Our July meeting is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Anyone have any ideas
for a meeting topic?

(Hopefully in August we can get somebody who's gone to XP Universe to give
a report from the conference.)

John Brewer

On Wednesday, July 3, 2002, at 08:51  PM, John Brewer wrote:
> Our July meeting is coming up in a couple of weeks.  Anyone have any ideas
> for a meeting topic?

Some ideas:

- Demonstrations of various XP-related software tools like Eclipse, IDEA,
JUnit, CruiseControl, etc. There might not be enough time to show many
tools, and we'd need a computer and projector, so this might not work out.

- Reports from people about how they attempted to sell XP to their
organizations or to clients, whether they succeeded or failed, why they
think they succeeded or failed, and what they'd do differently next time.
(I would volunteer to give one report; I can probably keep mine under 5
minutes excluding Q&A. Preview: mine succeeded *and* failed.)

- RefactoringMercilessly. All I can think to propose is an open discussion
of when to refactor and how much refactoring is enough or too much. On the
Polonius/Bootstrap project, we've been wondering if we've been refactoring
enough (and I think the consensus is that we haven't). At my day job, I
know we haven't been refactoring enough, though the other day I spend 4
hours writing something that should have been simple because I kept
refactoring it and some related code. How do I know if I've gone too far?

If necessary mark & I (or just me) might be able to
rehash our baychi talk from tuesday night.

I'm working on a talk about User centered design and
XP. I could do a work in progress.

I was at XP2002 in italy.  A trip report wouldn't be
an hour but if you want some filler.

We are ON for wednesday right?

ian

--- John Brewer <jbrewer@...> wrote:
> Our July meeting is coming up in a couple of weeks.
> Anyone have any ideas
> for a meeting topic?
>
> (Hopefully in August we can get somebody who's gone
> to XP Universe to give
> a report from the conference.)
>
> John Brewer
>
>


=====

---------------------
Sweet and sour like a tangerine,
Fresh like a box of Krispy Kreme. --Beastie Boys

iansmith@...




__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free
http://sbc.yahoo.com

(Sorry for the lateness of the reply.  I'm just starting with a new client,
and it's sucking up all of my time.)

At 07:13 PM 7/8/02, Ian Smith wrote:
>I was at XP2002 in italy.  A trip report wouldn't be
>an hour but if you want some filler.

About how long would you need?

>We are ON for wednesday right?

Right.  For next Wednesday, the 17th.

At 11:12 AM 7/4/02 Erik Hanson wrote:
>- Demonstrations of various XP-related software tools like Eclipse, IDEA,
>JUnit, CruiseControl, etc. There might not be enough time to show many
>tools, and we'd need a computer and projector, so this might not work out.

Charlie Toland and I demo'd Eclipse and IDEA at the June MarinJava
meeting.  I'd be willing to reprise my half of demo (IntelliJ IDEA), and I
might be able to prevail on Charlie to do likewise.  Are guest laptops
allowed at PARC yet?

>- Reports from people about how they attempted to sell XP to their
>organizations or to clients, whether they succeeded or failed, why they
>think they succeeded or failed, and what they'd do differently next time.
>(I would volunteer to give one report; I can probably keep mine under 5
>minutes excluding Q&A. Preview: mine succeeded *and* failed.)

This would make an excellent panel discussion (which coincidentally I could
get Toastmasters credit for moderating), but I'm not sure if we can pull it
together in time for the July meeting.

>- RefactoringMercilessly. All I can think to propose is an open discussion
>of when to refactor and how much refactoring is enough or too much. On the
>Polonius/Bootstrap project, we've been wondering if we've been refactoring
>enough (and I think the consensus is that we haven't). At my day job, I
>know we haven't been refactoring enough, though the other day I spend 4
>hours writing something that should have been simple because I kept
>refactoring it and some related code. How do I know if I've gone too far?

Sounds like an excellent topic.  Maybe we could do this and the XP 2002
report this month.

John Brewer

In case any of you are using XPE for XP (like me)...

I moved XPath Explorer to SourceForge and made a project release.
Please come visit to bump up my page hit count.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/xpe

And just to make it worth your while...  This release also adds
namespace support, slightly faster rendering of large documents, and a
flashy UI overhaul (with icons and everything).

If you don't know already, XPath Explorer (XPE) is a GUI application
that lets you interactively experiment with XPath. Basically, you type
in a URL (to an XML or HTML document) and an XPath expression, and it
displays the elements or attributes from that document which match
that expression. It also displays the value (string, number, or
boolean) of the expression, and (in a stunning coup de grace) displays
the entire XML tree of the original document, but with the matching
nodes highlighted in bold. This makes it easy to play with and debug
your XPath expresions.

http://www.xpathexplorer.org has the lowdown.


