Agile Programming Experience at SAIC: Implementing Open Standards for Distributed Simulations

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Agile Programming Experience at
SAICImplementing Open Standards for Distributed
Simulations

• Panel Presentation for Agile Programming
  Techniques

David L. Drake SAIC drakedavid_at_saic.com 858-826-22
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Background on SAIC

• Science Applications International Corporation
  (SAIC)
• 6B revenue
• 40,000 employees (offices in gt150 cities
  worldwide)
• Largest employee-owned high-tech company
• Business areas
• Criminal justice
• Energy oil, gas utilities
• Environment
• Financial services
• Healthcare
• National security
• Space
• Telecommunications (including Telcordia
  technologies)
• Transportation logistics

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SAIC and Process Improvement

• CMMI
• SAIC is an SEI CMMI Transition Partner
• 8 engineers authorized to teach the SEI course
  and to provide SCAMPI appraisal services
• SAIC has organizations currently at CMMI Maturity
  Levels 5 and 3
• Software CMM
• SAIC has organizations at SW CMM Maturity Levels
  5, 4 and 3 at more than 20 locations including
  the UK
• My Operations Center is operating at SW CMM
  Maturity Level 4
• ISO 90012001
• SAIC has more than 20 organizations operating at
  ISO 90012000
• My Operations Center is one of those organizations

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My Background and Projects

• 26 years of Software Development and 20 years of
  Program Management
• Largest project Developing commercial Intrusion
  Detection System
• 5M yearly budget
• 45 engineering staff, plus marketing, sales, and
  product packaging support
• Current Projects
• Developing network infrastructure, particularly
  web services for distributed simulations
• See ltwww.xmsf.orggt for more details
• Integrating distributed simulations into DoD
  web-based distance learning systems

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Philosophy

• Sour dough starter
• Organic culture has its own natural process of
  survival and success
• My external influence carefully measure what is
  added and removed
• I am not fooled into believing that I can enhance
  the internal process
• As management, know when to be internal or
  external to process
• Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle
• The ongoing act of measuring some processes
  modifies them
• This is true of cognizant beings that know that
  they are being monitored
• Pirate ship approach
• Engineers respond well to knowing
• The goals external to projects (management
  strategy)
• The real project goals (funding plans and
  management tactics)
• Engineers are then willing to do a wider range of
  activities
• Dr. Patch Adams
• Better doctors are more concerned with what they
  give, not take
• Engineers can emulate the same philosophy

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Philosophy

• Sour dough starter
• Organic culture has its own natural process of
  survival and success
• My external influence carefully measure what is
  added and removed
• I am not fooled into believing that I can enhance
  the internal process
• As management, know when to be internal or
  external to process
• Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (sort of)
• The ongoing act of measuring some processes
  modifies them
• This is true of cognizant beings that know that
  they are being monitored
• Pirate ship approach
• Engineers respond well to knowing
• The goals external to projects (management
  strategy)
• The real project goals (funding plans and
  management tactics)
• Engineers are then willing to do a wider range of
  activities
• Dr. Hunter Patch Adams
• Better doctors are more concerned with what they
  give, not take
• Engineers can emulate the same philosophy

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Tools Used for Extreme Programming

• Strategy employ open source tools utilizing open
  standards for platform-independent software
  solutions
• Maintain a very low tool cost, and meet our
  customers requirements
• Tools
• Eclipse IDEs
• Open source UML tool (Umbrello)
• CVS for source and document control
• ANT for build-per-check-in and automated metrics
  analysis
• JUnit for test-per-build
• Automated system backups for disaster recovery
• Server in the SAIC DMZ that is
• Secure distributed development environment
• Project management system (utilizing TUTOS)
• Public access point for the XMSF web site for
  keeping the distributed simulation community at
  large informed

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Extreme Programming at SAIC
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Metrics Kept for Extreme Programming

• Measurable but not linked to customers
  desires/needs
• Source lines of code
• Suggests that more code is better doesnt
  translate well to integration tasks
• Defect count
• Assumes coders add defects rather than measuring
  how the code is improving
• Measures what wrong with software, not whats
  right with it
• Function points
• Assumes a complete design up front
• The truth is that the number varies throughout
  the development
• What we measure
• Weighted software capability percentage based on
  customer requirements
• Weighting is based on the value to the customer,
  not necessarily on the complexity of the
  capability
• Quality of software capability as requested by
  customer
• Customers that request rapid development often do
  not have quality as their highest priority,
  although XP is geared to deliver it