EclipseCon 2009/BoF/Agile

• agile applied to agile: you need to be agile with agile
• try out small changes to your process
• put in measures to detect failures early

crutique about things that slow you down

• lack of out-of-the-box CI support
• legacy code that gets in the way of doing design using doing TDD and mock-objects
• checking in broken code

on being 'agile with agile':

• if agile does not work for you then you need to change it
• there's no process, but there's still order in the percieved chaos
• the process is not the king, people are

• many forms of Agile, even RUP can be agile if done right
• working through the problems, not around it (1 day code freeze to stabilize things is not a solution, repetitive builds with tests that run every check in is)

• less fat in the UI -- better APIs in the core, that can be tested

Anti-Patterns:

• Commenting out Tests to get the Build Green.
• Fudging the I-Builds so that it looks like the build passed, when it is broken.
• Varying Iteration Lengths.
• Delaying Refactoring
• Integrating code only at the end of the day.
• Less than 80% code coverage in unit tests.
• Code checked in that isn't covered by a test.

Agile Estimating and Planning

• What makes a plan Agile?
  • Updated every iteration.
  • Backlog reviewed every iteration.
  • Detail plan only one iteration out.
• Planning for Eclipse Projects
  • Bugzilla as a Backlog
  • Every feature, bug, or work item must have a bugzilla entry.
  • Only assign work that is to be worked on.
• Iteration Reviews