--
Alex Chaffee                       mailto:alex@...
jGuru - Java News and FAQs         http://www.jguru.com/alex/
Creator of Gamelan                 http://www.gamelan.com/
Founder of Purple Technology       http://www.purpletech.com/
Curator of Stinky Art Collective   http://www.stinky.com/

On Monday, July 8, 2002, at 07:13  PM, Ian Smith wrote:
> If necessary mark & I (or just me) might be able to
> rehash our baychi talk from tuesday night.

I'd be interested in hearing that, if not at the July meeting, then
perhaps at a future meeting.


> I'm working on a talk about User centered design and
> XP. I could do a work in progress.

I'd also be interested in hearing that, but I'm happy to wait until it's
done.


Erik

I vote for the baychi talk.

--- Erik Hanson <ehanson@...> wrote:
> On Monday, July 8, 2002, at 07:13  PM, Ian Smith
> wrote:
> > If necessary mark & I (or just me) might be able
> to
> > rehash our baychi talk from tuesday night.
>
> I'd be interested in hearing that, if not at the
> July meeting, then
> perhaps at a future meeting.
>
>
> > I'm working on a talk about User centered design
> and
> > XP. I could do a work in progress.
>
> I'd also be interested in hearing that, but I'm
> happy to wait until it's
> done.
>
>
> Erik
>
>


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Sign up for SBC Yahoo! Dial - First Month Free
http://sbc.yahoo.com

At 11:45 AM 7/10/02, Erik Hanson wrote:
>On Monday, July 8, 2002, at 07:13  PM, Ian Smith wrote:
> > If necessary mark & I (or just me) might be able to
> > rehash our baychi talk from tuesday night.
>
>I'd be interested in hearing that, if not at the July meeting, then
>perhaps at a future meeting.

At 01:44 PM 7/10/02, John Raley wrote:
>I vote for the baychi talk.


Sounds like we have a winner.  If Ian and Mark will confirm, I'll send out
an official announcement.

John Brewer

Meeting Topic: "Seven Slides and a fight: How Extreme Programming improved our
    design project process, but not our social skills."

Speakers: Speakers: Mark Howard and Ian Smith, PARC, Inc.

Abstract: The subject of this talk is the recent experiences of a small
team of engineers
and fieldworkers at PARC of moving from a more conventional style of
user-centered
iterative design and prototyping to extreme programming (XP) as a means to
integrate
ethnographic fieldwork and feedback from using prototypes with engineering and
design. We specifically focus on the different perspectives we all have, as
user or customer representatives, designers and engineers, of the pro's and
con's of XP for user-centered design. Normally this causes a fight about a lot
of contentious issues that we have encountered, which we will be happy to
share
with you.

Time: Doors open at 7:00. The meeting will start at 7:30 sharp. A general
and wide-ranging discussion of XP will follow the formal presentation.

Location: PARC, Inc. (formerly Xerox PARC) in Palo Alto. Thanks to Ian
Smith of PARC for letting us meet there. Xerox PARC is located at 3333
Coyote Hill Road in Palo Alto, just off of Page Mill Road, not far from
I-280. NOTE: PARC DOES NOT PERMIT VISITORS TO BRING LAPTOPS WITH THEM.

For more information, see:

http://www.jera.com/bayxp/

John Brewer

I've just released the infant version of my set of test-first
Introduction to Java exercises.  If you already know Java, they'll
probably be a little boring, since they focus on basic language
features rather than interesting programming problems.

If you'd like to stay apprised of upcoming releases (where I'll add
sections covering IO and Threads and stuff), please send email to
tft-subscribe@....

  - A

----- Forwarded message from guru@... -----

Hi!  I've been developing a set of introductory Java exercises based
on Test-First principles, and I thought you'd be interested.  (If
you're not, please send email to tft-unsubscribe@... and
you won't get any more updates.)

I've finished writing up the first two sections of the course --
"Intro" and "Objects" -- and I'd love any feedback you can give me, at
any level (from proofreading and bugs to structural or strategic
advice).  I plan to continue writing and revising the later sections
(which cover more advanced Java topics like IO and Threads and Swing);
I'll be releasing them when they're more than just code.

Please download the fledgling version of the course at

http://www.purpletech.com/tft-20020718-1510.tar.gz

Once you untar it, open up index.html and read on.  (I'm being
purposefully vague about the details since I want the course to be
more-or-less self-documenting.)

