Software Best Practices

Don't hide or disable menu items

Joel on Software — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:42:04 GMT

A long time ago, it became fashionable, even recommended, to disable menu items when they could not be used. Don't do this. Users see the disabled menu item that they want to click on, and are left entirely without a clue of what they are supposed Read More......(read more)

Sick Sigma

Earl Beede — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:25:00 GMT

I have a love/hate relationship with software metrics. While I acknowledge that well designed, well collected, and well utilized measures on software projects can be of huge benefit to the project team, most of us suffer under the burden of measures that are non-designed, ad hoc collected, and not utilized by the team.

Let's take a quick look at those three areas of software measurement: design, collection, utilization.

Design

The starting point for any useful software measurement is in the design. Most software measurement gurus I know point to Vic Basili's Goal/Question/Metric (GQM) approach for designing useful software measures. In this approach, you start by articulating a clear goal you want your task/project/organization to achieve.

Well, right there is were the measurement woes begin. It is not common to see well articulated goals in software development in general let alone associated with the measurement program. What I see at clients' sites is often more like a general wish than a goal: "improve productivity", "reduce defects".

Where I have seen at least a measurable goal, "reduce defects by 50%," no mention of what kind of defects we cared about. The team previous to the "goal" implemented small enhancements requested by the customer by adding them to the defect database. With general defect reduction now the goal, the team started arguing with the clients about what was a "defect" and forced all small changes into the bureaucratic change control process. Not only did the released quality not change but the customer was even more upset than before.

Truly sick sigma in action.

There is a lot of information on how to write good goals out there. The more interesting question is that why, with all that good information, do we still not have well stated goals in general and software measurement in particular?

My take is that good goals require both resources to achieve and accountability. Both are in short supply when the focus of the organization is almost entirely on getting the product out the door. You need slack to do good measurements and our getting lean and mean leaves no room for any goals than "ship it".

Collection

After a reasonable design is in place (and that may take a few iterations) it is time to move to collection. Here, sick sigma metrics fail in two areas: practice and accuracy.

"Practice makes pretty useful" should be a mantra for software measurement. Given a well designed metric, the people collecting the data still require a lot of practice in identifying instances of the metric. Without the practice the data collected will end up comparing apples and applets. Close but no banana.

Take the common data collection item Line of Code. What is a line of code? Does it include comments? Only executable statements or physical lines? What about actual function? Would we count it differently in C++ than COBAL?

Or how about Defect? Do I include defects committed in requirements but discovered in design? How about defects in areas that the specifications simply did not address? How long after initial customer acceptance do we still count the defect for our metric?

While the design should address some of these questions, only practice in the world of messy reality can help a software measurement. To paraphrase Fred Brooks, plan to measure several times, you are going to throw the first few away anyhow.

The second area that sick sigma falls down is accuracy. Sick sigma substitutes precision for accuracy. The metrics produced by sick sigma are very nice down the fifth or six decimal point. Unfortunately, they are wrong.

The data collection in almost all of our human systems can only achieve a rough level of precision. With overly precise measure we make it harder to collect and easy to dispute. Instead we want measures that are easy to collect and harder to dispute.

For example, say you are collecting effort data. Sick sigma implementations would have each technical professional record down to 10 or 15 minute increments twice a day how much time was spent on task. Not only does this high level of precision make it irritating for the data collectors (the technical staff) but the wide variation of knowledge work will result in people recording more the time they spent in the office than work on task. This makes it ripe for dismissal as useless.

Instead, if had them round it off to the nearest hour at the end of the week, then we could present the data as imprecise but accurate; it tells the right story. The question of effort data is not, "did we spend 17 hours or 18 hours" on a task but, "did we spend a small amount or large amount" of time. Here, rounded off data that is accurate but not precise can tell us what we need to know. Attempts to dismiss the data as inaccurate is far more easier to refute since it isn't trying to be precise as well.

