If you’re very observant , you might notice that this post is about a week late. Still , here are my notes on the slides / nodes from the final day of the Agile course.

Previous Posts from the training course are:

• Day 4
• Day 3
• Day 2
• Day 1

Junit Introduction

• Junit
  Framework for writing automated unit tests (don’t need to use Junit
  to write the tests , but it helps)

• All Junit
  tests extend TestCase

• Individual
  test methods (pre Junit 4.0) : public void testSomething() method
  signature

• Use
  assertEquals assertTrue assertFalse assertNull assertNotNull
  assertSame and fail methods for testing.

• SetUp() and
  tearDown() methods called before and after each test method.

• TestSuites
  (groups of TestCases) replaced by Ant and (Eclipse) IDE
  functionality

• Run tests via
  built in Text / Swing test running , or more likely use IDE / Ant
  integration.

• Organise via
  same or paralell folders

• TestMyClass
  or MyClassTest

Mock and Stubs

• Problem: some
  classes (Collaborating Objects) can be tightly bound to system
  resources (e.g. File or Database) or to a hard to test API. Another
  example is the observer pattern. How do we unit test these?

• Solution: use
  fake object , pass it to class under test , allows testing of the
  class at a unit level.

• Stub : fake
  object that uses hard-coded data , often following an API. Many
  ready made stubs available (e.g. For the JDBC libraries).

  • Replace
    expensive to create objects

  • Have to
    create all objects that production code interacts with.

  • Start in
    middle and develop outwards

  • One failure
    can ripple out / appear elsewhere.

• Crash Test
  Dummy: type of stub that deliberately fails in order to test
  exception handling – simulate database crash or I/O full.

• Self Shunt is
  where the unit test itself implements the interface (doesn’t work
  for classes) and gets callbacks from the class under test.

• Mock Objects
  like stubs, except that they are intelligent enought to self-verify.

  • Mock
    Secondary objects (normally ones that we build) instead of API (as
    Stub does)

  • Outside in
    development style

  • What if mock
    implementation is incorrect?

• Interaction vs. State: In
  state-based testing you check the tests by examining the state after
  the stimulus. In interaction based testing you check the right
  interactions were triggered by the stimulus - Martijn
  Fowler, http://martinfowler.com/articles/mocksArentStubs.html
  

• Mock objects
  tend to test more the interaction between objects rather than a unit
  test of the object itself.

• Stub rather
  than mock external API’s

Smells and refactoring.

• Code smells
  are bad or suspect design decisions in code.

• Not always
  bad , but should be looked at (often will involve a trade off)

• Smells are
  often hard to understand , hard to change code.

  • Samples :
    duplication / long methods / poor naming / tightly coupled classes
    / switch statements /

• Refactoring :
  Small , controlled changes to codebase , so that it continues to
  compile / tests run to improve the design. The behaviour remains
  exactly the same.

• Seperate
  refactoring and adding additional functionality.

• Easier with
  automated tools and Unit tests to confirm that nothing has broken.

• Refactoring
  != Rewrite. Codebase is evolved , not thrown away.

User Stories

• In some ways
  , equivalent to Use Case from Predictive methods (but with subtle
  differences).

• Represent
  chunk of functionality that makes sense to the customer.

• Can be
  represented as card / conversation / paper based documents (more
  predictive approach).

• In Agile (as
  opposed to predictive) , shift the focus from writing to talking
  i.e. Get a true understanding of what the customer wants , even if
  they haven’t expressed it very well.

• Lessen the
  importance of requirements

• Support
  iterative development and participatory design.

• Even a simple
  requirement has many possible permutations (that lessen the odds of
  getting it right.

• Not just a
  generic user – but more user roles – groups of users that do
  different things with the system , depending on their experience ,
  task at hand etc

• User Stories
  should be Invest:

  • Independent

  • Negotiable

  • Valuable

  • Estimatable

  • Small

  • Testable

• Templace
  (FlashCard , as used by Xplanner)

• Be careful of
  size

  • too big and
    cannot be used for estimated (break these down into smaller
    stories). Easy for Compound , but for complex stories might need to
    do some research and then break out.

