Pragmatic Projects Prepared by Doug Glidden

Pragmatic Projects Pragmatic Teams Ubiquitous Automation Ruthless Testing It’s All Writing Great Expectations Pride and Prejudice

Pragmatic Teams No Broken Windows Quality is the responsibility of the whole team No “team quality officers”

Pragmatic Teams No Broken Windows Boiled Frogs Don’t assume someone else is handling it Don’t assume changes have been okayed by leadership Appoint a “chief water tester” to constantly keep track of scope changes

Pragmatic Teams No Broken Windows Boiled Frogs Communicate Communicate within the team, of course Don’t forget the outside world! Generate a brand Crazy team name Funny team logo

Pragmatic Teams No Broken Windows Boiled Frogs Communicate Don’t Repeat Yourself Communicate Appoint a “team librarian” Coordinates documentation and repositories Knows who knows Can spot duplication Appoint “focal point” persons, each with a complete understanding of one component or aspect

No Broken Windows Boiled Frogs Communicate Don’t Repeat Yourself Orthogonality Project activities can’t happen in isolation Organize around functionality, not job functions. Organize teams like code: use contracts, decoupling, and orthogonality Select technical and administrative heads over all teams on a project Pragmatic Teams

No Broken Windows Boiled Frogs Communicate Don’t Repeat Yourself Orthogonality Automation Code formatting Test runs Appoint “tool builders” to create automation tools

Pragmatic Teams No Broken Windows Boiled Frogs Communicate Don’t Repeat Yourself Orthogonality Automation Know When to Stop Adding Paint Allow individual innovation Provide supportive, but not overpowering, structure

Ubiquitous Automation All on Automatic Don’t use manual procedures. Use scripts or batches Schedule nightly unattended tasks

Ubiquitous Automation All on Automatic Compiling the Project Use makefiles Generate code Use regression tests Automate builds Run full build process nightly to ensure all steps continue to operate correctly Run all tests after each build is complete to identify problems as soon as possible Automate final build Automate parameter changes Rerun all tests

Ubiquitous Automation All on Automatic Compiling the Project Automatic Administrivia Use content-driven automation for administrative tasks Automate web site generation by pulling information from the repository nightly Automate approval procedure notifications using markers within the source

Ubiquitous Automation All on Automatic Compiling the Project Automatic Administrivia The Cobbler’s Children Use the tools available to you!

Ruthless Testing Test early. Test often. Test automatically. Coding ain’t done ’til all the tests run.

Ruthless Testing What to Test Unit testing Integration testing Validation and verification Resource exhaustion, errors, and recovery Check normal things like memory and disk space Check unusual things like video modes and bandwidth restrictions Ensure graceful failures Performance testing Usability testing

Ruthless Testing What to Test How to Test Regression testing compares test output with previous tests Types of test data Real-world data Synthetic data Large quantities of data Boundary conditions Statistical properties Exercising GUI systems often requires specialized tools Testing tests Cause bugs to ensure they are caught Use “saboteurs” to test your testing. Testing thoroughly Use coverage analysis tools, but don’t expect 100% coverage Test state coverage, not code coverage.

Ruthless Testing What to Test How to Test When to Test Test as soon as any production code exists Test automatically Running tests Interpreting results If a test cannot be run automatically, test regularly on a specified schedule

Ruthless Testing What to Test How to Test When to Test Tightening the Net Find bugs once.

It’s All Writing Treat English as just another programming language. Build documentation in, don’t bolt it on.

It’s All Writing Comments in Code Comments should explain why something is done, not how Use meaningful variable names Don’t include unnecessary information Lists of functions exported Revision history Lists of other files used Filename

It’s All Writing Comments in Code Executable Documents Develop a single authoritative document for specifications that require multiple implementations Automatically extract data from the controlling document when it is needed

It’s All Writing Comments in Code Executable Documents Technical Writers Follow pragmatic principles even if someone else is writing the documentation

It’s All Writing Comments in Code Executable Documents Technical Writers Print It or Weave It Web-based documentation that can be kept up-to- date is preferable to printed documentation Automatically generate different versions needed from a base document

It’s All Writing Comments in Code Executable Documents Technical Writers Print It or Weave It Markup Languages Rich markup languages make production of different documentation forms simple

Great Expectations Gently exceed your users’ expectations.

Great Expectations Communicating Expectations Don’t ignore unreasonable expectations Ensure users understand necessary changes Impossible expectations Unnecessarily conservative expectations

Great Expectations Communicating Expectations The Extra Mile Surprise users with extra features, such as tool tips and keyboard shortcuts

Pride and Prejudice Sign your work.