From: Henrik Martensson Date: 2006-02-18T12:46:07+09:00 Subject: Re: Possible Ruby-centric NASA SBIR area On Wed, 2006-02-15 at 16:03, Bil Kleb wrote: > > Title: Tools to Support Agile, Scientific Software Development > > The aim of this "software craftsmanship" topic is > to solicit tools that make it easier for software developers > in general, and scientific programmers in particular, to adopt > agile software development practices. Submissions will achieve Project management support tools that are directly geared to supporting Agile methodologies might be very useful. Agile methodologies are related to Lean practises, and share the underlying process theory, the Theory Of Constraints, with Lean. The management tools I've seen so far are based on older models. Agile developers and managers might want to have: * A Kanban iteration planning tool, perhaps integrated in an IDE. * A Theory Of Constraints based process simulation and visualisation tool, for trying out various development strategies, and for presenting them to more business oriented stakeholders. (Check out http://kallokain.blogspot.com/2006/02/variance-trap-part-3.html for an example of what such a tool can be used for. The blog entry is about a very early prototype though.) * A Throughput Accounting based tool to help make the right economic decisions and produce the maximum return on investment. When doing Agile, it is useful to understand how to optimize queue time and wait time, as well as process time. Most tools today focus on process time, even though the process time is only a small part (10-30% or so) of the total time spent in software development projects. Tools for this could help a bit. /Henrik -- http://kallokain.blogspot.com/ - Blogging from the trenches of software development http://www.henrikmartensson.org/ - Reflections on software development http://testunitxml.rubyforge.org/ - The Test::Unit::XML Home Page http://declan.rubyforge.org/ - The Declan Home Page