Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of DevMethodologies

Timestamp:

Aug 5, 2017, 4:31:23 PM (8 years ago)

Author:

davea

Comment:

--

DevMethodologies

@@ +1 @@
+= Software development methodologies for BOINC (my opinions) =
+
+David Anderson, 5 Aug 17
+
+There are various approaches to structuring the software development process.
+Two popular and constrasting approaches are:
+
+The "agile" model
+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development
+
+and the "waterfall" model:
+https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_model
+
+I encourage reading these pages.
+Not all aspects of the models apply to BOINC:
+you can't have "scrums" if developers are distributed, or there is only one of them.
+But the basic ideas apply:
+
+ * The agile model involves rapid prototyping, committing pieces early,
+  and allowing requirements and implementation to evolve in parallel.
+ * The waterfall model involves developing features in a sequential way
+   (requirements, design, implementation, testing)
+   and committing them at the end of this process.
+
+Once we let go of the idea that master should be stable
+(which is [SoftwareTesting impossible for reasons given here],
+there is no reason to require that developers use any particular methodology.
+
+I greatly prefer the agile model for my own work,
+and I think it has major advantages in the context of BOINC.
+And, for what it's worth, the world of commercial software development
+has mostly moved to the agile model
+(if you doubt this, interview at Google).
+The agile model is the most "modern", if you care about being modern.
+
+However, other people might prefer to use the waterfall or other models for their work,
+and I have no problem with this.
+At the level of code, what matters is that:
+
+ * Developers do a reasonable amount of testing before committing to master.
+ * Developers take responsibility for fixing bugs in their code ASAP
+   as these bugs are found in master or in release branches.
+ * Code quality is high (simple, well-commented, etc.)
+
+Note: the use of branches is orthogonal.
+You can practice either model with or without creating development branches.
+It's up to the developer.