  • Too small ,
    and it is not worth the admin of estimating each. Bundle them up
    into higher level task like UI improvements or bug fixes.

• User Story
  should give us the acceptance tests

I’ve often been asked the question ‘What is Web 2.0′? Normally it’s followed quickly by the question ‘how do I make money out of it?’ Recently I’ve been thinking that Web 1.5 might be a better term (as it is an upgrade to the web , with a mix of shiny new and old but reliable techniques).

While there are many sites jumping on the Bandwagon and claiming the Web 2.0 Title, Tim Ziegler writing on Webmonkey gives a very good summary of what most Web 2.0 sites have in common. As always, you’ll be able to find true Web 2.0 companies that break these ‘rules’ , but it’s as good a place to start as any.

In Summary, Web 2.0 Sites / Companies / Products tend to:

• Build on the notion of ‘the long tail’ where niche demand meets niche supply , a cost-effective and profitable market due to lower transaction / search costs on the Web.
• Web as a platform. It doesn’t matter where you are , or what computing you use. As long as you have a web browser you can use these products.
• Ajax , a technique that combines the power to traditional Desktop Applications (like Word and Excel) , with the ‘use anywhere-ness’ of web pages.
• Smart Content Management. Create and publish a web page as easily as a Word Document. Forget needing to know FTP , HTML , CSS and other low level tools of a previous generation.
• Dashboard Views. Because Web pages are published in Machine as well as Human Readable format, it is easy to create summary, Dashboard views.
• Give it away to get more back

. It is alleged that in earlier days Microsoft was more willing to tolerate piracy of it’s office suite in order to get ‘critical mass’ - missing out on revenue initially, but growing the cake substantially in the process by becoming the de-facto standard. It may have worked for them but ‘give your product away to get a core of paying users’ won’t impress too many VC’s.

• Human Filters or Trust your users. Also known as ‘Many hands make light work’.
• Iterations , or many small releases (easy because the software runs in only one place) is better than one big bang.
• Simple is good. Forget feature overload - think iPod.

So that answers the ‘What is Web 2.0′ Question. Up to you to find out how to make money out of it.

More Web 2.0 Posts here.

• 50 best Web sites: SERVICES
  50 best Web sites: SERVICES
  (tags: web 2.0 webservice best sites)
• The Best of Web 2.0 Page 1 - Guides - Designtechnica
  The Best of Web 2.0
  (tags: ajax best blog web web2.0)
• Introducing Microsoft Script Debugger
  Development guide for the Microsoft Script Debugger
  (tags: Javascript script debugger development internet explorer)

Below are my notes from the Agile course so far - covering introduction to Agile projects , why it makes business sense, the use of FIT and other acceptance testing tools what Agile means for customers , managers and teams.

These notes are a good complement to the Agile presentation I gave.

Introduction to Agile

• Requirements
  Change on project – it’s going to happen , clients (paying for the code) have the right to change their mind , accept it and get on with it.

• Agile Family Includes

  • XP (Extreme Programming)

  • Scrum

  • Adaptive Software
    Development

  • Lean Software
    development

  • Feature Driven
    Development

  • Crystal

  • DSDM

• Values
  wrap Principles wrap Practices

• Values
  (from the Agile manifesto)

  • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.

  • Working software over comprehensive documentation.

  • Customer collaboration over contract negotiation.

  • Responding to change over following a plan.
    

• Principles
  (Customer Focused)

• Deliver early, deliver often.

• Deliver valuable software.

• Welcome change.

• One
  Big team (business people and developers)

• Principles (for Management)

  • motivated individuals give better results

  • face 2 face is the best way to communicate (although accept need to
    communicate across location and across time as good 2^nd
    best).

