SEG

To make practice tests

Clean code

- Ensure source artefacts are readable

- Reduces technical debt

Technical debt

Extra development work required in the future to compensate for taking shortcuts in development time now

How to write clean code

1. Start by writing code that works

2. Refactor code to improve non-functional features

Naming conventions

- Don't leave false cues in your code

- Have good grammar

- Make meaningful distinctions

- No noise words like "the" and "an"

- Use constants to replace magic values

Commenting conventions

- When possible, explain yourself in code

- If function is a bit more complex, write some comments

- Write decorators for specific functions

Function conventions

- Functions should do one thing, they should do it well, they should do it only

- One level of abstraction per function

- Functions should have as few arguments as possible

- Avoid using flag arguments to change the way the function does something

Step down rule

Every line in a function is kept to the same level of abstraction, one level below the name of the function

Command Query Separation Principle

Function should either do something, or answer something, but not do both

DRY vs WET code

- DRY: Don't Repeat Yourself

- WET: Write Everything Twice/ We Enjoy Typing

What does the Boy Scout Rule refer to?

Code refactoring

Boy Scout Rule

Leave it cleaner than you found it

Project delivery

- Delivered end result must be usable, must include source code, and have a deployed system

Deliverables: source code

- Include test suite, installation/config instructions

- Ensure all code and instructions works on recipient machines

Deliverables: deployed system

- Add data, user accounts, necessary docs

- Production env is more restrictive than dev env

Project health assessment

- Review of progress towards deliverables and project as a whole

- Categorises user stories into "in danger", "at risk", "on target"

Project status report

Shows statuses on report and a plan for dealing with the active risk

Scope discovery

- A welcomed scope change that improves result

- Derived from a better understanding of project purpose

Scope creep

- An unwelcome scope change undermining other project constraints

- Increases cost/time without adding value

- Confuses project purpose

- Makes someone happy with no benefit

What package do we use to track coverage in Python projects?

``coverage``

Command to get code coverage of tests

`$ coverage run manage.py test`

Command to get code coverage report

`$ coverage report`

Command to get HTML version of coverage report

`$ coverage report html`

Types of development testing

- Unit testing

- Integration testing

- UI testing

- Partition testing

Unit testing

- Test units of code in isolation

Benefits of unit testing

- Fast

- Pinpoint defects with precision

Integration testing

- Test interaction between units

- Testing external units should be done with mocks e.g mock API

UI testing

- Test human interaction with interface

Constraints of UI testing

- Hard to test

- Slow to run

- Time consuming to write

- Have to test whole system so defects are hard to diagnose

Partition testing

Partition tests into general cases

Test coverage

- How much of source is executed during testing

- Proportion of program statements executed during testing

Other types of coverage

- Branch coverage: proportion of branches in which code was run during testing

- Loop coverage: proportion of iterations executed 0, 1, and multiple times

- Path coverage: proportion of possible paths through the code run during testing

Project execution

- After initiation + planning

What can we use to prioritise tasks for project execution?

Urgency-Importance matrix

Urgency-Importance Matrix

- Matrix with urgency on the x axis and importance on the y axis

What is used to check project progress?

Team accountability sessions

Team accountability session

- Meeting to discuss progress

- Everyone talks about individual progress + agrees to new commitments

- Identify barriers to progress

Properties of good software

- Functional suitability

- Maintainability

- Reliability

- Performance

- Security

Quality control

- The strategy for minimising errors by managing each stage of production

- Done through testing + inspection & review

Development testing vs performance testing

- Development testing: testing if the software system output is as expected for a given input

- Performance testing: testing amount of stress the software can take

Inspection/reviews

- Used to assess documentation + code quality

- Inspection is more labour-intensive than review

- Review is not good with new standards/holistic assessment

Code review

- Assess changes in code

- Works well w/ version control software

Code inspection

- Examine whole code in the code

- Requires planning + organisation

- Requires follow-up

What does agile development aim to do?

- Reduce formal documentation

- Refocus on delivery of working software

- Improve adaptability to changing customer requirements

Agile manifesto

1. Individuals + interactions > processes + tools

2. Working software > comprehensive documentation

3. Customer collaboration > contract negotiation

4. Responding to change > following a plan

Agile principles

1. Customer satisfaction

2. Welcome changing requirements

3. Deliver MVPs regularly

4. Business people + dev collaboration

5. Trust

6. Simplicity

7. Team reflection

8. Communication

What does lean development aim to do?

- Eliminate waste

- Design out overburden

- Design out inconsistency

Lean development in one line

Only produce code you need right now

Lean: Heijunka

- Levelling

- All processes should build consistent quantities over time while customer demand varies

Lean: Kaizen

- Change for better

- Continuous improvement of quality and productivity

Lean principles

1. Eliminate waste

2. Build integrity/quality in - reduce technical debt

3. Amplify learning

4. Decide as late as possible

5. Deliver as fast as possible

5. Empower the team

6. Optimise the whole

Agile: product backlog

A list of tasks (user stories) that still need to be started

Agile: what can we use to measure effort?

Task level: story points

Project level: project velocity

Agile: story points

- Story points

- These are relative measurements

- These are based on time: a user story with 2 story pts should take twice as long to complete than one with 1 story pt

Agile: what game can we use to decide story points for a task?