Thanks -

  - Alex

--
Alex Chaffee                       mailto:alex@...
jGuru - Java News and FAQs         http://www.jguru.com/alex/
Creator of Gamelan                 http://www.gamelan.com/
Founder of Purple Technology       http://www.purpletech.com/
Curator of Stinky Art Collective   http://www.stinky.com/

A friend, a UI consultant who has heard me rave about XP, asked me how the
meeting went. After I wrote him an email, it occurred to me that others
might be curious too, so I thought I'd adapt what I had for the list. Those
reading this should keep in mind that this is all off the top of my head,
and I'm certain that I missed many important and interesting points during
the presentation. Those who attended, please feel free to jump in and
correct me.


-------

Meeting Report: BayXP, July 17, 2002

Thanks to Ian Smith's generous offer to host, we met at PARC in Palo Alto;
I'm told we met in the same room where the mouse was invented. (Curiously,
there were no mice in the room.) And Ian's generosity didn't stop there; he
and his colleague Nicolas Ducheneaut gave a presentation titled "Seven
Slides and a Fight". They described their experience on a half-year XP
project, in which they developed an email client with novel UI features to
test certain theories that Nicolas and his fellow researchers had.

The basic theme of the presentation is that both customers and developers
agreed that XP worked much better than a traditional process, but they
disagreed fervently on why it worked, why it was better than a traditional
process, and approximately everything else. Their differences, though,
didn't stop them from completing a useful product on a very limited time
and resource budget.

My understanding is that they followed pretty much the whole suite of XP
practices. They went through 19 one-week iterations. A great volume of
index cards were involved, and Nicolas mentioned that a 1-inch stack of
features never made the cut.

By and large, both sides agreed that the process worked very well. This is
what I recall of each side's perspective of what worked:

  From the researcher's perspective, they got a working (if minimally
functional) prototype early in the project; pretty soon the team started
using the tool as their primary email client. Thus, the researchers had a
chance to continually refine their ideas: there were a number of features
that they didn't think of up front that made it in to the final product. (I
believe Nicolas phrased this as, "XP widens the design space".) They also
appreciated the ability to completely change direction every week. One
feature that they were sure was a winner went in one week, but once they
started using it they realized it wasn't useful, so they took it out the
next week. And they loved the notion that developers were supposed to build
what they wanted, rather than what the developers imagined the tool should do.

  From the programmer's perspective, they especially appreciated the fact
that when it came to resource allocation decisions, they no longer had to
play bad cop. They'd just assign point values to every card and the
researchers would argue amongst themselves to decide what was most
important. And the programmers felt that the process of estimation and
making the customer choose forced a lot more clarity on the customer side.

Intriguingly, the UI experts (who are normally very excited about things
like HCI guidelines and UI consistency) discovered that things were quite
different once they were in the driver's seat. Many usability improvements
ended up on story cards, but when faced with a limited resource budget,
they ended up favoring features. Because they only had 10 test subjects,
they instead just wrote up a cheat sheet for them and gave them some training.

By the end of the presentation, it became pretty clear that, despite all
pretenses of a fight, the two sides actually had a lot of respect and a
great working relationship. (Sorry to blow your cover, Ian.) This persisted
despite the heavy stresses induced by an ambitious project with a short
deadline.

All in all, it was a really interesting session. It gave me some new
notions on how to integrate XP and user-centered design; I can't wait to
find a project where I can put them to use. After the formal presentation
there was much conversation, including a long discussion prompted by Alex
Chaffee's question on the best way to test web GUIs.


So that's what I recall off the top of my head. I'm sure I made mistakes,
so others should feel free to leap in with corrections, expansions, and
other perspectives.



Some good quotes from the evening:

"This is a language with three kinds of zero!"
          -- Ian, when asked what he thought of VB

"Anything else!"
          -- Ian, when asked what language he would have preferred

"The syphilis thing that could possibly work."
          -- Unknown wit, summing up an unusual example of test-first
development



William

William,

As someone who was interested in the topic, but out of town during the
meeting (and with a new traveling job), I appreciate your work to share your
impressions.

It sounds like the researchers (XP customers) were happy, but they decided
to defer work on polishing the initial UI to add more features within the
budget of time and effort.  Was there any sense expressed that the spirit of
user-centered design suffered, or was it preserved by the feedback and
decision points of the process?

Thanks,

Jeff Miller
jmiller@...


----- Original Message -----
From: "William Pietri" <william-yahoogroups.com@...>
To: <bayxp@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2002 9:31 PM
Subject: [bayxp] Meeting report 7/2002


>
> A friend, a UI consultant who has heard me rave about XP, asked me how the
> meeting went. After I wrote him an email, it occurred to me that others
> might be curious too, so I thought I'd adapt what I had for the list.
Those
> reading this should keep in mind that this is all off the top of my head,
> and I'm certain that I missed many important and interesting points during
> the presentation. Those who attended, please feel free to jump in and
> correct me.
>
[notes]

On Fri, Jul 19, 2002 at 06:57:03AM -0700, Jeffrey Miller wrote:
>  I appreciate your work to share your impressions.

