RE: Agile Baby Steps
"Adam Milligan" <[email protected]> Tue, 10 Jun 2003 17:08:09 -0700
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.programming.extreme-programming.adoption,gmane.comp.programming.extreme-programming |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
------=_NextPart_000_001C_01C32F72.DDD50BD0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Wow. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. On my current project I've been trying to introduce agile practices such as coding standards, unit testing, continuous integration, iterative development, and refactoring. I haven't been able to convince the management in my company to support any of these practices so I've mostly gone it alone, but I'm amazed at how closely the problems you described mirror the ones that I've been having. One of the things I've struggled most with is convincing the developers that they can think for themselves rather than look to an authority figure (or design document) for absolute direction. I'll admit, I've been uncertain at many many points in the development with regard to my ability to walk the line between telling developers exactly what to do, as opposed to hanging them out with no support whatsoever. Most seem to crave the former, some to the point of openly criticizing me for not providing it, which tends to make me think that I lean too far toward the latter. Courage is, I find, a difficult value for me to hold on to. I wish I had thought to keep a similar diary for my current project. I've certainly learned a lot, and a couple of the developers have responded positively to the new practices. However, the team entire hasn't come together well, and I've completely botched up some interactions (like, for instance, with our QA department when they wouldn't test the app until it was "feature complete," or use the acceptance testing script language because they hadn't scheduled for writing scripts). Anyway, it's good to know that I'm not the only one for whom this isn't a slam dunk. -----Original Message----- From: Dave Hoover [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 2156 To: [email protected]; [email protected] Cc: Roman Zabicki; Wyatt Sutherland Subject: [xpAdoption] Agile Baby Steps Agile Baby Steps The account of an e-commerce project adopting Extreme Programming. http://redsquirrel.com/dave/work/babySteps/ This was the first attempt at Agile Software Development at this organization. We made lots of mistakes. We learned a lot. There was resistance. In the end, a team emerged. The application hasn't yet officially launched so I'm continuing to post entries, but I thought it was time to share our experiences. I will write up a post-mortem after we launch in July. I want to thank Roman Zabicki and Wyatt Sutherland for their friendship and support over the last year. Sincerely, Dave Hoover http://redsquirrel.com/dave/ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. ------=_NextPart_000_001C_01C32F72.DDD50BD0 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.2800.1141" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003>Wow. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading this. On my current project I've been trying to introduce agile practices such as coding standards, unit testing, continuous integration, iterative development, and refactoring. I haven't been able to convince the management in my company to support any of these practices so I've mostly gone it alone, but I'm amazed at how closely the problems you described mirror the ones that I've been having.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003>One of the things I've struggled most with is convincing the developers that they can think for themselves rather than look to an authority figure (or design document) for absolute direction. I'll admit, I've been uncertain at many many points in the development with regard to my ability to walk the line between telling developers exactly what to do, as opposed to hanging them out with no support whatsoever. Most seem to crave the former, some to the point of openly criticizing me for not providing it, which tends to make me think that I lean too far toward the latter. Courage is, I find, a difficult value for me to hold on to.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003>I wish I had thought to keep a similar diary for my current project. I've certainly learned a lot, and a couple of the developers have responded positively to the new practices. However, the team entire hasn't come together well, and I've completely botched up some interactions (like, for instance, with our QA department when they wouldn't test the app until it was "feature complete," or use the acceptance testing script language because they hadn't scheduled for writing scripts).</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003></SPAN></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN class=531324221-10062003><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff size=2><SPAN class=421475321-10062003>Anyway, it's good to know that I'm not the only one for whom this isn't a slam dunk.</SPAN></FONT></SPAN></DIV></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader dir=ltr align=left><FONT face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Dave Hoover [mailto:[email protected]]<BR><B>Sent:</B> Monday, June 09, 2003 2156<BR><B>To:</B> [email protected]; [email protected]<BR><B>Cc:</B> Roman Zabicki; Wyatt Sutherland<BR><B>Subject:</B> [xpAdoption] Agile Baby Steps<BR><BR></FONT></DIV><TT>Agile Baby Steps<BR>The account of an e-commerce project adopting Extreme Programming. <BR><A href="http://redsquirrel.com/dave/work/babySteps/">http://redsquirrel.com/dave/work/babySteps/</A><BR><BR>This was the first attempt at Agile Software Development at this organization. We <BR>made lots of mistakes. We learned a lot. There was resistance. In the end, a team <BR>emerged.<BR><BR>The application hasn't yet officially launched so I'm continuing to post entries, but I <BR>thought it was time to share our experiences. I will write up a post-mortem after we <BR>launch in July.<BR><BR>I want to thank Roman Zabicki and Wyatt Sutherland for their friendship and support <BR>over the last year.<BR><BR>Sincerely,<BR>Dave Hoover<BR><A href="http://redsquirrel.com/dave/">http://redsquirrel.com/dave/</A><BR></TT><BR><BR><TT>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:<BR>[email protected]<BR><BR></TT><BR><BR><TT>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the <A href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Yahoo! Terms of Service</A>.</TT> <BR></BLOCKQUOTE> <br> <br> <tt> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:<BR> [email protected]<BR> <BR> </tt> <br> <br> <tt>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the <a href="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/">Yahoo! Terms of Service</a>.</tt> </br> </BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_001C_01C32F72.DDD50BD0--