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The 6th Kyu that is! I mentioned the the other day that I sat for my next grading at Aikido. I got back my results before class today and found out that I passed (not that I’ve met anyone who has failed one yet). Yay!

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I am so amazed at how far digital technology has brought us in the last few years. It was only yesterday that I remember having to get passport-like photos taken at a photo shop. The attendant would wield this large bulky camera that made four pictures from the one shot which would self-develop right in front of you. You only had one go, unless you wanted to fork out the $8 once again.

Photo stores still take them today, but no doubt, just like myself, do them with digital cameras. But why pay so much money when you can do them yourself. Not only do you get to keep taking them until you’re happy with the photos but you can even touch them up if you get really desperate. Merging many headshots into a single file is easy with any image manipulation software and transporting them to be printed on 4×6 (in either Matte or Glossy) couldn’t be easier with the wide variety of media (CD, compact flash, SD, USB drive) available. Better yet, you can get at least 8 pictures done for less than $1! Sweet.

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My pair and I were talking about getting some code coverage results for our project (it has been a while since we have the last report because of various changes in environments and breakages caused by the move to Java 5).

We managed to finally get a report and we were talking about parts of the system that came out tested. We picked a few parts at random and it was interesting to see the different styles of tests that had been written over time. I like to think that my style of tests (at least my current style) tends to be very user-centric, aimed at representing whatever use case(s) I am working on at the time. I like to make sure that the tests I write leave behind the business reason why the code that I wrote actually exists.

In contrast to my own personal style, some of the tests we inspected seemed to actually test the structure of the code that was written instead of just the business rules. Although I was glad to see the code there was actually tested, I find that these sorts of tests (probably closer to white-box testing) are not as useful as those based on business rules (think black box testing) because I find they tend to require more changes and therefore are much more resistant to refactoring. The reason for this is that if I change to code to support a similar but different business rule, can I be confident that all the previous business rules hold as well? Probably not.

I find that some of my tests might actually end up testing a little bit of code a few more times, but I have more confidence in the system that if someone decides to change the implementation, the business will still be getting the same behaviour out of the system. Oh, and I don’t think that code coverage metrics do not add value – they certainly highlight parts of the system that need testing, but like everything else in software development, actually needs just that little bit more judgment and thought to interpret the results.

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This week has been a bit of a blur, and I’ve been building up quite a number of drafts but haven’t got around to posting things. I apologise for the brevity of it, but here’s at least a summary of what significant happenings have gone on recently:

• Another Wagamama Visit – Back in March, the FOBORG gang got together to have a get together over dinner. Another few months later (has it really been three already?) on Monday we met at Wagamama’s for our next dinner. My last visit there wasn’t super-impressive but this time was much better because we had a better waiter, with the night topped off by a large dessert at Freestylers! Great seeing you (Stacey, Jason, Paul, Michelle, Karl and Caroline) all again!
• Friday Dinner – Had Shannon, Karen, Michael and Marie over for dinner to give Suhail some more company after his big back operation. Three courser as usual including Roast Pumpkin Soup with Garlic Croutons, followed with Bourbon Chicken, a Saffron and Champagne Seafood Medley and a Butter Bean Salad finished with an excessively rich Sticky Date Pudding (inspired by the dessert other FOBORG member’s had on Monday!).
• Aikido Grading - The rest of the week when I wasn’t preparing for the dinner was spent on training for my 6th Kyu grading that was held today. It was a really big one, starting at 1pm and finishing at 4pm, with legs starting to cramp after sitting in seiza for too long. My actual grading went quite well and I will find out the result of it this Tuesday.

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So I just got back from a brilliant performance by Jebediah at The Rev in Brisbane. Tonight was the 10th Anniversary Tour of the band sometimes referred to as Jebs. I remember their first CD (Slightly Odway) when I was back in high school and it was totally impressive to see this band still full of the same energy that is apparent in everyone of their albums. The Rev’s intimate size made for perfect place to host this band’s crazy grunge rock for the night, allowing for maximum exposure to the complete Jebs experience.