Me too!

>
> It sounds like the researchers (XP customers) were happy, but they decided
> to defer work on polishing the initial UI to add more features within the
> budget of time and effort.  Was there any sense expressed that the spirit of
> user-centered design suffered, or was it preserved by the feedback and
> decision points of the process?
>

Ian said something along the lines of, "It put usability in its proper
place."  That is, the process made it clear that there are *costs* to
making a product more usable -- that the time spent to, say, move an
action from a button to a menu could have been spent adding a feature
or fixing a bug.  Given that their user base was small enough that
they could train them to work around the UI quirks, the customers
tended to deprioritize usability stories.

In short, usability costs resources, just like everything else.

--
Alex Chaffee                       mailto:alex@...
jGuru - Java News and FAQs         http://www.jguru.com/alex/
Creator of Gamelan                 http://www.gamelan.com/
Founder of Purple Technology       http://www.purpletech.com/
Curator of Stinky Art Collective   http://www.stinky.com/

Hi Everyone,

I received an email from Giancarlo Succi, who was one
of the XP2002 Chairs that was held in Alghero, Italy
in May:

http://www.xp2002.org/org.html

He mailed me because he is planning on visiting the
Bay Area this summer and asked if he could visit my
employer.  Unfortunately security is very tight.
Visitors would have been ok last summer, but not this
summer.

I thought I would post a message here in case any of
you would be interested in arranging a tour for some
Italian Computer Science majors.  If you are
interested, please contact Giancarlo directly at:

Giancarlo.Succi@...

Thanks,

Tricia
--- On Mon 07/22, Succi Giancarlo (P) <
Giancarlo.Succi@... > wrote:

From: Succi Giancarlo (P) [mailto:
Giancarlo.Succi@...]
To: triciamccarthy@...
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 08:42:50 +0200
Subject: RE: Visit to Bank of America Securities

Dear Tricia,

I understand very well your situation. Thanks anyway!

Cheers,

GC

PS. Do you know of any company that we could visit? Do
you have suggestions?
The 11/9/2001 stuff and the downturn of the market
have made my task a bit
more challenging.

-----Original Message-----
From: Tricia McCarthy
[mailto:triciamccarthy@...]
Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2002 8:56 PM
To: Succi Giancarlo (P)
Subject: RE: Visit to Bank of America Securities

Hi Giancarlo,
I wish I could help you out, but I can't. I asked my
management and they said no. You see since September
11, 2001 we have a lot more restrictions.
Security is very tough and I'm afraid it would be
impossible. Banc of America Securities in in the
financial district of San Francisco, where now
there are guards even at every parking garage. I think
you'll have better luck near Santa Clara in the
Silicon Valley. Enjoy your trip!
Good luck,
Tricia
--- On Fri 07/19, Succi Giancarlo (P) <
Giancarlo.Succi@... > wrote:
From: Succi Giancarlo (P) [mailto:
Giancarlo.Succi@...]
To: triciamccarthy@...
Cc: Stefania.Fiorese@...
Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 14:51:56 +0200
Subject: Visit to Bank of America Securities

Dear Patricia,

I will come to Santa Clara with about 15 freshmen from
the 18th to the 30th
of August.

The goal of the visit is to expose the first year
students in Applied
Computer Science to an idea of what is the businesses
are like in the US,
and, specifically in the Silicon Valley/Bay Area. This
is funded by a
European government agency promoting interactions
between Academia and
Industry.

This is a great opportunity to motivate and influence
these future computer
scientists!

A visit to your company would be a great experience
for these students.

We are very flexible in terms of duration and agenda
for these visits.

We would like the students to be exposed to different
aspects of software
development in the real world. This is critical for
Italian students as the
job market in Italy is much more rigid than the one in
the US, but it is
also changing.

Some potential topics for an agenda are:
- tour of the physical layout
- the organizational structure, responsibilities, and
roles
- description of the products being developed
- choice of programming languages, tools, development
process and metrics
- how architecture is designed and how
products/technologies are chosen
- what are challenges facing the organization,
including technical challenges
- maintenance and legacy code issues
- role of technical innovation and incorporating
research into products
- project management of software projects
- role of technology in the driving and serving the
business goals
- types of trade-offs made due to limited budget,
resources, and time
- technologies you are either are evaluating for
potential
use (non-confidential, of course)
- where does your company lie in adoption curve for
new
technologies and why
- where you see the organization and technology in 5
years
- what skills do look for in hiring college graduates
- job descriptions of new hires
- career paths in your organization
- salary levels, benefits, fringe benefits
- health insurance, life insurance, pension plan
- procedure for dismissal

I hope to hear from you and I thank you in advance for
your help

Cheers

Giancarlo


Giancarlo Succi, PhD, PEng
Professor and Director
Center for Applied Software Engineering
Faculty of Computer Science
Free University of Bozen
Domenikanerplatz 3 Piazza Domenicani
I-39100 Bozen, Italy
ph: +39(0471)315-640 - fax: +39(0471)315-649
e-mail: Giancarlo.Succi@...