  • Remember : working software that meets business needs is the primary measure
    of progress

  • Promote sustainable development (or you’re just going into Technical Debt)

• Principles(for Teams)

  • use technical excellence and good design to promote agility but

  • simplicity is essential

  • the best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from
    self-organizing teams (rather than imposed from above)

  • do continual improvements to the process

• Practices

  • Continual Improvement

  • Technical Excellence

  • ProjectManagement

  • Business Practices

  • Community and Collaboration

• Why Agile

  • Waterfall projects : we’re most likely to find bugs in testing phase at the
    end , when (a) we’re most likely to be under time pressure and (b)
    when they’re most expensive to fix.

  • Waterfall projects: Hard to know how far through we are , as each step is
    different from the last (design has gone well , but will coding do
    better or worse?)

  • Agile:Testing is continuous, so likely to get early feedback and
    resolution of bugs. Testing = Unit Tests and Acceptance Tests.

  • Agile: Progress is steady and measurable , as we carry out all
    tasks as part of a regular cycle.

  • Productity = doing less but producing more value. e.g. Customer can prioritize
    highest value tasks and we deliver these first.

  • Standish group stats showing small projects are more successful.

  • Deploy early and often gets usable software into the hands of users sooner
    where it can start to payback it’[s investment earlier.

  • Success factors for Agile projects:

• Enthusiastic development team/ Committed customer / Knowledgeable on-site QA
  resource / Didn’t cherry pick practices / Open workspace / Regular
  retrospectives.

• Still hard work to do:

  • Good people give good software

  • Can be faked , so people really need to buy in

  • Practices are learnable / a lot are common sense

  • Recognize reality

Informative
Workspace

• Person walking into ‘normal’ coding office has no idea of what is going on, nor what status it is at. Most of the stuff is in people’s heads.

• Informative workspace seeks to communicate this information (via simple methods)in the office e.g. Notice boards, coder of the week hat , printed graphs of velocity , iterations etc.

• Kent
  Beck : "An interested observer should be able to walk into the team space and get a general idea of how the project is going in 15 seconds. "

• Similarto Kanban idea – while going for Just in Time / continual improvement , visual representations are displayed to demonstrate
  progress.

• Information Radiators : anything that gives out info (example given of monitor running , showing latest build progress).- jokey examples of Lava
  Lamps / notes in toilet

• Toyota (Toyota production system – recognise their edge is in how they build their cars, and not just the cars that they build).

  • Human face to automation.

  • Board giving current
    production status

  • Audible Cues

  • Ability for anybody to stop the line.

Testing and Design by Contract

• Started by Bertrand Meyer in the Eifel Language

• Frameworks available to add these (fully) to the Java Language – over and above the functionality available in Java 1.4 (the assert keyword)

• Already have a contract that is enforced by the compiler in Java (e.g. Method signatures , return types)

• Adds to this , to be a finer grained level .e.g method should return not only an Integer , but an Integer of value 0 to 100

• Like every contract both sides (Caller and Callee) have responsibilities

• Pre Conditions : Condition that must be true when the method is called.

• PostConditions: Condition that the method guarantees when it returns

• Class Invariants state what will be true at a class level (once all pre-conditions at method level / constructor level satisified)

• Both pre and post provide additional specifiication (.ie. It is clearer to people using the code what is required / what it does). As such
  provides clearer design and additional documentation.

• Can make code more succient by replacing ‘boilerplate’ code with standard check (e.g. Precondition param must not be null).

• Java
  Example :

  • Pre
    Condition /** @require !empty() */ - as
    javadoc on method (multiple checks allowed) –

  • Post
    Condition : /** @ensure !full()*/

  • Class Level invarient: /** @invariant 0 <= count()*/

• Exceptions

  • Pre Condition violation should give RuntimeException – provide method to test before call (e.g. IsEmpty() before doing remove)

  • Post conditions: supplier should be every effort to fulfill these : so if it can’t , it is normally due to an Exception (callee should be prepared for this failure)

• Junit

  • Codein Junit verifies the contact of the class (and provides documented example of code use)

  • assert methods = post condition testing

  • test invarient by checks at class and not just method level (e.g. Check overall status of class, not just return value of method under
    test)

  • Pre conditions by be tested by violating these in setup (code before call to method/ class under test) and ensuring exception is thrown.

• Think about Test as a contract.