I turned up to the event a little bit late after grabbing something to eat after training, so I missed the first support act, Red Jezebel, who a couple of people I spoke to tonight said were pretty good. I arrived just in time to catch the second act, Neon, who also managed to shake The Rev with their classic rock riffs and tunes.

The Jebs came on about 11pm and kick-started the crowd with one of their more upbeat songs. The energy the band put into their performance was amplified and returned by the crowd, evident by the mass of arms waving and the large number of fans jumping around. Their song selection was fantastic covering most of their albums, a few B-sides and even a couple of covers songs that were lapped up by the frenzied crowd. The encore topped it all off with a couple of The Jebs’ probably most well known songs, Harpoon and Leaving Home. Although I think everyone was disappointed that the night didn’t continue past its 12:40am finish time, I think Jebediah probably made the right decision as the crowd was starting to get a little angry with excessive moshing and crowd surfing.

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When I read on Slashdot that Howl’s Moving Castle was being released in the USA and how well it is doing, I rushed to find out when it was going to be here in Australia (more specifically Brisbane).

Although it’s going to premiere at the 52nd Sydney Film Festival, the rest of us Aussies won’t be able to get a glance of the film until September! With broadband becoming cheaper and more accessible, and making movies that much more accessible, when will media companies raise the bar and actually compete for the consumer dollar?

So frustrating!

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I’ve been following Senator Andrew Bartlett’s blog for sometime and it’s really changed the way I look at politicians. The level of visibility that we get into the thoughts/opinions of the people that represent the people has always been masked by the formality of press releases and the media.

His blog gives a great insight into his real opinions and thoughts whether or not you agree with them, where there no previous ideal of getting access to them. He even presented a session in the blogging conference in Sydney last month.

Give it a read and well done Mr Bartlett for embracing blogging!

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Agile tells us to the do the simplest thing that could possibly work for the things that we need right now. Why do we do the simplest thing? The answer: Because it is cost effective, especially because the future is unsure. For example, when the business does have something similar, are we sure they’re not going to want it to do something more that will need more work done? Or perhaps the cost of making something “general” could be better spent on more immediate priorities, because if it never gets used, the cost of building (not to mention maintaining) the general infrastructure is wasted.

So what if your business tells you that they want something for now, but make it general, so if they want to do something like it (but not exactly like it) they can reuse the infrastructure to do it again? Even if the business or the analyst is driving this requirement, it reeks of having a bad smell, and is probably driven by a Fear of Waiting. To me this could mean one of several things:

1. Release Cycles are not often enough – Waterfall projects typical schedule a release for anything between 3 months up to a year or more. If requirements do not get in, it is a very long time until they are revisited. Agile addresses this with the Release Often principle that emphasises more requirements prioritisation over requirements identification and freezing.
2. Too many competing priorities – With smaller release cycles providing more restrictive timelines, the next issue is working out what can be fit into that release cycle. Businesses typically have many competing priorities, with waterfall models trying to fit all of those priorities in (leading to bigger release cycles). Agile attempts to get people to prioritise what is most important to them right now.
3. Not Enough Bandwidth – The amount of business value that can be delivered is a function of the fixed time that can be available and the amount of work that can be produced by available resources. I am specific amount the amount of work produced instead of simple the number of people because it is not simply about the number of developers available (read the Mythical Man Month if you want to learn more). Typical waterfall methods rely on judgement (estimates that become promises) to give a guide as to how much can be provided. Agile provides better metrics in the form of a historical moving average of points (e.g. storycard points) per iteration that indicate a better guide as to what can be delivered.

So what can we do to alleviate this fear? Agile has many values and two key ones that spring to mind is around visibility and communication. Visibility is about making people aware of issues (in this case, a fear) and to try to work out what the real motivation is (especially if it is not a real business need). Communication is about making the process transparent and how it is (or can be helping if it is not) to alleviate those concerns.

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