OT2002SubmissionKoyannisaqatsi

Oops, we should be spelling this KoyaanisqatsiWorkshop, see http://www.koyaanisqatsi.org/ and it means life out of balance. Maybe we should rename the workshop Balancing Act or something else? --RachelD

The headings are those reqd for submissions at http://www.ot2002.org/submit.html :

One-line description: A workshop exploring the balancing of development activities.

Abstract: (for publication) Koyaanasqatsi comes from the Hopi language and means life in balance. In this workshop we'll explore through the use of practical team exercises, ways to achieve the appropriate balance (in the context of XP) between activities such as :

• Improving Design for maintenance and reuse (via KISS and Refactoring practises)
• Maintaining Fit to Requirements by writing tests
• Adding functionality, for delivery to commercial pressures.

What are we balancing? Time taken now vs cost of Future adaptation.

Traditionally, the balance of time spent on between these activities is set out in project plans. XP is different, each story is a micro-iteration, and it's up to developers to achieve the right balance between these activities. Pairing helps but what more do XP developers need to do to ensure a balanced approach?

Audience Background: Developers who know they make trade-offs in design, delivery and test coverage, and want to explore ways of balancing these. Session Format: Workshop, duration probably 120-150 mins

Materials: that we provide: all materials for team exercises. We need OT2002 to provide a projector and flipcharts (a few)

Benefits of Participant:

• Gain awareness of the need for balance between future adaptation and present pressures
• Learn techniques to achieve balance

Process:

A practical team exercise will be repeated, each time adding some "user stories". Teams will learn the balance through short demonstrations followed by reflection sessions. We'll control the skills available thru rules of the workshop. For example, we might allow teams to pick a skill such as refactoring, and only use that skill in the current iteration. Team's will try to find the right balance of each skill required to do the tasks, noting their decisions.

Timetable:

Output: Teams will produce a single flip chart of their decisions, session leaders will form conclusions from these published on a flip chart. We'd like to indicate :

• how people find balance
• how they measure when they do too much or too little of a skill.

History: This is a new workshop, never performed before without the aid of a safety net.