The Largest Case Study of Code Reviews—Ever In May 2006, we wrapped up the largest case study of peer code review ever published, done at Cisco Systems®. The software was MeetingPlace® — Cisco's computer-based audio and video teleconferencing solution. Over 10 months, 50 developers on three continents reviewed every code change before it was checked into version control. We collected data from 2500 reviews of a total of 3.2 million lines of code. This article summarizes our findings. |
Jason Cohen
October 31, 2006 |
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Agile SCM: Martial Arts Principles The authors look at software configuration principles in terms of how they might relate to the martial arts. They discuss ways to learn new skill and master them, how to handle conflict, energy, efficiency, and timing. |
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Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Infrastructure Management Keeps Reliable Applications in the Race Development teams in companies spend considerable amounts of time, resources and effort to design reliability into the applications they build to support business processes. Ask anyone responsible for delivering products or services about building quality and reliability into their offerings and they'll all tell you the same thing: it's a lot less expensive to build quality and reliability into processes upfront versus fixing problems in the field. |
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Measure what Matters The old adage goes "you cannot manage what you cannot measure". True enough, but where do you start in implementing a measurement program? What information is really important? And, how do you decide what to measure and what will matter to others? No one in this audience will disagree that metrics and ongoing analysis is a crucial element in effective software project management. However, metrics programs do have their |
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Six Ways to Build Reliable Applications I came across a paper the other day in Better Software titled, "Code Improvement" by Jeff Grover and Zhon Johansen. It's a short, but good article focusing on developing well-designed code. My favorite point was "Start/Finish each task by refactoring". In other words, stop the entropy of expanding your software solution by ensuring that the code is as minimal as necessary to meet the requirements. There are parallels in the CM world that ultimately lead to a reliable CM process and tool support capability. In this article, I'll venture where I don't usually go: inside our own development environment to bring out a few points that may apply equally to general development and to a CM environment. |
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Managing Process Facilitators The term "Process Facilitator" refers to the people in your organization whose primary responsibility lies in improving the effectiveness of the work that the teams are doing. This responsibility is mainly around the process the teams are using, but also encompasses less tangible aspects of work such as team development, organizational culture change, administrative and technical tools, and working with other Process Facilitators both inside and outside of your organization. Since the role of the Process Facilitator is so broad, it can be difficult to understand and effectively support Process Facilitators who report to you. This article helps you with this challenging task. |
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Managing Offshore XP Teams: Organizational Models and Tools The essence of Extreme Programming (XP) is making the customer a part of the team who works very closely with the developers, ideally communicating on a daily basis. However, what about a situation where your development team is offshore? Is it possible to have the best of both worlds, realizing the gains of offshoring without losing the benefits of XP? How do you keep the momentum and the communication flow going, at the same time ensuring seamless integration of the deliverables into the customer's production environment at the XP pace? |
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Finding the Missing LINQ After years of searching for and being disappointed by database tools, Tod Golding found a solution when he wasn't looking. Microsoft's Language Integrated Query (LINQ) provides a dynamic bridge for the gap between developer and database. |
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The Pros and Cons of Four Kinds of Code Reviews The authors explore the pros and cons of four other common styles of code reviews—over-the-shoulder, email pass-around, pair programming, and tool-assisted reviews—and see which ones is the most promising candidate for practical peer code reviews. |
Jason Cohen
October 2, 2006 |
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Recognizing Agile Candidates Recognizing candidates who are capable of performing well on agile teams doesn't require keyword searches through a stack of resumes. It requires asking candidates questions that allow them to show you they understand the principles and can apply them in their daily work—even if their resume doesn't list particular terms. In this StickyMinds.com column, Johanna gives some excellent tips for the interviewer and the interviewee. |
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