AgileAttitudes Article
 
 
 

Vol 01 Issue 04- Iteration

  
 
Back to the list of articles Agile Attitudes Volume 1, Issue 4 June 10, 2004 A free bi-weekly email newsletter Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting www.agilerules.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to Agile Attitudes, a newsletter of ideas, insights and technical tips that help people find better ways to develop software. Feel free to share this with anyone - just be sure you send or print the whole thing, including the copyright notice. Directions for managing your subscription are below. O><O><O><O><O><O Nancy V. and Ron Morsicato will be speaking at the Agile Development Conference, XP Agile Universe Conference, and Embedded Systems Con- ference. See below for details. O><O><O><O><O><O Iteration by Ron Morsicato If you were a Certified Scrummaster - http://www.controlchaos.com/ - you'd have access to a discussion list that's been rather heated of late. You see, every now and then agile developers go back to raging against the most fundamental difference between agile and non-agile development methodologies. That fundamental difference is iterative development vs. what has become tagged as BDUF, or Big Design Up Front. What's all the ballyhoo about? Well, at Agile Rules we emphasize the importance of testability, communication, refactoring, simplicity of design and the like. These things are enabled, or at least greatly facilitated, by the fact that you're doing iterative development. Here are some examples. If you break up development into iterations, there is a natural point in between iterations to take stock of the project and reflect on its current progress with respect to where it's going and, more importantly, on whether it's going in a direction that's suitable for the current operating environment and business climate. You have at your disposal inputs from all individuals who impact the project, sometimes referred to as the Development Community, who are contrib- uting ideas and suggesting strategic direction based on up-to-date information. If you did BDUF, those decisions would have to be made by a bevy of domain experts who are doing their best to predict the environments of the future in order to settle on the most appropriate design. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong. When you're agile, it's because you iterate. When you iterate, you minimize the risk of fixing on an inappropriate design. Another advantage of iteration is that it allows you to close up that all-important testing loop. Agile both validates and verifies by inspection of test results, rather than inspection of design and implementing acceptance tests that fit requirements. If at the start of an iteration you write a requirement as an acceptance test and enlist developers to pass the acceptance test, you have the opportunity to iron out any disagreement among the Development Community as to the correct thing to do next. A third advantage to iteration, and the list here is by no means complete, is that it presents an ideal opportunity to clean up that code base. If you recall Issue #2, we spoke about the importance of refactoring. Iteration provides developers a clear target for when and how to refactor, maintaining simplicity of both design and implemen- tation of the design in preparing for that next iteration. O><O><O><O><O><O More articles on Agile software topics at http://www.agilerules.com Within our company we have a sub-specialty in embedded systems. Our site has articles on embedded XP and we support a discussion list focused on the use of agile methods for building embedded software. The list signup info is at http://www.xp-embedded.com/mailman/listinfo O><O><O><O><O><O To help you get started with in-depth research into Agile Attitudes topics, we have added a Library section to our web site at http://www.agilerules.com/library.phtml Order using our links and receive discounts up to 30%! O><O><O><O><O><O If you enjoyed this issue or found it useful, forward it to a friend! Help spread the word about better ways to build software - invite your friends and colleagues to join our growing reader community at http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes O><O><O><O><O><O Looking for a speaker for your next corporate or society meeting? We present dynamic, informative programs on topics of interest to managers and technical staff in their transition to more flexible, robust ways to create software. O><O><O><O><O><O Want to reprint this issue in your company or society newsletter? For permission to reprint any of the articles, contact us at info@agilerules.com. O><O><O><O><O><O Public Appearances Nancy Van Schooenderwoert will be presenting a paper "Taming the Embedded Tiger: Agile Test Techniques for Embedded Software" at the Agile Development Conference in Salt Lake City, June 22 - 26, 2004. See http://www.agiledevelopmentconference.com/schedule/expreports.html Ron Morsicato and Nancy V. will speak at XP/Agile Universe Conference in Calgary, Alberta, Canada; August 15 - 18, 2004 Agile Methods for Safety-Critical Software Development. See http://www.agileuniverse.com/schedule/index Nancy Van Schooenderwoert will present on "Embedded Extreme Programming Experience Report and Clinic" in Boston, September 13 - 16, 2004 See http://www.esconline.com/boston/ If you would like to receive an email as soon as we know of an event in the Boston area of interest to the agile software community, you can sign up for the announcements list at http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileannounce O><O><O><O><O><O Your feedback is welcome! Send feedback to info@agilerules.com To manage your subscription: http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes O><O><O><O><O><O Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting 162 Marrett Road, Lexington MA 02421 Copyright (c) 2004 Agile Rules info@agilerules.com O><O><O><O><O><O Privacy notice: We will not release a subscriber's address to any third party for any reason. This is a strictly opt-in newsletter. No one is ever subscribed without their explicit request. _______________________________________________ AgileAttitudes mailing list AgileAttitudes@agilerules.com http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes </plaintext> </td id="bodytable_r1_c3_body"> </tr id="bodytable_r1"> </table id="bodytable">