Utilization

The last area where sick sigma hinders software teams is in the utilization of the measurements. In sick sigma organizations the data collected disappears into a metrics black hole. I call this "measures for the merely curious" since it never seems to change anything. This usually covers almost all metrics that are requested by upper management.

Data collectors should only collect data so decisions can be made and actions taken.

What we need to do is feedback the measures to the data generators/collectors as quickly as possible. That is where the main action is so that is where information can aid in making decisions.

The best case is that the data is immediately visible on a common wall where the data generators see it on a regular basis. I recall one shop where code growth, earned value, and defect counts were all kept on a wall in the midst of the development team. Once a week this information was updated and the team made decisions based on the data. This is not so different from what many agile teams are doing today.

Healing Sick Sigma

Using GQM, getting practice, telling the right story, and using the information locally are all ways to heal the wounds caused by poor metrics.

By the way, any resemblance between "sick sigma" and "Six Sigma" is . . . uh . . . purely coincidental, yeah! that's the ticket. If you want to know my views on the latter, drop me a line and I will sure to trend the results, Pareto the feedback, and analyze it to seven significant digits. Then I will stick it somewhere, I am not sure where (and not there either), but it will be colorful!

Gilb's - Risk & Uncertainty conference

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:22:40 GMT

The Gilb London course is growing year by year. This year the theme is Risk & Uncertainty, and experts from all around the world is presenting and participating (very lively). Speaker List Bran Selic - Malina Software Corp - Canada Risk Factors in Read More......(read more)

Everybody, a hearty welcome to London!!

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:27:37 GMT

I set up this blog for us, as an easy place to share anything. Everybody is welcome to post anything they like here. Read More......(read more)

Done, and Gets Things Smart

Stevey's Blog Rants — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:59:36 GMT

Disclaimer: I do not speak for Google! These are my own views and opinions, and are not endorsed in any way by my employer, nor anyone else, for that matter. Everyone knows and quotes Joel's old chestnut, "Smart, and Gets Things Done." It Read More......(read more)

3rd Annual State of Agile Development Survey

Agile Management Blog — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

VersionOne are organizing the 3rd annual survey. This has proven to be the best industry survey over the last 2 years. Despite the fact, it is organized by a tools vendor, it's very independent. The quality of the survey relies on each and every one Read More......(read more)

Rhinos and Tigers

Stevey's Blog Rants — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:26:33 GMT

I will once again plagiarize myself by transcribing a talk I gave. First: be warned! I offer this gesture of respect to you — yes, you! — when I say that this is at least 20 minutes of reading. This is long even for me. If you're surfing reddit, gobbling Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Early Bird Rate Expiring

Agile Management Blog — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

You have 3 days remaining to register for the APLN Agile Leadership Summit in Seattle (July 17-18) and get the $100 earlybird discount. Don't miss out. This is a fantastic event, at a great venue, and is a steal at only $300. Register now and save Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Jeff Beehler Confirmed for Panel

Agile Management Blog — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I'm delighted to announce our 3rd panelist for our Agile Leadership Summit , on July 17th and 18th at The Edgewater hotel in Seattle, will be Jeff Beehler who runs the Visual Studio Team System product group at Microsoft. Jeff has experience a team Read More......(read more)

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 17:34:13 GMT

http://www.agilethinkers.com/2008/06/tom-gilb---an-e.html Read these interviews with Ryan Shriver and also the one with Jens Egil Evensen to see some experiences with our Evo methods! What might interest some of you is that they both are Scrum Masters Read More......(read more)

Desks

Joel on Software — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:25:04 GMT

A reader wrote in to ask what kind of desks we're going to be using for the new office. The ergonomics experts always want you to have your feet flat on the floor. So you have to adjust your seat height first. Then, your arms are supposed to be horizontal Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Avanade is our 4th Gold Sponsor

Agile Management Blog — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Avanade have been a long time supporter of the APLN in Seattle. They sponsor the local chapter meetings and provide us with a venue for our monthly meetings. Dale Christian, CIO, is one of our confirmed panelists. Today, I'm happy to announce that Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: AMS Services will be a Gold Sponsor

