SE - Chap 5 - Agile Development

What are some important features of the Design framework activity in the XP Process?

Rigorously follows the KIS (keep it simple) principle. Uses CRC Cards. (Class-Responsibility-Collaborator) Uses spike solutions. Encourages refactoring.

What must the final product of a software engineering project be?

Scalable and extendable for the long term.

Other than XP and IXP, what are the four common agile process models?

Scrum, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Agile Modeling (AM), and Agile Unified Process (AUP)

How long and how often are Scrum meetings held?

Short, 15 minute meetings held daily by the team.

What is the 10th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Simplicity - the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential.

An agile process reduces the cost of change because software is released in increments and change can be better controlled in an increment.

True

Early in a project change is easier to accommodate.

True

Further into a project, major changes are very costly and time consuming, and may have unintended side effects.

True

In agile development the customer is part of the development team.

True

In agile development the project plan must be flexible.

True

Process must be agile enough to respond to changing (fluid) business environments.

True

The "tool set" that supports agile processes focuses more on people issues than it does on technology issues.

True

The agile approach reduces cost of change through the software process

True

Conventional/traditional process models forget the frailties of the people who build computer software.

True People are not robots. Human weaknesses must be dealt with through discipline or tolerance.

What is pair programming?

Two people work together at one computer workstation to create code for a story.

What is the most widely used approach to Agile Software Development?

Extreme Programming (XP)

What are some features of the CODING framework activity in XP Process Development?

First team develops unit test that will exercise each of the stories in the increment. Code is created to pass the unit tests.

Describe the three iterative cycles of the DSDM.

Functional Model Iteration: Produces a set of incremental prototypes that demonstrate functionality for the the customer. Design and build Iteration: Revisits prototypes built during the functional model iteration to ensure that each has been engineered in a manner that will enable it to provide operational business value for end users. Implementation: Places the latest software increment into the operational environment.

What is the 1st Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

What are the four framework activities used in XP?

1. Planning 2. Design 3. Coding 4. Testing

List the four steps required to apply agile software development to a project.

1. Project team must be able to adopt tasks and streamline them. 2. Plan understanding change will occur. 3. Eliminate all but most essential work products, and keep them lean. 4. Incremental delivery strategy that gets working software to the customer rapidly.

In the Scrum Agile Process Method what is the backlog?

A prioritized list of project requirements or features that provide business value for the customer.

Describe the Agile Unified Process (AUP) Agile Process Model.

Agile Unified Process (AUP) adopts a "serial in the large" and "iterative in the small" philosophy for building computer-based systems. Each AUP iteration includes the following activities: Modeling: UML representations are created. Implementation: Models turned into source code. Testing: Team designs and executes test. Deployment: Delivery of software increment and feedback from end users. Configuration and Project Management: Addresses change management, risk management, and the control of persistent work products that are produced by the team. Environment Management: Coordinates a process infrastructure that includes standards, tools, and other support technology available to the team.

What is the 8th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

What is the 12th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.

What is the 5th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.

What is the 4th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.

What is the primary driver in agile development?

Change. Support for change should be built into everything.

Describe Scrum.

Conceived by Jeff Sutherland and his development team in early 1990s. Framework activities: requirements, analysis, design, evolution, and delivery. Incorporates process patterns that emphasize project priorities, compartmentalized work units, communication, and frequent customer feedback.

What is the 9th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.

What is the 3rd Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.

In the Scrum Agile Process Method what are demos?

Demos deliver the software increment to the customer so that functionality that has been implemented can be demonstrated and evaluated by the customer.

Describe Industrial XP.

IXP incorporates six new practices to XP, for use in large organizations. Readiness Assessment: Ascertains if all members of the project (stakeholders, developers, management) are on board, have proper environment established, and understand skill levels involved. Project Community: Are the right people, with the right skills staged for the project? Project Chartering: Team accesses project to determine if there is a business justification for the project and if it will further the overall goals and objects of the organization. Test-driven Management: Team establishes a series of measurable "destinations" that assess progress and then defines how to determine if destinations have been reached. Retrospectives: Team conducts specialized technical review. Exams issues, events, and lessons learned. Continuous Learning: Team encouraged to learn new methods and techniques that can lead to a higher-quality product.

Where were the agile methods developed?

In an effort to overcome perceived and actual weaknesses in software engineering

What are the four value statements of the Manifesto for Agile Software Design

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan.

Describe an agile process.

It must be adaptable, incremental, iterative. Software is evaluated incrementally by customer, adaptations made to accommodate customer feedback.

Who signed the Manifesto for Agile Software Development in 2001?

Kent Beck and 16 other noted software developers, writers, and consultants.

What are some important features of the Planning framework activity in the XP Process?

Listening - Get broad feel for business context, features, functionality Creation of user stories by customer. Written on index cards, describe output, features, functionality. Customers prioritize each card using a value. Team members assign each card a cost - measured in weeks of development. If the story is estimated to take longer than three weeks, the customer is asked to split the story into smaller stories. Customers and developers work together to decide which stories go into the next increment.

Describe the Agile Modeling (AM) Agile Process Method.

Model with a Purpose: Have a specific goal in mind before creating the model. Once the goal for the model is identified , the type of notation to be used and level of detail required will be more obvious. Use Multiple Models: Each model should present a different aspect of the system and only those models that provide value to their intended audience should be used. Travel Light: As software engineering proceeds, keep only those models that will provide long-term value. No more, no less. Content is more Important than Representation: Modeling should impart information to its intended audience. Know the models and the tools Adapt process to the needs of the agile team.

Do developers have to choose between agility and software engineering?

No. Define a software engineering approach that is agile.

What is Refactoring?

Refactoring: improves the internal structure of a design (or source code) without changing its external functionality or behavior.

Describe the Dynamic Systems Development Method Agile Process Method (DSDM).

Provides a framework for building and maintaining systems which meet tight time constraints through the use of incremental prototyping in a controlled project environment. Philosophy - "80% of application can be delivered in 20% of time it would take to deliver the 100% application.

What is the 11th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.

What is the 6th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.

What is the project velocity in a XP Process project?

The number of customer stories implemented during the first release (a subtle measure of productivity).

A well-designed agile process "flattens" the cost of the change curve, allowing a software team to accommodate changes late in a software project without dramatic cost and time impact.

True

Agile development emphasizes the rapid delivery of operational software and de-emphasizes the importance of intermediary work products.

True

Agile development encourages team structures and attitudes, leads to easier communication.

True

What are some features of the TESTING framework activity in XP Process Development?

Unit tests are implemented using a framework that enables automation. Integration of code and validation testing of the system can occur daily. XP Acceptance Test: AKA customer tests, are specified by the customer and focus on overall system features and functionality that are visible and reviewable by the customer.

What is the 2nd Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.

In the XP Process Model, what is the spike solution?

When a difficult problem is encountered an immediate creation of an operational prototype is developed.

In the Scrum Agile Process Method what are sprints?

Work units that are required to achieve a requirement defined in the backlog that must be fit into a predefined time-box (typically 30 days).

What is the 7th Agile Principle Defined by the Agile Alliance?

Working software is the primary measure of progress.

Is the XP Process object-oriented?

YES!

What collaborative and communication tools are used in the Agile Process Model?

whiteboards, poster sheets, sticky notes, social networking.