1 / 12 Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

Agile Offsharing:A software process idea

Lutz PrecheltFreie Universität Berlin

based on joint work with: Stephan Salinger, Julia Schenk, Franz Zieris, Holger Schmeisky, Christopher Oezbek, Laura Plonka, Danou Nauck, Karl Beecher, Edna Rosen, Björn Kahlert and ~50 Saros contributors

ICSE 2014 "Ready – Set – Transfer" Contest Panel

2 / 12

Our topics

1 Pair Programming (PP)

2 Saros, a distributed IDE Ingredients

3 Distributed Pair Programming (DPP)

4 Agile Offsharing idea to be transferred

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

Round 1

Round 2

3 / 12

Domain, Users &

Requirements

"Local"SW developers

Subsystem BSubsystem A

can understand

write write

communication by documents, visits, email, chat, phone, daily video standup, etc.

4 The Agile Offsharing idea

Lutz Prechelt, Freie Universität Berlin

Geographic & cultural distribution

"Remote"SW developers

Distributed Pair Programming

Joint system

*Works for othertypes of

knowledge asymmetry

as well

*

4 / 12

Agile Offsharing makes a radical step

Conventional approach:Minimize the need for

communication("Reduce coupling!")

Agile Offsharing approach:Actively increase the need for

communication("If it hurts, do it more often!")

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

5 / 12

Details

Agile Offsharing is not for everybody

Preconditions:

• Modest time zone difference

• Limited cultural difference• both national and

SW development culture

• Low-enough language barrier• for enough team members

• Volunteer team members

• Reliable, low-latency network connectivity

Steps for use:

• Setup & try out DPP tooling

• Find volunteers

• Select tasks & form pairs

• Do DPP

• Reflect on DPP sessions

Can only be worked outby technology transfer

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

6 / 12

Why is Agile Offsharing needed?

Lutz Prechelt, Freie Universität Berlin

We tend to under-estimate what needs explanation:

7 / 12

How is Agile Offsharingtransfer-ready?

1 Pair Programming (PP)

2 Saros, a distributed IDE Ingredients

3 Distributed Pair Programming (DPP)

4 Agile Offsharing trials

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

8 / 12

1 Knowledge about Pair Programming (PP)

• Research on conceptualizing the PP process since 2004• on real industrial sessions

• Goal: Find helpful behavioral patterns and antipatterns

• Results so far:• Base concepts

• Roles• e.g. Spokesperson, Watchman,

Guide/Robot, Task expert/Mentee

• Knowledge transfer mechanisms

• e.g. Clarification Cascade

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

time

9 / 12

2 The Saros DPP tool

• Distributed IDE• Plugin for Eclipse, soon also for IntelliJ IDEA• In development since 2006, Open Source• Industrial strength

• >1000 downloads per month

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

10 / 12

2 The Saros DPP tool

11 / 12

Knowledge about Distributed-Pair Programming (DPP)

• Research on conceptualizing the DPP process since 2010• builds on the PP research

• Goal 1: Find helpful behavioral patterns and antipatterns• Coping with

limited awareness• Making sensible use of

concurrent editing

• Goal 2: Validate usefulness

• Results so far:• Effortless awareness

bridging (Eclipse dialogs)• Prudent, limited use of

concurrent editing• DPP can be as efficient as

PP – or even slightly more

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

3

12 / 12

4 Agile Offsharing trials

• Just starting, with Lithuanian outsourcing provider NFQ• builds web applications

with long-term customers

• NFQ funds our full-time group member Holger Schmeisky• since 2014-04

• Also: In discussion with 2 large multinationals• we expect to start trials at

one of them later this year

Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

Corporation D

Corporation S

13 / 12 Lutz Prechelt, prechelt@inf.fu-berlin.de

Thank you!