Liveblogging p&p summit, day 1, intro & keynote

ZOMG it's Martin Fowler. Right now! I knew he'd be here, but, first! #fangrrrl

"We need to reduce our emphasis on quality so we can fit more features into the next release"? No, that's definitely never happened to me. Nope.

Attendance is way, way down compared to two years ago. Our own delegation this year is half the size (or smaller?) than ours then, and I'd really guess the overall crowd size is similarly proportioned. Which makes me wonder about last year (immediately mid-meltdown) when we couldn't attend at all. Don't know if it is valid to think of us as a bellwether.

Lord, this clacky Dell keyboard is already not making me any friends here.

Key concepts from the Martin Fowler leadoff keynote, part 1:

External quality, which is negotiable with the users/product owners (e.g., they get to prioritize bugs vs. new features), vs. internal quality (architecture), which really mustn't be.

Accidental complexity vs. essential complexity. Code debt!! Initial accidental complexity is the principal and working with the accidental complexity when implementing new features/changes is the interest. This impacts the effort required to do that new work. It isn't just "debt", it could be on the scale of a technical subprime mortgage. Not that I would know. Nope.

Debt planning (refer also to the debt payoff line graph):

Deliberate/prudent: "We must ship now and deal with the consequences"

Deliberate/reckless: "We don't have time for design"

Inadvertent/prudent: "Now we know how we should have done it"

Inadvertent/reckless: "What's layering?"

Event sourcing:

(This is relevant to my interests.)

We log all events in an insert-only store, and we trust our log, such that at any time we could rebuild the entire current application state (e.g., dB) by parsing the log. This also means we have a solid audit trail, and we could rebuild the entire historical state of the application (presumably someplace else) just by dialing back the date. Or diff two states. In other words, this stuff isn't just for version control systems any more.

Also useful for various other things which hopefully one of my colleagues took notes about. Oops. #shortattentionspan

OK, now there's a dude in front of me taking pictures of Martin Fowler. Unless he's part of Microsoft's PR division, that means I am not the only #fangrrrl in the room! I am sorely tempted to take a picture of him taking a picture.

Coffee time!

The Big Break LPGA Fangrrrl Report

Nth in a series of "where are they now?" posts about my favorite women golfers from The Golf Channel's reality series The Big Break.

Name                            Season  As of 2008...
Danielle Amiée                  III     Last played FUTURES 2004
Rachel Bailey                   VI      FUTURES-E
Felicia Brown                   III     Last played FUTURES 2000
Tasha Browner                   III     Last played FUTURES 2005
Jeanne Cho-Hunicke              V       LPGA-C, FUTURES-E
Debbie Dahmer                   III     Pacific Ladies Tour founder
Divina Delasin                  V
Nikki DiSanto                   V-VII
Jan Dowling                     III     Last played FUTURES 2005; Women's Golf Assistant Coach, Kent State University
Jo D Duncan                     V       Director of Golf Instruction, Norwood Hills Country Club
Bridget Dwyer                   VI      FUTURES-E, Cactus, Pacific
Pamela (Crikelair) Garrity      III-VII Last played FUTURES 2006; Real estate agent in Florida
Ashley Gomes                    VI-VII  FUTURES-C, Pacific
Dana Lacey                      V       FUTURES-E
Kim Lewellen                    V-VII   Last played FUTURES 2006; Women's Golf Coach, University of Virginia
Laura London                    VI-VII  Cactus
Becky Lucidi                    V       LPGA-E (Q-School)
Annie Mallory                   VI      Cactus
Kristy McPherson                VI      LPGA-C
Cindy Miller                    III-VII Last played FUTURES 2006
Valeria Ochoa                   III-VII Last played FUTURES 2005
Ashley Prange                   V       FUTURES-E
Katie Ruhe                      V       Last played FUTURES 2006
Sarah Lynn (Johnston) Sargent   VI      LPGA-C, FUTURES-E
Sarah Sasse-Kildow              III     Last played FUTURES 2006
Kristina Tucker                 V       FUTURES-E
Liz Uthoff                      III     Last played FUTURES 2004
Karen Stordahl-Utrecht          VI
Briana Vega                     VI-VII  FUTURES-E
Julie Wells                     V       Last played FUTURES 2007

Season IX, Kāʻanapali, starts April 15!

Lori Atsedes                    IX      FUTURES-E
Dana Bates                      IX
Susan Choi                      IX      FUTURES-C
Courtney Erdman                 IX      FUTURES-E
Adrianne Gautreaux              IX      Last played FUTURES 2007
Samantha Head                   IX      FUTURES-C
Christina LeCuyer               IX      FUTURES-C
Tina Miller                     IX      Last played FUTURES 2007
Sophie Sandolo                  IX
Cirbie Sheppard                 IX
Elizabeth Stuart                IX      FUTURES-C
Kim Welch                       IX      FUTURES-E

OMG Steve McConnell (p&p, day 2)

Basic motivations for agile:

Developers: want less overhead, want to focus on "real" work
Customers: want flexibility

Value delivery keeps up with cost

"Especially useful when schedule and resources are fixed, and mission is to provide maximum business value within those constraints"

Agile Manifesto (ca. 2001)

"Reduced emphasis on long-range predictability of features--especially of the combination of cost, schedule and features"

Variation of methodologies is really about the balance of up-front work vs. in-iteration

In-phase defect removal goal is always 100%, at least in theory

Aha: in addition to code defects, can also find requirements defects, architecture/design defects... leaving major testing to end allows build-up of latent defects (all kinds), unexpected fix time

("Evolutionary Delivery" illustrated with arbitrary 25% balance, looks good for us)

Packaged methodologies

XP: developer focused; abandoned more often than retained
Scrum: workflow/management focused; retained more often than abandoned

