|
Issue 60 November 2009 |
Editor: Abby Fichtner |
|
In-the-SPIN brings tips from our presenters and facilitators to help us apply the great things they've shared with us at our Boston SPIN meetings. In This Issue: Agile: No Converting Necessary by Damon Poole Code Stability Metrics: Identifying Good and Bad Code by Fiona Dossin Relationships: The REAL Goal of Networking by Marilyn Santiesteban We hope you're enjoying our SPIN meetings. We've got a great line-up for the 2009/2010 year including Tim Lister and Ed Yourdon. And we're always interested in your voice -- would you like to facilitate a roundtable? Are you blogging about our meetings? Have ideas on how we can improve? We're here for our members, so drop us a line and let us know what you'd like from your SPIN. 
You don't even have to be Agile to use them; most can be adapted to traditional projects:
|
|
||||||||||||||||
|
Each of these practices provides value in and of itself. But their value gets magnified as you add more practices because each one makes the others easier to do and reinforces their value. If you add in ScrumMasters, short iterations, iteration demos and retrospectives, you'll achieve critical mass, adding a whole new level of value.
by Fiona Dossin The ability to identify Good vs. Bad code gives development organizations valuable insight into the health of their code base. Insights that can be used to evaluate software quality, determine where additional resources may be needed, and identify potential risks before they turn into problems:
Volatility represents how much effort is required to maintain the code. Common measurements include the number of check-ins or lines of code changed. Tracking volatility helps us identify which parts of our software require more development effort. Quality represents how well code is designed and written. Common measurements include Cyclomatic Complexity, conformance to coding standards/practices, and number of bugs. Tracking quality allows us to see if our quality is increasing or decreasing as our product evolves. For example, we might chose # of Check-Ins (Volatility) and Cyclomatic Complexity (Quality). Since a lower value is preferable for both, we can compute a project-specific Stability Score by multiplying the values together:
Here, Class B is the most stable, Class C the least. So, we might decide to focus on increasing the stability of C, which will in turn improve our project's overall stability. As Class C's volatility decreases, so too will the amount of development effort required to maintain it. Tracking stability metrics allows organizations to identify problematic code before it becomes a real problem. » Learn more about Stability and other Code Metrics on Fiona's blog
by Marilyn Santiesteban It's happened to all of us. We attend a networking event with the goal of making new contacts. We talk to as many people as possible, diligently gathering business cards. We mean to follow-up to build these new relationships, but life intervenes. A week later, we run across a stack of business cards and can't even remember who was who, or which person we promised what to. While we had the best intentions, potential connections too often vanish before they have a chance to get started. What can we do differently? Set a Goal for Yourself. Are you looking for leads in target companies? People in certain kinds of positions? Three new leads? Be specific and strive to achieve it. Ask for Business Cards. Jot notes on the back to help your remember -- about the person, what you talked about, and what you agreed to send them ("new to management, big ERP deployment, forward article on metrics"). Give Out Your Own Business Cards. Even if you're unemployed. List your name, contact info (no address), LinkedIn URL, and your top three skills. Follow Up Within 24 Hours. This is the real secret. Send emails to everyone -- the folks who sponsored the event, the speaker and everyone who gave you their card:
Try it out at the next Boston SPIN meeting! » View Marilyn's Presentation » Meet up with other networkers in Marilyn's Create the Opportunity Network for job seekers |
 |
 |
With thanks to our sponsors...