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
http://health.yahoo.com

Sorry, I had trouble posting the message.  It looks like the
addresses got garbled when I copied the message from the bounce
message.  His address is:

Giancarlo.Succi@...

Thanks,

Tricia

--- In bayxp@y..., <pcm22@y...> wrote:
> Hi Everyone,
>
> I received an email from Giancarlo Succi, who was one
> of the XP2002 Chairs that was held in Alghero, Italy
> in May:
>
> http://www.xp2002.org/org.html
>
> He mailed me because he is planning on visiting the
> Bay Area this summer and asked if he could visit my
> employer.  Unfortunately security is very tight.
> Visitors would have been ok last summer, but not this
> summer.
>
> I thought I would post a message here in case any of
> you would be interested in arranging a tour for some
> Italian Computer Science majors.  If you are
> interested, please contact Giancarlo directly at:
>
> Giancarlo.Succi@u...
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tricia
> --- On Mon 07/22, Succi Giancarlo (P) <
> Giancarlo.Succi@u... > wrote:
>
> From: Succi Giancarlo (P) [mailto:
> Giancarlo.Succi@u...]
> To: triciamccarthy@e...
> Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 08:42:50 +0200
> Subject: RE: Visit to Bank of America Securities
>
> Dear Tricia,
>
> I understand very well your situation. Thanks anyway!
>
> Cheers,
>
> GC
>
> PS. Do you know of any company that we could visit? Do
> you have suggestions?
> The 11/9/2001 stuff and the downturn of the market
> have made my task a bit
> more challenging.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tricia McCarthy
> [mailto:triciamccarthy@e...]
> Sent: Saturday, July 20, 2002 8:56 PM
> To: Succi Giancarlo (P)
> Subject: RE: Visit to Bank of America Securities
>
> Hi Giancarlo,
> I wish I could help you out, but I can't. I asked my
> management and they said no. You see since September
> 11, 2001 we have a lot more restrictions.
> Security is very tough and I'm afraid it would be
> impossible. Banc of America Securities in in the
> financial district of San Francisco, where now
> there are guards even at every parking garage. I think
> you'll have better luck near Santa Clara in the
> Silicon Valley. Enjoy your trip!
> Good luck,
> Tricia
> --- On Fri 07/19, Succi Giancarlo (P) <
> Giancarlo.Succi@u... > wrote:
> From: Succi Giancarlo (P) [mailto:
> Giancarlo.Succi@u...]
> To: triciamccarthy@e...
> Cc: Stefania.Fiorese@u...
> Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 14:51:56 +0200
> Subject: Visit to Bank of America Securities
>
> Dear Patricia,
>
> I will come to Santa Clara with about 15 freshmen from
> the 18th to the 30th
> of August.
>
> The goal of the visit is to expose the first year
> students in Applied
> Computer Science to an idea of what is the businesses
> are like in the US,
> and, specifically in the Silicon Valley/Bay Area. This
> is funded by a
> European government agency promoting interactions
> between Academia and
> Industry.
>
> This is a great opportunity to motivate and influence
> these future computer
> scientists!
>
> A visit to your company would be a great experience
> for these students.
>
> We are very flexible in terms of duration and agenda
> for these visits.
>
> We would like the students to be exposed to different
> aspects of software
> development in the real world. This is critical for
> Italian students as the
> job market in Italy is much more rigid than the one in
> the US, but it is
> also changing.
>
> Some potential topics for an agenda are:
> - tour of the physical layout
> - the organizational structure, responsibilities, and
> roles
> - description of the products being developed
> - choice of programming languages, tools, development
> process and metrics
> - how architecture is designed and how
> products/technologies are chosen
> - what are challenges facing the organization,
> including technical challenges
> - maintenance and legacy code issues
> - role of technical innovation and incorporating
> research into products
> - project management of software projects
> - role of technology in the driving and serving the
> business goals
> - types of trade-offs made due to limited budget,
> resources, and time
> - technologies you are either are evaluating for
> potential
> use (non-confidential, of course)
> - where does your company lie in adoption curve for
> new
> technologies and why
> - where you see the organization and technology in 5
> years
> - what skills do look for in hiring college graduates
> - job descriptions of new hires
> - career paths in your organization
> - salary levels, benefits, fringe benefits
> - health insurance, life insurance, pension plan
> - procedure for dismissal
>
> I hope to hear from you and I thank you in advance for
> your help
>
> Cheers
>
> Giancarlo
>
>
> Giancarlo Succi, PhD, PEng
> Professor and Director
> Center for Applied Software Engineering
> Faculty of Computer Science
> Free University of Bozen
> Domenikanerplatz 3 Piazza Domenicani
> I-39100 Bozen, Italy
> ph: +39(0471)315-640 - fax: +39(0471)315-649
> e-mail: Giancarlo.Succi@u...
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better
> http://health.yahoo.com