Agile Management Blog — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

AMS Services in Bothell, Washington is the latest firm to announce sponsorship for our event. We're delighted to have them involved and I'd like to thank them for their support of the APLN and the agile community in the Seattle area. We're Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Erik Arnold Confirmed for Panel

Agile Management Blog — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I'm happy to announce that my former colleague Erik Arnold, VP of IT Services (and acting head of IT) for Corbis, has confirmed he will be one of our panelists for the APLN Agile Leadership Summit in Seattle, at the Edgewater Hotel on July 17-18. Read More......(read more)

StackOverflow podcasts moving to IT Conversations

Joel on Software — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 11:21:04 GMT

Yes! I'm still doing those weekly podcasts with Jeff . We've already done eight of them. We're moving, though, to IT Conversations , a huge network of terrific audio shows about technology. Just looking at all the great shows they have there Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: More sponsors announced

Agile Management Blog — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

SolutionsIQ will be a Gold Sponsor for our event. SolutionsIQ have both Brent Barton and Lance Young taking part running our Scrum track. SolutionsIQ is a long time supporter of the agile community in Seattle. They host the APLN Redmond chapter and co Read More......(read more)

Merrifield in Motion

Agile Management Blog — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I want to congratulate my friend Ric Merrifield on the publication of his article, " The Next Revolution in Productivity " in Harvard Business Review this month. This management approach which looks at capabilities rather than process flows Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: VersionOne goes Gold

Agile Management Blog — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I'm delighted to announce that VersionOne are the first firm to confirm a Gold level sponsorship for the APLN Summit in Dallas. VersionOne has been a long time supporter of the APLN and we're glad to have their continued support. With VersionOne Read More......(read more)

Software Executive Summit Details Announced; Early Registration Incentive

Steve McConnell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 18:10:00 GMT

I am pleased to officially announce the details of the 2008 Software Executive Summit , to be held October 27-29, 2008 in Seattle, Washington. The Summit provides a rare opportunity for top software executives to compare software development challenges and solutions in a small-group-discussion format. Their discussions are punctuated by thought-provoking keynote addresses by Martin Fowler , Ken Schwaber , Steve McConnell , and others. For the past three years, 99.5% of Summit attendees said they...(read more)

New Software Executive Report Available: Managing Core Development

Steve McConnell — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 17:39:00 GMT

One of my activities is moderating monthly discussion groups on software executive topics. The output of those meetings are captured in the Construx Software Executive Reports . Our newest report, "Managing Core Development," is now available. Here's an excerpt: “Core” code always refers to code that is in some way more central than other product code. There are several variations on this theme: Most companies use “Core” to refer to architecture and functionality that multiple groups...(read more)

Adventures in Office Space

Joel on Software — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 11:33:02 GMT

“We lost some time because a deal to expand at our current location fell through -- it turned out that the extra floor we wanted wasn’t actually, to use the real estate jargon, ‘available.’” From Adventures in Office Space Read More......(read more)

New User Story Format

Agile Management Blog — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

After meeting Chris Matts and I at XtC May 13th, Liz Keogh pensions off the "As a <user role>... I want... So that..." format for writing user stories, first proposed in the BDD community by Tim McKinnon. I love Liz's new format.. Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Our unique conference format

Agile Management Blog — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Some people have been asking about our very special conference format for the APLN event in Seattle . Register today! Many of our local chapter members are bored with traditional conferences where speakers simply deliver powerpoint slides. Most of those Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Sponsorship Package released

Agile Management Blog — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We released the sponsorship package for the APLN Seattle Leadership Summit yesterday. You can get it here . Our strategy with the conference has been to focus on raising sponsorship and be very professional about it, in order to keep the ticket price Read More......(read more)

Agile In Action

Agile Management Blog — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I've been visiting the UK a lot recently - at least once per month. On one of those visits, Steve Freeman, took me out to visit a team at Sky satellite broadcasting being by Simon Baker and Gus Power. They blog at Agile In Action. If you haven't Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: New Flyer

