but lose sight of the

goal of working software‒ Processes replace natural communication


The Agile Manifesto

We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.


Selected Practices

Iterative Development User Stories Test-Driven Development One Team Self-Managed Teams Sustainable Pace


Iterative Development

Software development as an evolutionaryevolutionary process



All steps of SDLC are done at each iteration



Working softwareWorking software produced at each iteration– No such thing as “X% complete”, only done and not

done



Benefits‒ Customers can evaluate what they want and adjust

requirements

‒ Developers get better estimates of future tasks

‒ Better communication between customer and developers and among developers

Talk is about something concrete, not abstract

‒ Just enough artifacts are created to produce working software

Less waste


User Stories

Traditional requirements: “The system shall... the system shall...”


User Stories

As a < user role >

In order to < business goal >

I want to < behavior >

Focus on business goals- Requirements have context

Story-telling is the most natural way of communication


Test-Driven Development

Bugs are harder to find and fix when found later

Modifying code tends to introduce bugs

- Difficult to know if one has introduced bugs without tests

Manual tests are expensive to repeat and provide limited information


Test-Driven Development

Programmers should write automated tests as they code

- Write test before implementation Provides immediate feedback if their code works Builds suite of automated tests that can be run each

time code is modified Makes it safe to modify existing code Frameworks: JUnit, NUnit, hundreds of others...



TDD Benefits

Code is safe to modify Tests are excellent documentation

- Programmers hate writing documentation, but they like to code

Design improves- Programmers think of their code's behavior before coding

- Programmers see their code from a second-person's point-of-view

• Is my code readable? Easy to use?

- Components become decoupled to facilitate testing


One Team

Everyone is considered part of one team, including the customer

Developers, testers, business analysts, project managers, web designers, etc, work in work in the same placethe same place, usually on the same table



One Team

Faster communication– Issues resolved faster

Natural communication– Face-to-face, ad hoc and continuous throughout the

day Less misunderstanding and antagonism between

functional groups


Self-Managed Teams

When teams manage themselves... Higher motivation More creative solutions Faster resolution of issues Drive for continuous improvement


Self-Managed Teams

Practices/Tools Daily Stand-Up Meetings Retrospectives Big Visible Charts,

Whiteboards Direct access to

customers


Sustainable Pace

Overtime leads to lower productivity

Lowers morale


Sustainable Pace

Team should measure “velocity” at each iteration Keep work load within velocity If iteration load was underestimated, ask customer

to decide which features to move to future iterations


Other Practices...

Planning Tracking Continuous Integration Pair Programming Refactoring Planning Boards Burn-Down Charts Collective Code Ownership Coding Standards

Many more...


Agile at Orange & Bronze

• Been doing Agile since its foundation in 2005– Before it became mainstream

• We've tried different methodologies and practices– XP, Scrum, Kanban

– Not all practices work in all conditions

• The first to offer training in Agile methodologies and practices

– Scrum, TDD, Agile Business Analysis, Agile QA, etc

– Trainers are seasoned practictioners


Open Workspaces


Project Automation


Collaborative Design


Agile Training

Documents

Agile Software Development - making programming fun again