Software development is complex business. In order to deal with this complexity, agile practices have been developed to break development into manageable cycles of development called iterations. We examine the use of user stories to gather requirements. We examine ways to automate our build and deployment process in order to produce more frequent releases. Finally we look at ways to implement each of these practices in existing projects.

1. A Gentle Introduction to Agile
Software Development
H. Alan Stevens
Manage Complexity With Agility

2. Contact Me
Slides: speakerdeck.com/alanstevens
Email/IM: alanstevens@gmail.com
Website: halanstevens.com
Twitter: @alanstevens

3. nerdhiveindustries.com

4. The Straw Man

5. Software is Complex

6. You Are Already
Succeeding

7. Pomposity

8. Use What Works
(For You)

9. Avoid Dogma

10. It’s a process
It takes Time

12. Release Regularly
(Every two to four weeks)

13. Release:
Even
Internally

14. Constant Velocity
“Heroism is Failure”
H. Alan Stevens

15. Short Horizons

16. Frequent Course
Corrections

18. User Goals
Not Technical Requirements

19. Reminder of a
Future Conversation

20. SWAG
Sophisticated Wild Ass
Arbitrary Guess

21. User Story Template
As a: (Role)
I want: (Something)
So that: (Benefit)

22. Documented in
Acceptance Tests

23. Avoid BDUF
(Big Design Up Front)

24. The Last Responsible Moment

26. Do the simplest thing that
could possibly work

27. YAGNI
You Ain’t Gonna’
Need It!

28. Loose Coupling

29. High Cohesion
&
Low Coupling

30. Law of Demeter
A class should only
communicate with its
immediate neighbors

31. Manage Technical Debt

32. I thought that rushing software
out the door to get some
experience with it was a good
idea, but that of course, you
would eventually go back
Ward Cunningham
“Ward Explains Debt Metaphor”
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WardExplainsDebtMetaphor

33. as you learned things about that
software you would repay that
loan by refactoring the program
to reflect your experience as you
acquired it.
Ward Cunningham
“Ward Explains Debt Metaphor”
http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?WardExplainsDebtMetaphor

35. Code Smells
a hint that something might be wrong

36. Follow the “Boy Scout Principle”

37. Enable Change

38. Common Refactorings
Rename Class
Extract Variable
Extract Method
Extract Class

40. DRY
Don’t
Repeat
Yourself

41. See it once: do it
See it twice: notice it
See it a third time:
Automate It!
The Rule of Three

42. Optimize
Bottlenecks

43. Reduce Friction

44. Enable Flow

45. Reduce Ceremony

46. Automate the BFDs
(Big Friggin’ Deals)

48. As applications mature,
they should become more
maintainable, not less.

49. Continuous Improvement

50. “With every mistake, I must
surely be learning”
George Harrison

51. Work on
your
process,
not just in
your process

52. Value Developer Cycles
Over CPU Cycles

53. Eliminate Waste

54. Prevention is the best cure

55. Avoid Complacency

56. LEAN

59. Slides: speakerdeck.com/alanstevens
Email/IM: alanstevens@gmail.com
Website: halanstevens.com
Twitter: @alanstevens
Thanks For Listening!