I just checked the moderate queue for the BayXP mailing list, and got a
rude shock.  There were about a dozen messages in the queue, dating back to
May.

What happened was, a few months ago I changed the group policy to "posts
from new members require approval", in order to reduce the amount of spam
showing up on the list.  Unfortunately, for some reason, I didn't have the
group set up to email me when a post needed moderation.  Net result: 14
messages in the moderate queue.

I've changed my settings, so this shouldn't be a problem in the
future.  And I'll approve those old messages right now, now that I've
written this explanatory message.

Sorry for the confusion,

John Brewer

Hello,

Please take 3 min to help a XP research experiment.

I¡¯m a PhD student who is setting up a pair programming experiment. I have this
preliminary survey questionnaire that surveys the possible independent variables
of pair programming interaction. The questionnaire takes just 3 minutes to fill
it out (see below the message). You will only be asked this one time to complete
your participation, no further inquiries from me. The information that you
provide will ONLY be used for an academic research purpose. Also, only the
investigator (myself) will access the data. All are strictly confidential.

Your help is very appreciated and this exp is to further the XP presence in the
programming world!!!

Look forward to hear from you.

K.Steve Choi, PhD candidate in Information Systems Department, New Jersey
Institute of Technology, Guttenberg Information Technology Center, Suite 4400,
323 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Newark NJ, 07102, choi@...

Here is the questionnaire

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Preliminary Pair Programming Questionnaire

Experiment Title: Discovering and analyzing the success factors of maximization
of pair programming productivity

Investigator: K. Steve Choi, PhD candidate, Information Systems Department, New
Jersey Institute of Technology

1. Your Job Title:  ___________________________

2. Type of Industry: __________________________

3. Gender: ___ Male  ___ Female

4. I have been programming for ____ year(s), and ____ month(s)

5. I have been practicing (or have practiced) pair programming for  ____
year(s), and ____ month(s)

6. The list below is the possible variables that may impact the pair programming
productivity. Blank fields with * mark are where you enter any variable(s) that
you feel it belongs in the list, but you do not see it from the current list.
After that, rank the following variables (including the ones that you have
entered) where number 1 being the most impact variable. (The variable ranked #1
is most impact variable to the pair programming productivity)

  Direction: 1) You may add any variable(s) that you feel it belongs in the list
but do not see. 2) You are then asked to rank the variables, 1 being the most
impact variable.

  * Ability in English speaking is addressing a situation where some foreign-born
programmers who have come to this country not long ago, thus have limited
English speaking ability (but, competent programming skill). The hypothesis is
that the pair would perform better if both programmers have equal ability in
English speaking. (i.e. An American paired with another American will perform
better than an American pair with Chinese programmer who has been in this
country only for few years and uses English as second language)

*A discrete step by step pair protocol - this is referring to a set of
"what-to-do" during pair programming besides the constant code and design
review. Availability of a set of explicit standard operating procedure is what's
being discussed.

Rank            Variables

_____Gender (Male/Female),

_____Programming skill level (Low/Med/High)

_____Cognitive/Programming style (i.e. sequential/ object-oriented)

_____Personality (i.e. Meyers-Briggs personality types)

_____A discrete step by step pair protocol (present/absent)

_____Familiarity (friends, same culture, etc)

_____Ability in English speaking (English as second language for some)

_____*__________________________________________

_____*__________________________________________

_____*__________________________________________

_____*__________________________________________



7. In the following text lines, please enter ANY comments that you may have to
the variable list or to this experiment.

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________________

I THANK YOU for your help and TIME in filling out this survey questionnaire. The
information that you have given here will only be used for an academic research
purpose. Also, only the investigator will access the data. All are strictly
confidential.



K.Steve Choi, choi@...





---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi,

What time is this meeting?

I assume that XP newbees are welcome (?).

