Chapter 3: XP and Scrum

Question 1

What are the main components of an user story?

Answer 1

-User requirements
-breakdown of them into implementation tasks.

Question 2

What is refactoring?

Answer 2

• Basically, it’s the remaking of code to anticipate for change.
• This will make implementation of future code easier.
• You make the improvements even though there is no need for it right now.

Question 3

What is refactoring?

Answer 3

• Basically, it’s the remaking of code to anticipate for change.
• This will make implementation of future code easier.
• You make the improvements even though there is no need for it right now.

Question 4

What are some examples of refactoring?

Answer 4

re-organization of a class hierarchy to remove duplicate code

tidying up and renaming attribute to make them easier to understand

replacement of inline code with method calls.

Question 5

What is test-first development?

Answer 5

Writing out the test cases before you start coding. This clarifies the requirements to be implemented.

Question 6

What is done after every release with test-first development?

Answer 6

Automated test harnesses are used to run all component test each time that a new release is built.

Question 7

Problems with test-first development

Answer 7

-Programmers prefer programming to testing
- it is difficult to judge the completeness of a set of tests. Although you may have a lot of system tests, your test set may not provide complete coverage.
- increases dev time

Question 8

What is pair programming?

Answer 8

• Involves programmers working in pairs, developing code together.
• Programmers sit together at the same computer to work together
• Pairs are created dynamically (variation)

Question 9

What are the benefits of pair programming?

Answer 9

This helps develop common ownership of code

serves as an informal review process (code is looked at by more than 1 person)

Sharing of knowledge

Not necessarily inefficient

Question 10

What is scrum?

Answer 10

Agile method that focuses on managing iterative development.

Question 11

What are the three phases of scrum?

Answer 11

1. Planning - general objectives for project and design of architecture
   2 - series of sprint cycles
   3- wraps up the project and completes required documentation.

Question 12

What is a scrum master?

Answer 12

Facilitator who arranges daily meetings, tracks the backlog of work to be done, records decisions, measure progress against the backlog, and communicates with customers and managements outside of the team.

Question 13

XP and Agile principles:

Answer 13

People，not process, are supported through pair programming, collective ownership and a process that avoids long working hours.
Maintaining simplicity through constant refactoring of code.
Customer involvement means full-time customer engagement with the team.
Change supported through regular system releases.
Incremental development is supported through small, frequent system releases

Question 14

Problems with XP:

Answer 14

It can be difficult to keep the interest of customers who are involved in the process.
Team members may be unsuited to the intense involvement that characterizes agile methods.
Prioritizing changes can be difficult where there are multiple stakeholders.
Maintaining simplicity requires extra work.
Contracts may be a problem as with other approaches to iterative development.