Comments for Thoughts on Pragmatic Software Quality http://htinkham.wordpress.com Just another Wordpress.com weblog Tue, 01 Mar 2005 11:43:59 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 Comment on The Documentation Controversy by Recherche.Sedition http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-8 Recherche.Sedition Tue, 01 Mar 2005 11:43:59 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-8 <strong>Technical Software Documentation</strong> I've just been reading Heather Tinkham's discussion on the age old documentation controversy that erupts regularly between software engineer's and QA/testing departments. Technical Software Documentation

I’ve just been reading Heather Tinkham’s discussion on the age old documentation controversy that erupts regularly between software engineer’s and QA/testing departments.

]]> Comment on Preparing CompSci students for group work? by Heather http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/09/17/preparing-compsci-students-for-group-work/#comment-12 Heather Sun, 21 Sep 2003 07:50:00 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/09/17/preparing-compsci-students-for-group-work/#comment-12 To Dale's comment - That would be unfortunate, but is certainly possible! Before I jump to conclusions about your source of concern, though, I'd like to know what you think are the contributing factors. Chris mentions competition for grades, but it could be other things as well. To Chris's comment - It sounds like your first try at collaboration was voluntary, but I may be reading between the lines. If it was, and it was successful, the experience would impact your future willingness to collaborate. I'm curious about what convinced you that collaboration was necessary, though. I've done many classes with group assignments and it is not uncommon to have problems with free-loaders. Even when individual grades were pro-rated according to group evaluations (you lost points on your group grade if everyone in your group said you contributed poorly), there seemed to be a belief that no one would actually dare to downgrade them, at the student or teacher level. What helped convince you? To Dale’s comment – That would be unfortunate, but is certainly possible! Before I jump to conclusions about your source of concern, though, I’d like to know what you think are the contributing factors. Chris mentions competition for grades, but it could be other things as well.

To Chris’s comment – It sounds like your first try at collaboration was voluntary, but I may be reading between the lines. If it was, and it was successful, the experience would impact your future willingness to collaborate. I’m curious about what convinced you that collaboration was necessary, though. I’ve done many classes with group assignments and it is not uncommon to have problems with free-loaders. Even when individual grades were pro-rated according to group evaluations (you lost points on your group grade if everyone in your group said you contributed poorly), there seemed to be a belief that no one would actually dare to downgrade them, at the student or teacher level. What helped convince you?

]]> Comment on Preparing CompSci students for group work? by Christian Sepulveda http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/09/17/preparing-compsci-students-for-group-work/#comment-11 Christian Sepulveda Thu, 18 Sep 2003 04:24:03 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/09/17/preparing-compsci-students-for-group-work/#comment-11 I think very few academic environments foster collaboration. Most times, students are competing for grades and such competition impairs a collaborative environment. There are some cases that are different though. One of my computer science courses in college required pairing with another student for the whole semester. (The intention was that the workload was so heavy, you would divide the work amongst the two. We chose pair programming instead and had an easier time than the rest of the class.) Other classes required significant collaboration as well. In these cases, we were still competing for grades, but at least within the project team, we were co-dependent for our success and therefore had to learn to collaborate well. I found these experiences invaluable and did my best work when collaborating with others. Chris I think very few academic environments foster collaboration. Most times, students are competing for grades and such competition impairs a collaborative environment.

There are some cases that are different though. One of my computer science courses in college required pairing with another student for the whole semester. (The intention was that the workload was so heavy, you would divide the work amongst the two. We chose pair programming instead and had an easier time than the rest of the class.) Other classes required significant collaboration as well.

In these cases, we were still competing for grades, but at least within the project team, we were co-dependent for our success and therefore had to learn to collaborate well. I found these experiences invaluable and did my best work when collaborating with others.

Chris

]]> Comment on Preparing CompSci students for group work? by Dale Emery http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/09/17/preparing-compsci-students-for-group-work/#comment-10 Dale Emery Wed, 17 Sep 2003 16:39:55 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/09/17/preparing-compsci-students-for-group-work/#comment-10 Perhaps non-collaborative classrooms train us to <em>create</em> a reality we don't desire. Perhaps non-collaborative classrooms train us to create a reality we don’t desire.

]]> Comment on The Documentation Controversy by Heather http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-7 Heather Wed, 02 Jul 2003 08:57:29 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-7 Thanks for the link, Chris. I vaguely recall hearing about this site some time ago, but hadn't gone to look at it. I'm looking forward to going through what he has there tonight. (The link is at http://www.agilemodeling.com/ rather than .org for anyone else who is looking for it.) Thanks for the link, Chris. I vaguely recall hearing about this site some time ago, but hadn’t gone to look at it. I’m looking forward to going through what he has there tonight. (The link is at http://www.agilemodeling.com/ rather than .org for anyone else who is looking for it.)

]]> Comment on The Documentation Controversy by James Bullock http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-6 James Bullock Tue, 01 Jul 2003 21:52:07 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-6 Bravo. Bang on. Thank you for joining the bolg-sphere. Bravo. Bang on. Thank you for joining the bolg-sphere.

]]> Comment on The Documentation Controversy by Christian Sepulveda http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-5 Christian Sepulveda Tue, 01 Jul 2003 21:32:00 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/07/02/the-documentation-controversy/#comment-5 I suggest going to www.agilemodeling.org. Scott Ambler has a lot of good thoughts on agile approaches to modeling and documentation. Chris I suggest going to http://www.agilemodeling.org. Scott Ambler has a lot of good thoughts on agile approaches to modeling and documentation.

Chris

]]> Comment on Paired debugging by Christian Sepulveda http://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/06/29/paired-debugging/#comment-3 Christian Sepulveda Mon, 30 Jun 2003 11:37:42 +0000 https://htinkham.wordpress.com/2003/06/29/paired-debugging/#comment-3 We do quite a bit of pair debugging. Most of our manual testing is done by a domain expert, as we don't have dedicated testers on my current project. Anyway, we frequently will pari a developer with a domain expert when: a. review the product, b. resolve bugs. In both cases, the developer will actually try to debug and resolve the reported issue. This is more effective when the developer is present during the initial review as a lot of extra effort is eliminated. The "tester" does not have to log the issue, try to reproduce it, etc. Many times the developer realizes what is going on just by seeing the problem arise. In other cases, it validates the tester isn't crazy when some things are hard to reproduce. Also, a developer tends to have better luck reproducing hard-to-reproduce bugs when they see the first cause of it, as they have some context. It is a good practice. I have never tried to formally sell it to anyone. We just did it. Once, after some bugs were reported by someone, I asked them to "sit" (I work remotely, so this is done online with Placeware(tm)) with me and take a look. We found it to be effective and the practice spread. Chris We do quite a bit of pair debugging. Most of our manual testing is done by a domain expert, as we don’t have dedicated testers on my current project.

Anyway, we frequently will pari a developer with a domain expert when: a. review the product, b. resolve bugs.

In both cases, the developer will actually try to debug and resolve the reported issue. This is more effective when the developer is present during the initial review as a lot of extra effort is eliminated. The “tester” does not have to log the issue, try to reproduce it, etc. Many times the developer realizes what is going on just by seeing the problem arise. In other cases, it validates the tester isn’t crazy when some things are hard to reproduce. Also, a developer tends to have better luck reproducing hard-to-reproduce bugs when they see the first cause of it, as they have some context.

It is a good practice. I have never tried to formally sell it to anyone. We just did it. Once, after some bugs were reported by someone, I asked them to “sit” (I work remotely, so this is done online with Placeware(tm)) with me and take a look. We found it to be effective and the practice spread.

Chris

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