Eli

At 02:36 PM 6/13/2002 -0700, you wrote:

> >I'm interested. A game sounds fun.
>
>I'm usually pleased if people laugh a lot and learn a lot -- that's the
>intention anyway --jk
>
>I n d u s t r i a l  L o g i c , I n c .
>Joshua Kerievsky
>Founder, Extreme Programmer & Coach
>http://industriallogic.com
>510-540-8336
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>bayxp-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
>Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

> If other people have been lurking and DO plan to come, please let me
> know ASAP ...

I fit that description.

Walter.

--- richardhjensen wrote:
>
> >From looking at the posts to this group, it appears that about 12-15
> people are planning to show up on Wednesday. Those who have been to
> Persistence before know that we meet in the kitchen/break room and it
> is a bit of a stretch to handle many more than this.
>
> On the plus side--especially if Joshua Kerievsky is going to do the
> game thing--we have multiple round tables that usually seat four but
> might be able to manage 5-6 (in an extreme pinch :-) ).
>
> I did play Explanations at a workshop of Joshua's (over a year ago
> now. And I'm STILL not doing XP), and found it to be educational and
> entertaining.
>
> If other people have been lurking and DO plan to come, please let me
> know ASAP so I can try to find a larger meeting space.
>
> Richard.

Hi:

I am a new member to this group, and I and one of my colleagues would attend
this session.


regards,

Shailesh


-----Original Message-----
From: Justin Sampson [mailto:justin_t_sampson@...]
Sent: Monday, June 17, 2002 3:33 PM
To: bayxp@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [bayxp] June 19th


> If other people have been lurking and DO plan to come, please let me
> know ASAP so I can try to find a larger meeting space.

Count me in!

Justin


To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bayxp-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Hi Bay Area XP User Group.  I am not sure if this a no no or not but you
guys are hard to find and the market is tough so I thought I would throw an
opportunity out there.

I have a 3+ month position located in Pasadena, CA for a XP Coach/Mentor.
Our client is looking for someone that can coach programmers and users in
the practices of XP.  Coaching will include instruction on how to develop a
team-oriented process which heightens the flexibility and responsiveness of
the team while still producing high quality of code.  Pertinent Technologies
include: C++, Java, RUP, UML, and OO Methodologies.  This is an urgent need
for our client and they are looking to interview this week and start someone
next week.  2 years mentoring teams in the use of XP is required.  The rate
for this position is very attractive.

If you or anyone you know is interested, please give me a call.

Thanks,
Carolyn Kochan
1960 E Grand Ave Suite 555
El Segundo, CA 90503
1-800-811-4274 x261
310-283-5223 cell
carolyn.kochan@...
> www.ajilonconsulting.com
>
>


*********************************************************************
Ajilon LLC, Proprietary & Confidential.  The information transmitted is intended
only for the person or entity to whom it is addressed and may contain
confidential and/or privileged material.  Any review, retransmission,
dissemination, or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this
information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is
prohibited.  To the extent that opinions are expressed in this message, they are
not necessarily the opinions of Ajilon, LLC or any of its other employees,
directors, officers, shareholders, or affiliates.
**********************************************************************

I'm probably going to make it to the meeting. What time does it start?

Rachel

I plan on attending the meeting.

> Anyone want to meet for barbecue at Armadillo Willy's in Foster
> City before the meeting?

That also sounds good. When?

Walter.

I plan on attending the meeting.

> Anyone want to meet for barbecue at Armadillo Willy's in Foster
> City before the meeting?

That also sounds good. When?

Walter.

Hi,

I'm new to this group but really am attracted to the concept of XP.
It makes a lot of sense to me.  If anyone knows of any teams hiring
or soon to be formed, please let me know.

best,

Frank

Hi John,

I can do a workshop about how to respond to resistance.  Let me
know if you're interested.  For an introduction to my approach,
see "Resistance as a Resource" on my web site:

	 http://www.dhemery.com/articles.html

Dale

Wanna go (and perhaps forego other things)?


Steve Sharrock
programmer / designer
www.sharkcode.com <http://www.sharkcode.com/>

-----Original Message-----
From: John Brewer [mailto:jbrewer@...]
Sent: Tuesday, July 16, 2002 11:40 AM
To: bayxp@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [bayxp] Next Meeting Wednesday, July 17th, 2002


Meeting Topic: "Seven Slides and a fight: How Extreme Programming
improved our
    design project process, but not our social skills."

Speakers: Speakers: Mark Howard and Ian Smith, PARC, Inc.

Abstract: The subject of this talk is the recent experiences of a small
team of engineers
and fieldworkers at PARC of moving from a more conventional style of
user-centered
iterative design and prototyping to extreme programming (XP) as a means
to
integrate
ethnographic fieldwork and feedback from using prototypes with
engineering and
design. We specifically focus on the different perspectives we all have,
as
user or customer representatives, designers and engineers, of the pro's
and
con's of XP for user-centered design. Normally this causes a fight about
a lot
of contentious issues that we have encountered, which we will be happy
to
share
with you.