Acceptance Testing

• Acceptance Tests – defined (or agreed by customer) , states thatfunctionality is complete

• Differ from unit tests in that they are system wide rather than at class/unit level.

  • Sometimes people used high level / coarse level Junit tests.

• Unlike unit tests don’t need to be a 100% all the time (but once passed , should alway pass)

• Automation is nice (for developer and customer)

  • Own note: Not everything in acceptance testing is automatable. e.g. UI testing.In this case automating the acceptance testing of the calculations (the 80%) means that the UI testing is a lot easier.

• Sample Frameworks for Automated acceptance testing

  • FIT – see notes below

  • Exactor – see notes below

  • Fitnesse – FIT but wiki based (easier to do multiple tests , easier to communicate these to a team.

  • WinFIT runner

• Inputto all these tools is close to a spec (close in that typicaluser , after one walkthrough should be able to understand what the documents mean).

• Tests can be written before application is build (again, the notion of the tests forming a spec). A lot of the commerical tools ,
  especialy those that record against a ‘live’application, do not allow this.

Automated Acceptance Testing with FIT

• FIT
  - http://fit.c2.com- Framework for Integration Testing

• Allows Customer s to review (if not write) the acceptance tests.

• Previously would have done these tests manually , or via large Junit tests (i.e. Use Junit not as Unit testing , but a way of describing the entire app from the user point of view).

• Data (unlike in Exactor) is specified as a HTML table. All non-tables are ignored (so safe to created tests documents using MS Word).

• Fixture (connects this HTML Data) to run test against ‘production’ code.Fixtures are written by programmers (as part of proving code meets
  the spec). Three types of fixtures.

  • Column

    • One class for each table

    • Fit works through on a line by line basis – good for repeating the same action over and over again.

    • 1^st Line of Table : Class Name to be tested

    • 2^nd Line of Table : class variable or methodName() to be set / called

    • 3^rd –
      Xth lines of table: values to set or expected values to be returned

    • Good for testing Domain (Business) Logic parts of an application

  • Action

    • mulitiple class for
      each table

    • start – the class to be tested

    • enter – value to be passed into method (no return value)

    • press – call method (no input or output)

    • check – check value on method (no input)

    • Good for stimulating interaction with the user interface (or more accurately either the controller that sits just behind the user interface).

  • Row

    • Like Column , but interprets all at once (rather than one at a time)

    • extend RowFixture ,
      provide query[] and getTargetClass() methods – allows Fit to see what data structure

    • good for testing coding in the service / persistence / db layer of code.

Automated
Acceptance Testing with Exactor

• Exactor (http://exactor.sourceforge.net)
  

• Allows Customer s to review (if not write) the acceptance tests.

• Previously would have done these tests manually , or via large Junit tests (i.e. Use Junit not as Unit testing , but a way of describing the entire app from the userpoint of view).

• Comprises (like fit) of

  • Script – a text file thatyou could show the customer.

  • Commands : what the script calls , extends Exactor classes. These commands then call the code beingtested.

  • Command extends Junit assert –
    so usual capabilities available.

  • Command provides access to test wide map to allow storing / exchange of values.

  • Allows composites to reuse scripts.

  • Scripts allow placeholder parameters

• Homepage of the course director - MSC Advanced Software Engineering
  ucd java enterprise business advanced software engineering

Day 3 of the Agile course.

Today’s topic was mock and stub objects, refactoring and automated acceptance tests using Fit and Exactor. Worked through Video Store example (from refactoring) to remove code smells.

Day 2 of the Agile course (provided by Exoftware) at UCD. Most of yesterday (day 1 that I missed), was good , but standard introduction , including:

• Differences between RUP (Rational Unified Process), Extreme Programming (XP) and Agile approaches.
• The XP / Agile Planning Game.
• Problems with the existing software development process.

Today (Day 2) is a lot more ‘hands on’ in that it’s straight into the computer labs to work through the example that we’ll be using for the rest of the week. Two of the more interesting items that we’ve covered today (apart from working through the ‘Build a system to play blackjack’ example are:

• Comparing Test Driven development to Design by contract. In this comparison, the code to setup your unit tests are equivalent to your pre-conditions, and the assertions within the JUnit tests are the post conditions.
• Separation of concerns on get / set: each should do one thing , and one thing only

The worked examples from today (Mock Objects and Video Store) are also very well thought through and get the point across.

