We have been working with ThoughtWorks for a while now to help us refine our Intentional System. Using our work-in-process technology in various real-world application scenarios, we are learning from each other how to make the technology most
usable in practice.
ThoughtWorks is a terrific example of an early adopter of next generation software development practices. ThoughtWorkers constantly push the envelope to find the best new technology to solve their clients’ most difficult enterprise software development problems.
We have had the pleasure of working with uniquely talented ThoughtWorkers, including Martin Fowler, Chief Scientist. Martin’s many books and
papers are focused on best practices in software development. When you read Martin’s work, you never waste your time.
Martin has just published a new paper on Language Workbenches, which is an excellent introduction to Language Oriented Development that we and others
believe has significant potential. As we have blogged here recently, we think domain specific languages and notations are critical to using software to solve software problems.
Hello! I am currently writing a book for Addison-Wesley called “Agile Software Factories” and would love to feature the work of Intentional. ThoughWorks would be a natural partner to perform consulting around the very specific Agile process I propose (in the first part of the book I do not force any software factory assumptions) and then I map this (what others have called) ‘best of breed’ evolution in Agile processes to both Factory Creation and Consumption.
So far it is heavily slanted towards Microsoft’s implementation as they have provided me the most information and been the most cooperative. There is no doubt I will have one other company that I drill deep into their technology in the book on. Right now it is looking like I will either embrace the JetBrains MPS initiative or Intentional’s offering(s) (or both). I have simply not been able to get code from Intentional.
I presented on this topic last week at the ‘Better Software Conference’ 2005 put on by the SQE to very favorable feedback.
Please email me if interested in being a part of a book, that could (I hope) set the tone for how people actually use (from a process perspective) the amazing breakthroughs your company is (apparently – I have not been able to see them) creating.
The book does have tutorial information but it is mostly a ‘OK now you have all this power and a higher level of abstraction to work with, now how to you structure teams, perform iterative development. Pair, perform TDD and Continuous Integration, etc. I also talk about Agile processes that are uniquely mine, specifically to name a few: The agilefactor Risk Management Framework (which owes a lot to DeMarco and Lister in Waltzing with Bears) and the ‘Core Agility Ratio’ which helps fight the disturbing trend of entropy in Agile development causing architectures to degrade over time. It also makes ‘Refactoring to Patterns’ an explicit item, rather then assuming people will know how do both do patterns and also intergrate them into their continuous refactoring efforts. It’s hard to have collective code ownership and Refactoring to Patterns (thanks to Kerievsky for the definitive book) when a team does not have systemic patterns knowledge that is expected. We do expect that, and factories make it easier as in factories only the factory creators are expected to climb have that mastery (as well as much, much more). The factory creators is a home for the (proven time and time again) 2,800% performer over the worst case developer.
These ‘superstars’ now have a home and the rest of the company will be producing code with much greater scope in less time with higher quality and lower cost (or cost that is spent on more strategic items) if the promise of all this actually manifests itesme, as I believe it will.
After sixteen years in IT, 11 as a leader (CTO of a global company, etc) I still find it shameful how poor Corporate America is at building software. They fail on Process, Architecture, Design, and just about everything else. The business fails as well with binary success/fail assumptions on project plans (I have never seen statistical measures of confidence), and monolithic up-front specifications, a proven way to fail (which infers the waterfall method which I still see all the time, or even worse, ‘code and fix’ (AKA – no process)).
Management will proudly hand you large binders and say ‘here is our process’. I have never seen a high ceremony process succeed in a highly dynamic and innovative environment without causing massive opportunity cost losses (and often real losses as the Standish Group points out so well).
Sorry for the rant, but I wanted you to know a little more about me, my ideas, and how I have succeeded so immensely (which I feel blessed for) in software. But I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who said ‘The harder I work the Luckier I Get’.
Kind Regards,
Damon Carr, CTO
agilefactor
http://www.agilefactor.com
Author: “Agile Software Factories”
Publisher: Addison-Wesley
Release Date: Q2 2006