Time: Doors open at 7:00. The meeting will start at 7:30 sharp. A
general
and wide-ranging discussion of XP will follow the formal presentation.

Location: PARC, Inc. (formerly Xerox PARC) in Palo Alto. Thanks to Ian
Smith of PARC for letting us meet there. Xerox PARC is located at 3333
Coyote Hill Road in Palo Alto, just off of Page Mill Road, not far from
I-280. NOTE: PARC DOES NOT PERMIT VISITORS TO BRING LAPTOPS WITH THEM.

For more information, see:

http://www.jera.com/bayxp/

John Brewer



Yahoo! Groups Sponsor

ADVERTISEMENT

<http://rd.yahoo.com/M=228862.2128520.3581629.1829184/D=egroupweb/S=1707
276718:HM/A=1155069/R=0/*http://adfarm.mediaplex.com/ad/ck/990-1736-1039
-302>

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bayxp-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

William,

Thanks for the summary. I actually dropped by PARC and ended up leaving
because I didn't see anyone at the lecture hall. Guess I should have
looked around at bit more.

Also, this is a small point but while lots of cool stuff was invented at
PARC, the mouse came from Doug Engelbart's group at SRI.

Cheers,
Steve

Dr. Giancarlo Succi, chairperson for the XP2003 conference and major
contributor to the past XP200X conferences will be visiting the Bay
Area with a group of Italian CS students. He is seeking software
companies to visit with the students. Below is a description of the
goals of the visits.  If your company would be interested in hosting
a visit (the length and topics of the visit is negotiable) please
contact Dr. Succi at Giancarlo.Succi@....

Thanks for your assistance.
Rachel

I am assisting a computer science professor, Dr. Giancarlo Succi,
from the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in arranging visits for his
students to companies in the Bay Area in August. The goal of the
visit is to expose the first year students in Applied Computer
Science to an idea of what is the IT and software development
businesses are like in the US, and, specifically in the Silicon
Valley/Bay Area.  This is a great opportunity to motivate and
influence these future computer scientists!

A visit to your company would be a great experience for these
students. Dr. Succi is very flexible in terms of duration and agenda
for these visits. He wants the students to be exposed to different
aspects of software development in the real world.  This is critical
for Italian students as the job market in Italy is much more rigid
than the one in the US, but it is also changing.

Some potential topics for an agenda are:

- tour of the physical layout
- the organizational structure, responsibilities, and roles
- description of the products being developed
- choice of programming languages, tools, development process and
metrics
- how architecture is designed and how products/technologies are
chosen
- what are challenges facing the organization, including technical
challenges
- maintenance and legacy code issues
- role of technical innovation and incorporating research into
products
- project management of software projects
- role of technology in the driving and serving the business goals
- types of trade-offs made due to limited budget, resources, and time
- technologies you are either are evaluating for potential use
(non-confidential, of course)
- where does your company lie in adoption curve for new technologies
and why
- where you see the organization and technology in 5 years
- what skills do look for in hiring college graduates
- job descriptions of new hires
- career paths in your organization
- salary levels, benefits, fringe benefits
- health insurance, life insurance, pension plan
- procedures for dismissal


Dr. Succi will have approximately 16 students with him. They would
like to visit companies from August 19 to August 30 and are staying
Santa Clara - though they are happy to come up to SF or East Bay.
Information about the university's program is found at
http://www.unibz.it/inf/acs .

Please contact Dr. Succi, Giancarlo.Succi@...,  directly
(and maybe copy me just so I know he is getting responses) to arrange
the details of visit. Thank you for supporting this effort.

I don't know if you realize it, but the emails you just forwarded had the
original date stamps on them so they are buried deep within the bowels of my
email queue!!  I guess there's nothing that can be done about that.

btw--I think that xp makes a lot of sense and sounds like a lot of fun.
  John Brewer wrote:I just checked the moderate queue for the BayXP mailing list,
and got a
rude shock.  There were about a dozen messages in the queue, dating back to
May.

What happened was, a few months ago I changed the group policy to "posts
from new members require approval", in order to reduce the amount of spam
showing up on the list.  Unfortunately, for some reason, I didn't have the
group set up to email me when a post needed moderation.  Net result: 14
messages in the moderate queue.

I've changed my settings, so this shouldn't be a problem in the
future.  And I'll approve those old messages right now, now that I've
written this explanatory message.

Sorry for the confusion,

John Brewer


Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
bayxp-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.



---------------------------------
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]