Not much to report, given that I was in Leeds on a business trip … but I’ll post the ‘catch up’ on what happened today as part of Day 2.

The FOSS Means Business conference will take place in Belfast on Thursday the 16th March 2006. This all-island event will focus on the adoption and use of Free Software/Open Source Software (FOSS), with particular emphasis on the economic and competitive benefits for both the public and private sector.

They’ve also got Bruce Perens.

More details here.

Well, apart from 30 Seconds early on in my life on RTE’s Wanderly Wagon, I’ve not had national media exposure before. Given what I write about (how to use technology in business), I doubt if I’m going to be on celebrity big-brother any time soon. So here’s the photo from the Irish Times. If you click on it, you’ll be able to buy it.

The story is that we (as in FirstPartners.net) were sponsoring an award (couple of quid back when Damien was trying to get the blog awards off the ground). On the night , I had to catch the last train for Belfast at about 8.30 , so the Irish Times photographer got a couple of us together earlier on to take the shot.

So , apologies to Roger Galligan of IrishBlogs.ie who I didn’t get to hand the award to on the night, and any of the blog award winners, all of whom deserve to be in the pic!

If you haven’t already read a post about the Irish Blog Awards, you’ve either been a coma for the last month, or lost your internet connection for a very long time. Either way , you missed a very good evening in the Alexender Hotel in Dublin. We (FirstPartners.net) were sponsoring one of the awards (Best Contribution to the Irish Bloggersphere). At least I can say ‘I was there’ , which will either seem very far sighted or as strange as sponsoring ‘The Irish email awards’ as blogging goes mainstream. Either way , I doubt if blogging will fall into the ‘no-one will care’ category.

Despite the lead-in , this is not a post about blogging. In fact despite the evidence in front of your very eyes, I (Paul Browne) am not really a blogger in the real, hip and trendy sense of the medium. Compared to some of the characters I met there, I’m just somebody how likes getting things done , and happy to talk about one of things that interests me (Technology). Blogging is (currently) the best way I find to do it.

Talking of the people that I met there , here are some (and I’m still playing the game of ‘connect the people to the blogs’). Apologies if I’ve missed you (leave a comment)

• Gavin’s Blog. Gavin’s been blogging 6 years. Put me and my ‘15 months Blogging’ in my place.
• Letter From America - Jeff. One of the real (good) characters of the evening , but not somebody that I’d recommend to my (single) sister in law , despite both of them living in Belfast
• Red Mum. A real star - Have been following her blog for a while and had almost ‘can I have your autograph’ moment when meeting her.
• That Girl - also in the Irish Times picture. A very welcoming presence at the pre-awards drinks when I was wandering the cellar bar wandering where all the bloggers where (Duh! in the corner drinking cocktails of course!)
• Bonhom.ie (Dermot) - very interesting guy, moving back to Ireland from Italy , although to hear his current location , you’d have to question his sanity!
• irelanddigital.blogspot.com and culturesluts.podcast.com. Both by Stephen and Jesse. Encouraged me to dip a toe into podcasting, even if I’ll never reach the dizzy heights of those guys.
• Brian Greene - wxtc.net / BrianGreene.com - another podcaster who I wished I had got talking to in more depth.
• Technolotics - Trinity Students , podcasting on technology and politics. If you met them, keep their autograph. I expect they will do big things in a ‘Zig and Zag meets Google’ kind of way. (That’s a compliment
• John - faxYourTD.ie . Sometimes it takes a new faceto shake things up. John’s work to bring ‘faxyourMP.com’ to our shores is a lot of hard work and is one of the first ways that Web 2.0 will begin to affect our sceloritic polical system.
• Bernie Goldbach. Back in Techcamp , Bernie had encouraged me to to take this blogging thing seriously. Good thing that he did.
• Tom Raftery- TomRaftery.net / Podleaders / IT@Cork. Didn’t get talking to Tom this time around as he had to hurry to a podcast interview. Along with Bernie, his presentation on Blogging at Techcamp last year pushed me to take the potential of blogs seriously.
• James Corbett - Eireprenuer , also speaking about about OPML. Anybody who
• Colin O’Munieachan - an T-imeall. His hosting and technical setup of the pre awards podcasting event would put commercial radio to shame.
• Piaras - PR Supremo , who took the endless questions of ‘when are we doing the next techcamp’ with good grace.
• Ed Byrne - who confessed to not having blogged for a full 2 months. Security!
  Update - Ed Byrne is now back blogging due to unprecedented public demand!
• Michele - penseiri / Blacknight hosting , who has (finally) convinced me to try out Ubantu, as well as getting a few digs in about my current hosting issues.
• Rick O’Shea. Didn’t actually get to meet the guy person, but is that what he really looks like? How much longer before RTE are actively recruiting bloggers the way ZDnet magazines and O’Reilly books are?
• Fergal Breen - IrishDev.com. Co host of the IIA Web 2.0 presentation and good to see that he is finally coming out of his shell (that’s a joke, for anybody who doesn’t know him)
• Damien Mulley - major kudos to the man for organising the whole thing. Nerves of steel as he actually looked like he was enjoying all the pressure on the night!
• Alison? - Will go now and search for your blog again! A real ‘fit the blog to the person’ moment as I realised we’d both worked toghether in a previous life!