Few projects use all the practices of a given method; claim of "synergy" among practices is invalid

Useful practices

• Short release cycles (1-4 weeks): does not have to be externally to the customer; virtually always valuable
• Rolling-wave planning: long-term (2-12 months); detailed (30-60 days)
• Timebox development: commit to delivering fixed set of functionality in given timeframe; high morale, visible progress; need a rest period or different activity between sprints
  
• Empowered, small, cross-functional teams: include all stakeholders needed to make binding decisions
  
• Active management (coach, Scrum Master): "Theory Y" style; remove barriers to good work
  
• Coding standards
• Frequent integration & test: daily build and smoke test (no point building if don't also test that build is OK); note that you don't have to deliver new functionality every day, nor even check code in every day
  
• Automated regression test (TDD): virtually always a good practice with new development, problematic for existing/legacy systems
• Postmortem for each release

Hit or miss

• Customer-provided acceptance tests: ongoing participation hard to sustain; customer testers don't always know meaningful comprehensive tests
  
• Daily stand-up meetings: a good idea that can go too far; less often, shorter, can be OK
• Simple design: don't oversimplify; must fully satisfy known requirements
  
• Test-first development: culture shift is difficult, high discipline required, worth the effort
• 40-hour work week: we really mean a sustainable pace of work

Problematic

• System metaphor
• Onsite customer
• Collective code ownership
• Pair programming: good if used selectively
• Refactoring: prone to abuse

Legacy

Overhyped, buzzwordy, has led to cynicism

Not the best solution for every company, just for many; there are still cases where sequential dev is the best fit

Best outcomes

Importance of short, iterative and/or incremental cycles
Die Waterfall die!
Check-and-balance against overly bureaucratic CMM
Reality check against "omniscience" of requirements, planning, design

In conclusion:

Steve McConnell is a great communicator. I feel like this stuff is really accessible to folks at all tech levels, which makes it helpful for me in taking the Gospel back to our stakeholders.

Women's Big Break/LPGA update

I'm relatively new to the world of spectating women's professional golf, so I have no idea whether this is how things usually go. It just seems like LPGA rookies shouldn't miss cuts on the FUTURES Tour.

Ashley Prange: T45, T32
Kristina Tucker: MC, T32

Maybe they're just not focusing on FUTURES events in their training/planning?? Jeanne Cho and Becky Lucidi haven't even competed on the FUTURES yet this season.

At least one former BB contestant is doing pretty well for herself:

Rachel Bailey: T20, T6 (#12 on money list)

Other BBers, so far:

Dana Lacey: T33, T9 (#17, not bad)
Ashley Gomes: MC, T43
Briana Vega: T45, MC
Bridget Dwyer: MC, T50

I had an epiphone about the utility of game shows like The Big Break, based on stuff they've mentioned in passing about some of the contestants on the show(s). In my prior post, I said there were perfectly good "legitimate" routes to the LPGA—the developmental tour and Q School—and while that's true, the problem is they're potentially very expensive. At least a couple of BBers have tried their luck at the game show because they couldn't afford to go pro.

And, it may yet turn out that the developmental tour entry fees in the prize package are a better career boost than the one-time exemptions.

Women's Big Break/LPGA Q School final report

Final standings of Big Break contestants competing at LPGA Q School 2006:

Top 15, earning exempt status:

T10 Sarah Lynn Johnson  BB6  T16  72-73-72-71-70  358  -2

Next 35 and ties, earning non-exempt (conditional) status:

 1  Jeanne Cho          BBV  T19  71-72-72-74-71  360   E
27  Kristina Tucker     BBV  T50  73-76-71-73-73  366  +6
36  Becky Lucidi        BBV  T50  77-77-67-72-75  368  +8
37  Ashley Prange       BBV  T50  69-76-73-75-75  368  +8

Failed to advance to final round:

Ashley Gomes            BB6  CUT  78-76-76-75     305  +17

Also, Big Breakers who failed to advance at Florida Sectional Q School:

Julie Wells             BBV  CUT  80-74           154  +10
Bridget Dwyer           BB6  CUT  76-79           155  +11
Dana Lacey              BBV  CUT  80-76           156  +12
Annie Mallory           BB6   DQ  86               86  +14

Nota bene: Kristy McPherson, BB6, already qualified for 2006 exempt status as one of the top 5 finishers on the FUTURES Tour money list.

Women's Big Break/LPGA Q School report

Sort of a "where are they now?" thing.

Big Break contestants competing in LPGA Q School 2006, after 4 rounds:

Sarah Lynn Johnson  BB6  T16  72-73-72-71  288    E
Jeanne Cho          BBV  T19  71-72-72-74  289   +1
Becky Lucidi        BBV  T50  77-77-67-72  293   +5
Kristina Tucker     BBV  T50  73-76-71-73  293   +5
Ashley Prange       BBV  T50  69-76-73-75  293   +5
Ashley Gomes        BB6  CUT  78-76-76-75  305  +17

Final round tomorrow! Exempt cards for the top 15 finishers, non-exempt status for the next 35.

Also, Big Breakers who failed to advance at Florida Sectional Q School:

Julie Wells         BBV  CUT  80-74        154  +10
Bridget Dwyer       BB6  CUT  76-79        155  +11
Dana Lacey          BBV  CUT  80-76        156  +12
Annie Mallory       BB6   DQ  86            86  +14

Nota bene: Kristy McPherson, BB6, already qualified for 2006 exempt status as one of the top 5 finishers on the FUTURES Tour money list.

Several other BB competitors have retired from competition, but I'm not sure what's happened to all of them. So far none have earned status on the LPGA. No one from BBIII is represented on the FUTURES Tour 2006 Money List at all and none played in any of the Q School tournaments this year.