I posted a few weeks ago gathering small tips from you regarding how you get and/or stay more Agile.
The goal is a list of short, pithy, sticky aphorisms to help both newbies get Agile and us stay that way. Think Agile Andy’s Almanack (or something).
I’ve thrown everything I got (a lot in person & email) together and categorized a bit. Please comment, add, delete, etc. As I said, I’m working on a presentation around this data and welcome your feedback.
Here goes:
Stick to Conventions
- Follow the local ground rules (indenting, naming, structure, etc.)
- Always take the next story (don’t let ‘fun’ or ‘hard’ get in the way of business priority)
Use the right tools
- Keep your hand on the manual (Keep browser tabs open for your language & API doc sites)
- Make mini actionable task lists for your story (Get inspired by GTD)
- Index cards are mini whiteboards
- Hardware, hardware, hardware (Big and/or dual monitors, 2 keyboards & 2 mice is better than 1 & 1)
Pair Programming Works
- Expect to Pair
- Pair appropriately
- When you’re not sure how to implement a story, pair with someone more senior
- When a task feels obvious, pair with someone more junior or new to the project
- Let the rookie type, give the wookie a toy (so he doesn’t)
- Rotate your pairs as often as practical
- 2 pairs are better than 1 on a project
- Always pair interview
Take a test drive
- Writers’ block? BEWS (Blank Editor Window Syndrome)? Write a test
- Find some untested code? Write a test.
- Find something you don’t understand? Write a test.
- Keep your tests as fast as is practical, or you’ll wait for CI to run them
- Write enough tests so that you can sleep at night
Code simply
- Do the simplest thing that could possibly work – no architecture astronauts
- Check-in multiple times before a story is done (try for every hour or so)
- Kill dead code, commented out code, or write tests to cover it
- Make it green, then make it clean
- Tackle code debt with extreme prejudice
- Leave the code cleaner than when you got there (think o2 canisters on Everest)
CI
- Every failing test is sacred
- Red builds are project cancer – fix first, figure out why, then blame (when appropriate)
Stay in sync
- Don’t stop talking – to your pair, your team or your customer
- Go to lunch together
Comment away…
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