Just found out that I’ve also managed to get my picture in the Irish Times. Surreal - I’m writing this on the Train and have seen it by looking over a fellow passengers shoulder .. I’m the one standing in front of Bernie Goldbach on the right. What are the rules for linking to this picture online?

On my todo list after the events are 1) Get a Podcast out 2) Check out Odeo.com for hosting the content 3) Check out Tredia 4)Do a google for people writing about ‘The Irish Blog Awards’ 5) Check out Jeff’s Podcast for the people that I’ve missed.

We’re going to be there - are you? It’s on in the Alexander Hotel in Dublin on the 11th march.

We (as in FirstPartners.net) are sponsoring the ‘Best Technical Blogger Category’.

I’m also hoping to go to the Pre Awards Tech Event .

See you there.

Paul

• LinkedinBloggers : Linkedin Bloggers
  Good Yahoo Group joining the concept of Linked in (networking) and Blogging (shameless self publicity)
  (tags: linkedin bloggers)

Will update this with feedback from the ‘How to talk to your boss about agile’ event, but in the meantime, here is all the slides and links to articles used in the Agile presentation.

• Graphviz
  Graph Visualisation Software - or pretty pictures to represent data
  (tags: graph schema spy data picture)
• start [OpenLexicon.org]
  Another open source rules engine, aims to be wider ranging than Drools
  (tags: rules engines drools)
• Digital Web Magazine
  Usabability and other look and feel considerations for websites
  (tags: Webdesign web magazine webdev html design css)
• blogworkshop
  Wiki setup by Damien Mulley to help people get started with Blogging
  (tags: blog wiki irishblog help)
• Irish Venture Capital Association - VC funding Ireland
  Home page of the Irish Venture Capital Association (IVCA)
  (tags: Irish Venture capittal vc association)

More information here on ‘Google scrambles to plug Gmail hole’

Two things to take from this:

1. Even Google Makes mistakes when it comes to Security
2. Hosted Applications can be patched and rolled out much faster than traditional ones. Can you imagine a problem with your version of Microsoft Office being fixed ‘about three hours later’?

• Jacob Hookom’s Blog: Extending the Web with JSF
  Good explanation on difference between Struts and JSF
  (tags: struts jsf java enterprise blog)

We’re giving a talk about ‘how to talk to your boss about agile‘ for the Irish .Net Developers Association next Tuesday in Buswells hotel Dublin.

More details (including the slides themselves, as a preview of what you are missing) are available here in powerpoint, openoffice, pdf and flash formats. The slides explain how 4 pictures of bridges can explain the difference betw