Agile Management Blog — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We now have a PDF advertising flyer for our APLN Leadership Summit in Seattle this coming July. Please help us with registrations by downloading the flyer and circulating it at your employer, or on your web page, or favorite discussion group or online Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Lisa Haneberg's Key Note

Agile Management Blog — Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Lisa has provided us with the abstract for her opening key note our APLN Leadership Summit . Be sure to register and enjoy the Early Bird rate of only $300. The Challenge of Focus: Breakthrough Performance in an Environment of Uncertainty and Complexity Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Implementing ITIL Configuration Management

Brad Appleton's ACME Blog — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:14:32 GMT

I started reading through the book Implementing ITIL Configuration Management , by Larry Klosterboer. I'm really not what I'd consider an expert on ITIL nor IT Service Management , but I've had more than my fair share of exposure to it and Read More......(read more)

Three Pivotal Practices to Eliminate Waste

Brad Appleton's ACME Blog — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:59:05 GMT

I received my program for the Better Software Conference & Expo this coming June 9-12 in Las Vegas (alas, I will be unable to attend). The description for the keynote that will be given by Jean Tabaka caught my eye. Jean Tabaka is an Agile Coach from Read More......(read more)

Tradeoff: Go For Quality

Steve Smith's Being Effective — Thu, 22 May 2008 08:00:00 GMT

What typically happens when product development decides to create a superior product? Answer, slower delivery and costlier development than previous products. Why? You don't get something for nothing. Producing a higher quality product takes more Read More......(read more)

New Chief

Agile Management Blog — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

The news is finally out! I've been working on this deal since the day after I left Corbis. We put the ink on the contract back in April (on my birthday as it happened.) My firm, Modus Cooperandi and Valtech have entered a strategic partnership. Valtech Read More......(read more)

APLN Summit: Dale Christian Confirmed for CIO Panel

Agile Management Blog — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I happy to announce we landed a star CIO as the first participant in our CIO and technical leader panel. Dale Christian the CIO of Avanade will be strolling across the railway lines from Avanade HQ in the Seattle World Trade Center to join us for the Read More......(read more)

Eric Landes on Kanban at the TFS SIG

Agile Management Blog — Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Eric Landes is presenting his experiences of developing a kanban system for software engineering at Robert Bosch, at the Indianapolis TFS Special Interest Group on June 12th . If you live in the area of happen to be passing through Indianapolis in mid Read More......(read more)

Kanban on TFS

Agile Management Blog — Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Eric Landes at Robert Bosch has created a kanban process template for Team Foundation Server. So all you Microsoft .Net developers can feel the joy of kanban in the safety and comfort of your own office. Thanks Eric, for a nice community contribution Read More......(read more)

Software's Classic Mistakes--2008

Steve McConnell — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:43:00 GMT

In 2007 my colleagues at Construx Software and I updated the list of classic mistakes from my 1996 book Rapid Development . Throughout 2007 we conducted a survey to determine the frequency and severity of these classic mistakes. In other words, we wanted to get a more quantitative sense of just how "classic" these classic mistakes are. More than 500 people responded to the survey. The majority of them were involved with web and business systems. A significant minority were involved in shrink...(read more)

The power of clearly articulated end states, and the “law of attraction"

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:06:52 GMT

Many people worldwide have watched the film “The Secret”. It highlights the “law of attraction” and how powerful and essential it is to personal achievements. It teaches how essential it is to set clear end state goals, and how, just by setting them, Read More......(read more)

Rise of the Development Environment Architect

Brad Appleton's ACME Blog — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:14:01 GMT

Peter Eeles and I must be subconsciously on the same page. Because at the same time I was blogging about Software Architecture Views and Perspectives and Software Architecture Quality Attributes and their direct applicability to SCM/ALM solution architecture Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Programming Groovy and Groovy Recipes

Brad Appleton's ACME Blog — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:00:00 GMT

I just received an advance copy of Programming Groovy from the Pragmatic Programmer's Bookshelf . This complements their work that came out last month on Groovy Recipes . From the Programming Groovy book webpage: Groovy brings you the best of both Read More......(read more)

