Recognizing and responding to "bad smells" in extreme programming

ABSTRACT

The agile software development process called Extreme Programming (XP) is a set of best practices which, when used, promises swifter delivery of quality software than one finds with more traditional methodologies. In this paper, we describe a large software development project that used a modified XP approach, identifying several unproductive practices that we detected over its two-year life that threatened the swifter project completion we had grown to expect. We have identified areas of trouble in the entire life cycle, including analysis, design, development, and testing. For each practice we identify, we discuss the solution we implemented to correct it and, more importantly, examine the early symptoms of those poor practices ("bad smells") that project managers, analysts, and developers need to look out for in order to keep an XP project on its swifter track.

REFERENCES

• 1: Fowler, M. Refactoring (Reading, MA, 1999), Addison-Wesley, Chap. 3.
• 2: Kent Beck, Extreme programming explained: embrace change, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1999
• 3: Wiki Discussion, Cost Of Design Carry, http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?CostOfDesignCarry
• 4: Wiki Discussion, Do The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work, http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork
• 5: Deursen, A., Moonen, L., Bergh, L., and Kok, G. Refactoring Test Code, http://www.xp2001.org/xp2001/conference/papers/Chapter22-vanDeursen+alii.pdf
• 6: Mackinnon, T. Freeman, S., and Craig P. Endo-Testing: Unit Testing With Mock Objects http://www.connextra.com/about/mockobjects.pdf.
• 7: Schuh, P., and Punke, S. ObjectMother: Easing Test Object Creation In XP, http://www.xpuniverse.com/Testing03.pdf.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.1 Requirements/Specifications
          Subjects: Methodologies (e.g., object-oriented, structured)

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.5 Testing and Debugging
          Subjects: Debugging aids
      D.2.9 Management
          Subjects: Life cycle

General Terms:
Algorithms, Design, Performance