Information Visualizationas an aid to

Agile Software Development

By: Andrew J. Armstrong

Agile Software Development Overview[4]

•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

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 Questions1)What information visualization techniques are used in Agile Software

Development?2)What information visualization techniques raise awareness of

artifacts in Agile software development teams?

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]

Information Visualization - Design

• Low Fidelity Sketches• Input Diagrams

• Both typically used to make design decision & communicate information.

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

http://www.uml-diagrams.org/examples/class-diagram-example-hasp-licensing-domain.png

Design - Example Software

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

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Design – Example Software – ActiveStory

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

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

Development Software - CodeCity

Information Visualization - Communication• Verbal vs. Non-verbal• “Big Picture”• Standard Aspects• Dashboards

Information Visualization – Progress Tracking• Burn charts• Importance of work completed• Completion definition?• Task assigning• Estimation• MSE’s

https://www.atlassian.com/wac/software/jira/agile/tourBlocks/0/screenshotTourSection/01/imageBinary/jiraagile-02_whyja_1_flexibleplanning.png

Discussion & Conclusions

• Design• Sketches• ActiveStory

• Development• Understanding Code• Physical Objects

• Communication• Information Radiators• Dashboards

• Progress Tracking• Taskboards

Discussion & Conclusions cont.

• Implications• Barriers to adoption of technologies

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=&arnumber=6980227&isnumber=6980193

• [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?tp=&arnumber=6747169&isnumber=6747152

• [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/citation.cfm?id=1996538

• [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?arnumber=6062104

The End