Universe
06-24-2003, 08:06 AM
Dave Harris wrote:
john.wilkinson@spirentcom_removethis.com (John W. Wilkinson) wrote (abridged): Is TDD an appropriate technique for a project such as this contest where: 1. the requirements are fully known and fixed
They aren't, really, in this contest. Usually they are a bit woolly, like, "The program should be faster than competing programs" or "its robots should beat the other robots". They are open-ended.
A good strategy is to come up with a basic architecture that can be got working quickly, and then add bells and whistles incrementally. You want to be sure that adding a new feature does not break what you already have.
If instead you go for a "big bang" approach, you risk finishing late and having nothing, or finishing early and having no way to fruitfully spend time at the end.
But you're "finished" right??
I suggest he go with the scientific sw-eng approach that like all science
makes the least most minimal overall (holistic) investigation possible and
uses that as the basis for at least the most minimal overall design and
uses that for at least the most minimal overall architecture. The
foregoing and remainder to "finish" up are done iteratively and
incrementally with feedback throughout. What's appropriate in each case
is a tailoring of these guidelines with respect to tradeoffs amongs
project wide resources, requirements and constraints.
Elliott
--
OO software rests upon class abstractions expressed in class method
*behaviors*. The sum of class method behaviors is the overall class
*role*. Class role should have primary responsibility for managing class
data such that the impact of class data is driven by the operation of
class methods.
~*~ Get with OO fundamentals, get OO. ~*~
-
We Don't Need US Fat Cat's Geopolitical Hegemony!
People of the World Demand US Stop Now!
-
* http:\\www.radix.net/~universe *
@Elliott 2003 my comments ~ newsgroups+bitnet OK
john.wilkinson@spirentcom_removethis.com (John W. Wilkinson) wrote (abridged): Is TDD an appropriate technique for a project such as this contest where: 1. the requirements are fully known and fixed
They aren't, really, in this contest. Usually they are a bit woolly, like, "The program should be faster than competing programs" or "its robots should beat the other robots". They are open-ended.
A good strategy is to come up with a basic architecture that can be got working quickly, and then add bells and whistles incrementally. You want to be sure that adding a new feature does not break what you already have.
If instead you go for a "big bang" approach, you risk finishing late and having nothing, or finishing early and having no way to fruitfully spend time at the end.
But you're "finished" right??
I suggest he go with the scientific sw-eng approach that like all science
makes the least most minimal overall (holistic) investigation possible and
uses that as the basis for at least the most minimal overall design and
uses that for at least the most minimal overall architecture. The
foregoing and remainder to "finish" up are done iteratively and
incrementally with feedback throughout. What's appropriate in each case
is a tailoring of these guidelines with respect to tradeoffs amongs
project wide resources, requirements and constraints.
Elliott
--
OO software rests upon class abstractions expressed in class method
*behaviors*. The sum of class method behaviors is the overall class
*role*. Class role should have primary responsibility for managing class
data such that the impact of class data is driven by the operation of
class methods.
~*~ Get with OO fundamentals, get OO. ~*~
-
We Don't Need US Fat Cat's Geopolitical Hegemony!
People of the World Demand US Stop Now!
-
* http:\\www.radix.net/~universe *
@Elliott 2003 my comments ~ newsgroups+bitnet OK