T35. Pairing Agile and Logging

1:30–5:00, Wednesday (Oct 28) — Fantasia Ballroom L

Christopher O'Connor, Xtrm-Nrg Consulting

After working in the video game industry, on four titles, where 60-80 hrs was normal in an attempt to counteract the chaos that was the development cycle. I was lucky enough to find a position at a company who had just begun to embrace Extreme Programming. Since then I have sought out Agile teams and promoted Agile methodologies at each company I have worked with. I have also learned a lot about Agile as well as how and when to apply various techniques. This has helped me mentor other developers and teams ranging in size from 3 developers to 3 dozen or more. Currently I am consulting teams as a developer, coach, and occasional speaker.

Even though in agile methodologies we "value individuals and interactions over tools" this does not mean our tools shouldn't be all they can be. This session takes a new look at an old standby of the development world and explores logging from an agile perspective. Instead of a casting your logger soley in the role of a debugging tool expand it's horizons. It can be a safety net, a feedback tool, and more. Applying strategies learned from this session will aid discussion between business and developement, assist with maintaining a working product, and will enable you to increase "the amount of work not done."

Objectives:

This tutorial will help show how logging can be used as another safety net providing information on gaps in your testing strategy. It will help direct your development effort by informing you of user usage patterns. Also it will provide strategies to obtain better context on how and what went wrong. Allowing better communication between QA and development during debugging. All of which will aid with the development and maintenance of your product.

Format:

Lecture, demostration

Audience: Practitioners

T35. Pairing Agile and Logging

OOPSLA 2008 Highlights

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