Re: A simple unit test framework
On May 6, 3:12 am, Ian Collins <ian-n...@hotmail.com> wrote:
James Kanze wrote:
I've worked with the people in charge. We evaluated the
procedure, and found that it simply didn't work. Looking at
other companies as well, none practicing eXtreme Programming
seem to be shipping products of very high quality. In fact, the
companies I've seen using it generally don't have the mechanisms
in place to actually measure quality or productivity, so they
don't know what the impact was.
We certainly did - field defect reports and the internal cost of
correcting them.
So what were the before and after measures?
You should at least publish this, since to date, all published
hard figures (as opposed to annecdotal evidence) goes in the
opposite sence. (For that matter, the descriptions of eXtreme
Programming that I've seen didn't provide a means of actually
measuring anything.)
When I actually talk to the engineers involved, it turns out
that e.g. they weren't using any accepted means of achieving
quality before. It's certain that adopting TDD will improve
things if there was no testing what so ever previously.
Similarly, pair programming is more cost efficient that never
letting a second programmer look at, or at least understand,
another programmer's code, even if it is a magnitude or more
less efficient than a well run code review.
Have you tried it? Not having to hold code reviews was one of the
biggest real savings for us.
Yes, we tried it. It turns out the effective code (and design)
review is the single most important element of producing quality
code. (I have done projects where we eliminated testing
entirely. Without any really significant loss of quality. But
the process we had in place was already very well developped; I
wouldn't recommend such as a general rule.)
Compared to
established good practices, however, most of the suggestions in
eXtreme Programming represent a step backwards.
That's your opinion and you are entitled to it.
Actually, it's not an opinion. It's a result of concrete
measurement.
--
James Kanze (Gabi Software) email: james.kanze@gmail.com
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