Information Visualization as an aid to Agile Software Development

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Information Visualizationas an aid toAgile
Software Development

• By Andrew J. Armstrong

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Agile Software Development Overview4

• Manifesto
• Individuals and interactions over processes and
  tools
• Working software over comprehensive documentation
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
• Responding to change over following a plan

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Agile Software Development Overview cont.
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Paper Overview

• Information Visualization for Agile Software
  Development Teams
• By Julia Paredes, Craig Anslow Frank Maurer
• Research Questions
• What information visualization techniques are
  used in Agile Software Development?
• What information visualization techniques raise
  awareness of artifacts in Agile software
  development teams?

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Information Visualization

• Information Visualization Use of visual
  representations of abstract data to amplify
  cognition.1
• Effective visualizations should
• Quickly identify relevant information
• Understand the relationships between elements of
  the visualization
• Make the structure, behavior and evolution of
  software, such as code organization, software
  state and bugs, more understandable.1

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Information Visualization - Design

• Low Fidelity Sketches
• Input Diagrams
• Both typically used to make design decision
  communicate information.

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Information Visualization Design cont.

• Formal Diagrams
• Example UML
• Explain Share Information
• Empirical Study
• 35 / 50 Developers did not use UML
• Others only used in very early stages

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Design - Example Software

• Microsoft SketchFlow
• ActiveStory
• Low Fidelity Sketches
• Easy to produce/edit
• Support gesture/touch

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Design Example Software ActiveStory
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Information Visualization - Development

• Problems in source code
• Areas suitable for refactoring
• restructuring the existing code without changing
  the external behavior
• Continuous Integration
• Automated Testing
• SQA Mashup

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Development Software SQA Mashup

• Tool Requirements
• 1) Able to located quality hot-spots in source
  code
• 2) Permit dynamic arrangement of information
  shown in the UI
• 3) Provide awareness of the activities of peers
• 4) Discover immediately where changes occurred,
  when they were made how made them
• 5) Provide an interactive visualization of roles
  (developer vs. manager)
• 6) Interoperate with other software engineering
  tools
• 7) Permit independent development of UI

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Development Software - CodeCity
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Information Visualization - Communication

• Verbal vs. Non-verbal
• Big Picture
• Standard Aspects
• Dashboards

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Information Visualization Progress Tracking

• Burn charts
• Importance of work completed
• Completion definition?
• Task assigning
• Estimation
• MSEs

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Discussion Conclusions

• Design
• Sketches
• ActiveStory
• Development
• Understanding Code
• Physical Objects
• Communication
• Information Radiators
• Dashboards
• Progress Tracking
• Taskboards

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Discussion Conclusions cont.

• Implications
• Barriers to adoption of technologies

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References

• 1 Paredes, J. Anslow, C. Maurer, F.,
  "Information Visualization for Agile Software
  Development," in Software Visualization
  (VISSOFT), 2014 Second IEEE Working Conference
  on , vol., no., pp.157-166, 29-30 Sept. 2014,
  URL http//ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp
  arnumber6980227isnumber6980193
• 2 Brandtner, M. Giger, E. Gall, H.,
  "Supporting continuous integration by mashing-up
  software quality information," in Software
  Maintenance, Reengineering and Reverse
  Engineering (CSMR-WCRE), 2014 Software Evolution
  Week - IEEE Conference on , vol., no.,
  pp.184-193, 3-6 Feb. 2014, URL http//ieeexplore.
  ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tparnumber6747169isnu
  mber6747152
• 3 Hosseini-Khayat, A. Seye, T. Burns, C.
  Maurer, F., Low-Fidelity Prototyping of
  Gesture-based Applications, in 3rd ACM SIGCHI
  symposium on Engineering interactive computing
  systems , pp. 289-294, URL http//dl.acm.org/cita
  tion.cfm?id1996538
• 4 Martin, Robert C. Martin, Micah, Agile
  Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C,
  Chapter 1 Agile Practices
• 5 http//ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arn
  umber6062104

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The End