Agile Development in the Writing Classroom Michael Wojcik Rhetoric & Writing Michigan State University ATTW 2010Louisville, Kentucky

Agile is...familiar dominates software development today agile development integrates documentation it’s like writing-class pedagogy drafts revision invention peer groups editing

for projects sustainable across classes for addressing users’ needs when students create software Agile is...useful to learn contemporary corporate practices Make something useful. Present it. Improve it. Repeat. Frequently.

Agile

feature teams user stories test-driven development iterations pair programming scrums

Agile “What can you do for me today?”

Ad Hoc

Waterfall

Deathmarch Waterfall

unAgile customers wait too long you can’t handle changes it’s inefficient most projects fail

Agile small tasks short deadlines visible progress frequent reassessment transparency team members communicate customers see demos user inputrespond to users’ needs self-organizing everyone contributes

Agile “What can you do for me today?” backlog of small tasks team members select tasks by ability in response to user needs in short iterations

Agile Extreme Programming (XP) Scrum Agile Unified Process

Scrum Micro Focus teams distributed across half the world fancy tools experienced but entrenched

Scrum WIDE small, social group in a single location inexperienced but enthusiastic!

getting something working early – and often adapting processes to the situation Agile is... letting everyone contribute working continuously with users an orientation, not a technique or methodolgy

How? iterations user stories self-organizing backlog scrumming pair programming revision control

Tools XPlanner Rally

continued in next semester and beyond undergrad class able to contribute content diverse skills, different contributions no prior Ruby on Rails knowledge Agile with OurMichiganAve.org two iterations, working production site Agile lets students produce better software.

schedules >> semester, competing projects manage some of the chaos scrums by Google Chat, 3 days/week Agile with WIDE financial consequences Agile isn’t just for the classroom.

frequent interaction with stakeholders ideal for community-oriented work Agile in the community frequent demos Agile is all about being responsive and productive.