BOOK: Outside-in Software Development

Brad Appleton's ACME Blog — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:59:29 GMT

My review of Outside-In Software Development is in this month's edition of The Agile Journal . Kessler and Sweitzer's Outside-in Software Development should resonate deeply with all those who genuinely value the principle of customer collaboration Read More......(read more)

Software Process-Line Architecture and Common Processes

Brad Appleton's ACME Blog — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:55:22 GMT

Extending the analogy of software architecture views and quality attributes for software process architecture , I'd like to spend some time discussing how software product lines relate to software process architecture and "common processes" Read More......(read more)

Dynamic Languages Strike Back

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:52:18 GMT

Some guys at Stanford invited me to speak at their EE Computer Systems Colloquium last week. Pretty cool, eh? It was quite an honor. I wound up giving a talk on dynamic languages: the tools, the performance, the history, the religion, everything. It was Read More......(read more)

APLN Seattle Summit Update: More Speakers Confirmed

Agile Management Blog — Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

To add to the already stellar list of participants for our event I confirmed today that Dale Christian , CIO at Avanade will participate in our CIO Panel Session, and Alan Shalloway of Net Objectives will join our Think Tank / Open Space sessions as a Read More......(read more)

APLN Seattle Summit Update: Registration announced

Agile Management Blog — Thu, 08 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

We have opened up the registration for the APLN Leadership Summit in Seattle on July 17-18. Register now and get the early bird special price of $300. We have a fantastic program lined up and a uniquely collaborative conference format. Key note speeches Read More......(read more)

New Offering, Focused Knowledge Transfer Workshops

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:52:03 GMT

Short of time, want to get right to it. We have designed some workshops just for you and your group. An excellent alternative if you want Tom and me to visit your organization for a day or less. Check them out at Knowledge Transfer Kai Add your comment Read More......(read more)

Tom Answers Interview Questions from www.agilethinkers.com

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Mon, 05 May 2008 20:50:36 GMT

Tom , this is such a waste as (only) a personal response. I encourage you to post this in our blog so more people can enjoy it. Kai On 5. mai. 2008, at 23.05, Tom Gilb wrote: On 5 May 2008, at 18:23, Clarke Ching wrote: Great! Here's my first few Read More......(read more)

Agile Research at PHD Level

Tiki RSS feed for blog: Tom Gilb & Kai Gilb's blog — Fri, 02 May 2008 18:58:14 GMT

http://www.gilb.com/community/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=183 Is David Rico's EFFECTS OF AGILE METHODS ON WEBSITE QUALITY FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE and http://www.gilb.com/community/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=182 has MAPPING AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT Read More......(read more)

Help Fill Up the Room on Monday in San Fran

Agile Management Blog — Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Well it looks like TriFork and Accelinnova have struggled to fill the room in San Francisco for Monday's Leadership Summit event. If you'd like to meet me in person and ask me anything about Agile Management, Kanban, MSF CMMI, FDD, or what we're Read More......(read more)

Architecture astronauts take over

Joel on Software — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:01:05 GMT

It was seven years ago today when everybody was getting excited about Microsoft's bombastic announcement of Hailstorm, promising that "Hailstorm makes the technology in your life work together on your behalf and under your control." What Read More......(read more)

XEmacs is Dead. Long Live XEmacs!

Stevey's Blog Rants — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:53:10 GMT

"We're going to get lynched, aren't we?" — Phouchg And you thought I'd given up on controversial blogs. Hah! Preamble This must be said: Jamie Zawinski is a hero. A living legend. A major powerhouse programmer who, among his many Read More......(read more)

Settling the OS/X focus-follows-mouse debate

Stevey's Blog Rants — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:28:23 GMT

I recently switched to using OS/X full-time for all my client-side computing. Still using Linux on the backends, of course, at home and at work, but I now use Macs for my client machines. I'm not a Mac fanboy. I'm sort of a wannabe Mac fanboy Read More......(read more)