Session Title: Leaving a legacy (Experience report)
Submitters: Seb Rose
Abstract: This session will examine the experiences of a team developing a legacy product using antiquated processes. Following a company takeover the organisation was encouraged to move to a more iterative way of working - unit tests; user stories; continuous integration; short(er) iterations. Added constraints were: 15 years of technical debt in the code base; conflict between tackling internal organisational issues and adopting the methods of the new parent company; a freeze on any external consultancy.
The session will be delivered in a 30 minute slot (approximate timings):
Background; Legacy Processes & Tools; Team Morale : 3 minutes
Management & Team Buy-In; Process & Tool Selection : 6 minutes
Rollout; Adoption; Current Status : 8 minutes
Management Hurdles; Technical Issues; Lessons Learnt; Next Steps : 8 minutes
Questions : 5 minutes
Throughout, focus will be on experiences that can be generalised so that the session can be as broadly applicable as possible. I will skip over technology specifics, while trying not to ignore their influence, and can expand on them to interested attendees at a later time.
The session will be useful to those considering how to move away from a waterfall development process, while maintaining the ongoing development and delivery of a legacy product. They will come away from the session with some understanding of the pitfalls they may encounter and the benefits they may gain. Consultants who regularly assist clients to migrate their development processes will also gain an insight into how this was done in a newly acquired division of Rational.
Questions during the session will allow me to identify areas of interest, which can then be expanded into a further session in the Open Space.
To fully benefit from this session the attendee should have some knowledge and understanding of a typical waterfall software development process, though this is not essential.
