Eventyr

Visualising the Post-Mortems

Brighton Agile Forum

Prompted by the interest that several companies and individuals around Brighton have expressed in Agile methods I have started the ball rolling on creating a Brighton-based agile group.  Much as I enjoy travelling up to London to attend XtC*, it would be lovely if there were such a group down here.  I think I would find it very beneficial and so would many others. 

So, I have started to set one up.

The idea is to build a Brighton Agile Forum community; through monthly pub get-togethers combined with the standard wiki and mailing list.   

It is very early days yet, so I am spreading the word to gather interest.  Anyone who may be interested should feel free to add information or re-write the wiki, sign up to the mailing list, spread the word, and generally get involved if they are interested.  (Everyone knows the drill.)

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* Err, I suspect that should really say 'despite having to travel up to London I still enjoy attending XtC'...

Global Coding Dojos

At last there has been a move made by Brazilian developer/coach Ivan Sanchez to keep track of all the Coding Dojo groups worldwide, and actually form a community from our very disparate groups over a nebulous concept.

He has been getting in touch with people related with Coding Dojos around the world, trying to build a collaboration space for all dojos.  As ever a wiki has been created as well as a discussion list.  It is hoped that these will help all the groups to share experience and discuss how to improve and promote the ideas embedded in the existing coding dojos.

About time someone did it, so I am hoping it will work out well.   It will be very interesting to hear more about how the other groups run.

Help Him Stir Things Up

Rachel Davies recently needed to step down as chair of the board of the Agile Alliance. I’d proposed the following in response to my disquiet over the state of Agile as it moves into the mainstream, so someone suggested I run for chair on a platform of carrying it through. I did, and I was elected. I’ll be chair until August, and I take it as my responsibility to bring some derivative of this to a vote of the membership. We’ll be working on this proposal at the Agile Software Development forum. Help out, please.

Help Brian Marick Stir Things Up in his new role as chair of the Agile Alliance

On Rabbits, Space and Cards

I have finally got my act together and finished off my experience report for Agile 2007.  It is called 'On Rabbits, Space and Cards: Moving Towards an Informative Workspace' and I will be presenting it later this summer in Washington D.C.

I'm excited, as not only will this be my first time out of Europe, but it is also conveniently timed for leaving me in the states in time for Burning Man.  It is also a nice paper, and the only one I had time to produce properly* for the full IEEE proceedings.

It will be nice to finally have something published which focusses on the Nabaztag, Radio 2 and the joy of open-plan offices.

That will be the final of three conferences I will be attending (for talking about my research) this year: The Narrative Practitioner in Wales in June, PPIG'07 in Finland in July, and Agile 2007 in Washington D.C. in August.   Returning from that will also mark the time when I move into the depths of deepest-darkest data analysis - and will mark the start of movement towards the end of my PhD.  (Eek.)

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* I have two more papers submitted for the Research-In-Progress workshop, one of which is about the work I have been doing for the Agile Narratives Project.

Brighton Coding Dojo Night

I have been so in shock at the Coding Dojo Night being over and done with that I have been very lax in posting about it.

Due to the generous sponsorship of the University of Sussex, Agile Alliance and Future Platforms we managed to create something quite special in a lovely venue.  We were able to provide food, plenty drink and prizes (books courtesy of Apress, and Sushi lessons thanks to Okinami). 

We had a badgemaker  (manned by Dom), thanks to the lovely resource centre, which allowed everyone to name themselves and give us a feel for the mix of programming levels present (people chose a colour badge according to whether they felt they were a novice, journeyman or master).

The night started with a Aikido demo (co-staring my brother and Tom Hume), and was then followed by a talk from Karl Scotland briefly explaining agile and the history of the coding dojos.

We then launched into our four groups of ten people to have a stab at programming in Inform 6. (Although Inform 7 would have been easier to pick up and had a nicer interface, we liked the very traditional style of Inform 6).

Each group worked together for an hour and a half to collectively create a text adventure game.  They weren't the most playable of games given such a short space of time to learn and produce, but they were fun to produce.  The code should appear here soon should anyone want to take a look.   

The photo pool from the night is looking fabulous as well:

     

 

I'm really happy so many people came and contributed to help to make it such a great night.

Thanks to the lovely people at InQbate for helping set this up - and putting so much effort into making the venue really special.  And obviously thanks to everyone who organised this alongside me.

Sudoku and Agile

[...] there’s an important lesson to learn here: agile approaches are about software development, not about algorithm design. To be more precise: they are mainly about achieving software quality, not correctness. It’s the purpose of tests to help the developer maintain functional correctness - not to guide her towards a correct solution of an algorithmically non-trivial problem, such as Sudoku solving.

I think, this is a good example for the old saying “If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.”

How to not solve a Sudoku

This somewhat reflects our experiences with sudoku solving in the dojo.

Paperwork Saves...

But is all this paperwork, this structure, this procedure, a good thing? Not always. With structure come downsides as well as up. We lose risk, but how much, and how much agility and responsiveness do we also lose?

For this reason our production team are exploring more flexible approaches including Agile, and other lightweight rapid prototyping approaches for projects or clients that might particularly suit a different strategy.

The thing is paperwork doesn't always save lives. Most clients are like the rest of us - they want balance. They want substance but not overwhelming seas of mulched Norweigan timber. Sometimes however experience has taught me to spot a difference type of request. At its worst a client's hunger for documentation can hint at something else - a 'paperwork saves lives' culture.

Interesting post on paperwork from Will McInnes

Agile 2007 Experience

So, paper one (the experience report) has been accepted for Agile 2007.  It comes with a free place at the conference, which I shall sadly not be taking up as I .. want to be a student helper.

I now have two more papers to finish off for submission as research in progress papers - one for my research and one for Agile Narratives.

Once my current set of interviews are over I shall need to sit down for some serious writing time.

XPDay 7 Call

XP Day 7 is a two day international conference for anyone who wants to create software better. XP Day focuses on practical knowledge, real-world experience and active participation of all attendees. We welcome submissions from anyone involved in creating software, whatever your role.

That means you.

See more at the XP Day 7 Call for Proposals.