- Planning poker

- Each player has a deck of cards with numbers on them

- Team discusses tasks and then each member chooses a card

- Team members with lowest and highest value explain their choices

- Repeat until everyone chooses the same number

Agile: project velocity

- Story points completed / time unit

- Should aim for constant velocity

Agile: what does a decreasing project velocity mean?

Accumulation of technical debt, quality issue

Agile: Kanban board

- Columns store cards with task description

- Columns correspond to status of task

- Move cards L -> R

Agile: Kanban board principles

1. Visualise project status

2. Limit work in progress

3. Support flow management

4. Discuss policies

5. Listen to feedback

6. Improve collaboration + evolve

Agile: scrum

- Timebox tasks

- Retrospective: feedback on how team work in scrum

- Daily scrum: discuss work ahead in next 24hrs

Agile: roles in scrum

- Product owner: represents stakeholders

- Scrum master: chairs meetings

Agile: PSP

- Potentially Shippable Product

- Produced at the end of every sprint

Agile: scrum timeline

1. Take tasks from product backlog to create sprint backlog

2. Start sprint with daily standup

3. Review PSP in review meeting

Agile: user story

- Brief informal description of a software feature presented from the POV of the stakeholder

Agile: user story structure

As a [PERSONA], I want to [DO SOMETHING] so that [BUSINESS VALUE]

Agile: what acronym can we use to create good user stories?

I.N.V.E.S.T

Agile: I.N.V.E.S.T

- Independent

- Negotiable

- Valuable/Vertical

- Estimable

- Small

- Testable

What is a branch?

Self contained collection of commits on software

What are branches used for?

To reduce impact of changes and experiments on source code

Command to create a new branch

`$ git checkout -b [branch name]`

Command to check what branches exist

`$ git branch`

Command to go to another branch

`$ git checkout [target branch]`

Command to merge 2 branches

`$ git checkout [branch1]`

`$ git merge [branch2]`

What are issues on GitHub?

A way to highlight issues in the code for other people to pick up

What is a pull request?

- A request to merge changes to the main branch

- You should state the changes you've made

- Other team members must approve PRs after reviewing the changes for it to be merged

What does command `git pull` do?

Merges version control network on remote with your local repository

Command to restore the last commit's contents

`$ git checkout -f`

Command to delete a branch

Locally: `$ git branch -D [branch name]`

Remotely: `$ git push -d origin [branch name]`

You can't run these commands on the branch you're currently on!

Command to get a list of commits

`$ git log`

Command to compare 2 commits

`$ git diff [commit1's SHA] [commit2's SHA]`

Command to go back to a specific commit

`$ git checkout [commit SHA]`

Command to find list of unmerged files

`$ git ls-files -u`

Command to find conflicts (it's pretty long)

`$ git ls-files -u | cut -f 2 | sort -u [file name]`

What are the stages of project planning?

1. Identification

2. Definition of tasks

3. Definition of project schedule

4. Do the work and monitor progress against the plan

5. If problems arise, mitigate risk and replan project

Project planning: Identification

First stage

Identify project:

- constraints

- risks

- milestones

- deliverables

What are milestones?

Corresponds to the end of a stage in the project

Requires completion of a set of project activities

Usually, reaching the end of a milestone means you have to write a report

Project planning: Definition of tasks

A task has attributes:

- Description

- Effort: no. of work units a task requires

- Duration to complete

- Elapsed time between start and end of task

- Deadline

- Activities the task depends on

- Defined endpoint: set of conditions to be met for task completion

Tasks

Basic unit of scheduling

Project planning: Definition of schedule

Gantt chart used

On x-axis: Time

On y-axis: Tasks

Shows dependencies of different tasks

What are the stages of risk management?

1. Risk identification

2. Risk analysis

3. Risk planning

4. Risk monitoring

Risk management: types of risks

- Estimation

- Organisation

- People

- Requirements

- Technology

- Tools

Risk management: stages of risk analysis

- Risk probability

- Risk effect

Risk management: risk probability

- Likelihood of risk occurring

- Map different probabilities to their likelihood e.g insignificant = 0 - 2%, low = 2 - 10%, very high = > 50%

Risk management: risk effect

Likelihoods and effects are mapped to categorise risks

Usually done in a *risk assessment matrix*

Risk management: risk planning

- After categorising risks, we can decide how to deal with them

Risk management: types of ways to deal with risks

- Acceptance: no action

- Prevention: stop before it occurs

- Reduction: reduce probability of occurrence

- Transfer: transfer risk to someone else

- Contingency planning: no upfront action, plan response in case risk arises

4 principles of project management

- Quantity > quality

- All criticism should be withheld

- Think outside the box

- Build on ideas of others

Requirements for brainstorming

- Record ideas

- Analyse results afterwards

Foundational behaviours of a leader

1. Demonstrate respect

2. Listen first

3. Clarify expectations

4. Practice accountability

What does project initiation aim to do?

To clarify a shared and measurable set of expectations to define the project's purpose

Questions asked in stakeholder analysis

1. Who will this project impact?

2. Who determines how successful the project is?

3. What are their expectations?

4. What are the project limitations?

5. What are the communication needs during the project?