Agile Development Conference 2003 Slides

Applying Agile Development in a Politically Tempestuous Domain Bjorn Freeman-Benson & Alan Borning

Center for Urban Simulation and Policy Analysis, University of Washington

The Tempest • William Shakespeare (1564–1616). • Master: Ward Cunningham • Bosun & Prospero: Bjorn Freeman-Benson • Mariners: Jeff McKenna • Alonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others: Rick Mugridge

In The Paper • • • •

All Open Process Continual Diligence Dashboard Framework for Integrated Tests (FIT) • Nested Iterations • Refactoring • Social Difficulties with Constant Change

• Status Meetings • Student Involvement and Turnover • Testing • Today Emails • Traffic Light • Value Sensitive Design

UrbanSim • Integrated land use and transportation models can provide an important tool for exploring policy alternatives and possible urban futures • What if …? – We built a new freeway or rail line? – We changed zoning or established an urban growth boundary? – We changed the tax structure?

• Analogy: SimCity, but with requirements for realism • Unfortunately, existing models are inadequate

What’s at Stake? • Urban land use and transportation critical for: – Economic health – Livability and community – Sustainability

• Land use and transportation interact – Just planning transportation systems without considering their land use effects ignores this linkage

• Both land use and transportation have strong environmental impacts – – – –

Resource consumption (water, energy, …) Air and water pollution Loss of open space and habitat Global warming

UrbanSim Users • Center for Urban Simulation Collaborators – – – – –

Eugene-Springfield, Oregon Honolulu, Hawaii Houston, Texas Salt Lake City, Utah Seattle, Washington

• Others – El Paso, Texas – Paris, France – Taipei, Taiwan

Employment Location Influences • Real Estate Characteristics – Prices – Development type (land use mix, density)

• Regional accessibility – Access to population – Travel time to CBD, airport

• Urban design-scale – Proximity to highway, arterials – Local agglomeration economies within & between sectors: center formation

Visualization of Simulation Results

Agile Process

Models UrbanSim Software

Metropolitan Planning Organization

All Open Process • Given the high stakes and pressures of urban planning, reliable, high-quality, credible software is essential. – Polarized debate – Entrenched stakeholder groups

• To help establish credibility, repeatable high quality is also essential.

Beyond Open Source • Open Source – availability and access to the source code is not compromised • Open Code – code is readable, documented, and understandable. Not only not obfuscated, but deliberately written to be understandable. The principle of clarity is not compromised.

Beyond Open Source • Open Design – design documents are available and easily accessed. Design is deliberately created to be clear to as large a subset of the customers as possible. • Open Process – process documents and status are available, easily accessed, and written for clarity.

Traffic Light • “With information radiators, the passersby don’t need to ask questions; the information simply hits them in the face.” [Cockburn 2002]

Traffic Light • Push technology • Culturally familiar colors • Seeing / hearing progress • Failure indicators are less useful • Shooting the messenger problems

Conclusion • YP is one set of process decisions in the overall agile space • Our decisions are for use: – with a transient workforce, and – in a very public context to foster credibility and confidence