WHY AGILE?Laurynas AntanavičiusProduct Manager @ Data Dog2014.09.29

ABOUT US• Custom web development and support

• Cloud-based application and software development• B2B, B2C eCommerce solutions

• Specialised in PHP• Over 35 developers• Wide base of clients: UK, US, UAE, Canada, Luxembourgh,

France…

http://vimeo.com/107405318

OUR TEAM

• Crypto-Currency exchange / Forex market• 6 members in the development team• Agile - Scrum, TDD, CI, CD• PHP & GO

HOW WE WORK

• Prioritise features with the PO• Work in short iterrations 1-2 weeks• Development team chooses the features

• Write tests before each line of code (TDD & CI)• Ship the feature as soon as it is ready (CD)• Focus on performance & quality

ARE WE AGILE?Yes, but what is Agile?

http://www.theonion.com/video/hp-on-that-cloud-thing-that-everyone-else-is-talki,28789/

BEFORE STARTING WITH ITlet’s look how Agile has evolved in response to

standard development issues

Most of us were taught to write down all our requirements at the very beginning of the project.

There are only three things wrong with this: “requirements”, “the very beginning,” and “all.”

There is a very strong “80-20” rule in software development requirements lists.

Most of the business value comes from a very small subset of the so-called requirements.

So these other things aren’t “requirements” at all. They’re ideas, and some of them are not very

good.

The client wants to know how long something is going to take, and how much it will cost at the

beginning.

But how can we say how long it will take if he does not know what he wants?

Then we come to a situation where a development contract is based on an unrealistic list of

requirements, using weak estimates, made at the moment of maximum ignorance, by people who are

always optimistic about their own abilities.

It’s all right, though. We’ll just keep the pressure on, and it’ll be fine.

The project is planned for months / years until it’s perfectly describing all the functionality.

The development is painfully pushed through, with numerous bugfixing, until finally delivered.

And the final launch day comes…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_vV-JRZ6E

AGILEthe definition

“Agile software development is a group of software development methods based on iterative and

incremental development where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-

organising, cross-functional teams. ”

ScrumKanban

XPJedi

Or whatever else we call it..

“a group of software development methods”

iterative development - code vs feedback. keep iterating until it’s done

incremental development - build what is needed right now then refine

“based on iterative and incremental development”

requirements evolve - I will tell what I need when I see itsolutions evolve - minimum fit to requirements then refine

“requirements and solutions evolve”

collaboration - plan together, share workself-organising team - common pool of work

cross-functional team - everyone can do everything

“collaboration between self-organising, cross-functional teams”

THAT’S IT!It is not exactly brain surgery, is it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I

FOCUS

single location & teamworksingle tool for managing process

Individuals and interactions over Processes and tools

working demos - don’t break it if you make itdocumented parts - parts that will be done must be specific

Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration are essential for the success of the project.

Working software over Comprehensive documentation

project owner requirements - user storesflexible outcome - customer gets what he asked for

flexible contract - defined in increments

Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation

respond - yes, I heard the customerreact - yes, I will change itplans help - manage chaos

Responding to change over Following a plan

WHY SHOULD DEVELOPERS CARE?

“Don’t document bad code — rewrite it.”- Kernighan and Plauger

Developers are supposed to choose an amount of work on and forecast what can be

accomplished in that time.

Defects should not be piled up, but cleaned periodically.

If you wait for a release until the end of the project, you’re gonna have a bad time.

It’s less stress for you as a developer and as a team member

More comitment to work as you choose it yourself

Immediate results for you and the client

WHAT’S NEXT?

Read about Agile, understand it, memorise it, sleep with it…

Until you are 100% confident with using Agile methods

XP

“Extreme Programming”byRon Jeffries,Ann Anderson,Chet Hendrickson

http://xprogramming.com/

AGILE

“Agile Manifesto”byAgile Alliance

http://agilemanifesto.org/iso/lt/

SCRUM

“Scrum Guide”byJeff Sutherland,Ken Schwaber

http://www.scrumguides.org/

TEAMWORK

“The Clean Coder”byRobert C. Martin

TDD, BDD…

“Engineering Long-Lasting Software”byArmando FoxDavid Patterson

TRUST YOURSELF BEFORE TRUSTING ANYONE

WAIT FOR IT..Questions?