Michael Kelly
President, Association for Software Testing
| Workshop Topic: |
"During the planning or execution
of a
software project, decisions may be made to defer necessary work. For
example:
The list can grow quite long, with some items surviving across multiple
development cycles. A big pile of deferred work can gum up a project,
yet many of the items on the list don't appear on a project team's
radar, especially if the focus is primarily on new product features.
Yet removing accumulated sludge needs to be accounted for in planning!" In other words, short-term considerations that save time now will take more time and energy later to set right. That time and energy "later" is almost never paid. Instead, the overall velocity of development continually slows. In order to make new deadlines, the team needs to skip additional steps, thus creating a vicious addiction cycle. Heretofore,
everyone seems to advocate a "debt
averse" strategy demeaning the competence or integrity of any Engineer
who knowingly incurs technical debt. Are there other debt management
strategies than the "Dave Ramsey" cut-up-all-your-credit-cards approach? We believe that there are psychological and system factors around technical debt to explore. In other words, saying "Just Don't Do It" is like telling an addict of any type to "just quit cold turkey." It is the right answer, but does not provide any of the support to make quitting possible. |
| Goal of this Meeting: |
|
A successful meeting will identify specific metrics that will bring the discussion of technical debt down to earth. It will also marshal evidence that we're not fooling ourselves when we say that borrowed trouble behaves like borrowed money. (Or better, we prove another dynamic is in play.) It will also state debt management and debt repayment strategies and when they are indicated. We believe that technical debt causes future reduced velocity and repaying it promises future increased velocity. If someone brings to this meeting confirmation or denial of this hypothesis with real-world numbers, the meeting will be a success. Else if we leave the meeting without even a manifesto for collecting real-world numbers, the meeting will be a failure. To these ends we ask these core questions -
A fourth, supplemental question explores the role of testers in technical debt. Software testing can be seen as quality assurance. Can testers be instrumental in assessing technical debt in a codebase? What role should testers play? |
| Organization and Structure |
| This event
qualifies as a LAWST-Style interactive workshop - a peer
conference. Instead of an exhibition conference, where
attendees pay
to be told answers, WOTD attendees will be active
participants.
Participants are expected to bring strong thoughts and opinions on the
topic, and to collaboratively invent solutions to the
problem. The
conference will consist of facilitated discussion, breakout sessions,
lightning talks, and potentially longer presentations or
simulations.
LAWST Structure details are at
http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/drupal/lawst |
| Intellectual Property Rights |
| We expect this workshop to create significant innovations in the area
of technical debt. Therefore, we need to provide a policy that will
encourage people to speak freely without fear of “losing” an idea.
Therefore, every attendee of the event will be free to discuss, blog,
podcast, write about, or otherwise communicate any idea on technical
debt shared during the workshop. To ensure this, all participants will
sign the standard LAWST-style Intellectual Property Agreement. We
expect good-faith attribution and references (“credit where credit is
due”) as a matter of professional courtesy. |
| Location and Timing |
| Calvin College is a four-year liberal arts college in West Michigan
that offers bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Engineering.
The event is hosted by the Calvin Computer Science Department, and will
be held on the First Floor of North Hall, from 8:00AM-5:00PM on August
14, and 15.
(http://www.calvin.edu/map/
). There will be an optional orientation and reception the evenings of August 13 and 14. A
Detailed Schedule will be available after the CFP process is complete.
On Campus Housing at reasonable rates is available at the Prince
Conference Center (http://www.calvin.edu/prince/) . The closest major
airport to Calvin College is the Gerald R. Ford International Airport
(GRR), and shuttle service is available |
| How to Apply |
| If you want to attend the meeting, send an electronic message to
Matthew Heusser (Matt.Heusser@gmail.com) and Steve Poling (sdp@i2k.com)
that briefly describes your software background, your experience with
or knowledge of technical debt, how you think you could contribute to
this type of project and why you would want to. We are planning to balance attendance among three groups:
When you apply, please tell us in your note which group(s) we should see you as belonging to (and perhaps tell us that you really belong to a 4th group that we forgot to make explicit). Your application should include how you intend to contribute to the conference. Pre-planned “short” presentations, followed by vigorous discussion, are encouraged. Video recording (and youtube broadcast) of presentations may be available – at the discretion of the speaker. Typical formats are lightning talk, position paper, experience report, short talk (up to one hour) or interactive simulation (up to four hours). We prefer presentations grounded in real-world experience; academic and theoretical work should have some real-world research support. Please send in your application, no more than one or a few pages of text (but you can link to your websites or published papers or other published material) by May 1st, 2008. |
| Calvin College Support |
| Calvin College is providing the meeting space and website support for this workshop. We encourage participation by Calvin students, faculty, and staff, and will provide special consideration to encourage and enable Calvin involvement. |