<<UML>> 2000<

2-6th October, 2000, York, UK

Workshop

eXtreme Programming and Modeling: bridging the gap

Marko Boger, University of Hamburg

Alan Cameron Wills, Trireme International Ltd

ABSTRACT

'Travel Light' is one of the principles of eXtreme Programming, an approach to development which provides early and measurably good results in small to medium sized projects. Proponents of XP eschew documentation, arguing that it will get out of sync with the code. On the other hand supporters of a more 'ceremonial' approach assert that specifications, interfaces, and architecture must all be agreed, documented, and kept up to date, with coding happening almost as a by-product of these activities.

Given the popularity and arguable virtues of each of these approaches, how should we choose between them? Are there cases where we can usefully integrate the two? In this workshop, we will examine issues including:

On what principles are XP and modeling approaches agreed?
The role of modeling in RAD: is it for programming in the abstract, or just for analysing requirements?
Is modeling more useful for certain design roles than others -- for example, defining component interfaces?
Which is faster and more effective at finding requirements bugs: building a rapid prototype, or writing a model?
Should programs or test harnesses be generated from models?
Is OCL a better way of writing upfront tests than programming language?
Test definitions: in component based development, we need to write interface specifications for components that don't exist yet. Should a chief architect write these specs in UML/OCL, or as executable test harnesses?
Partial views: in a large project, different stakeholders have different requirements of the same use-cases --- for example, safety requirements and security requirements superimposed on a basic function. Modeling techniques can handle the composition of these views straightforwardly. Can progamming techniques do the same thing?
Can the two approaches be synthesised? In this context, we will look at Extreme Modeling, a software development process created by Marko Boger and Frank Wienberg.
In the light of discussion of all the above, what tools emerge as the most important?

The list of issues will be enhanced by the participants on the website before the meeting using a 'Wiki' discussion< site for the purpose.

Call for Participation

If you would like to participate, you should have some aquaintance with (and preferably, practical experience with) both UML-based methods (such as RUP) and XP.

Please prepare a position statement outlining your approach to the issues raised above, and indicating your experience in the area. Position statements should be no more than 500 words and should be mailed to the organisers, Alan Cameron Wills and Marko Boger (alan@trireme.com,boger@informatik.uni-hamburg.de).

You will be asked to read the other accepted position statements on the website before coming to the workshop, and preferably to participate in the discussion forum there. For discussions in advance of the workshop we have set up an interactive discussion site (Wiki) that can be accessed at http://www.trireme.com/scripts/wiki/xpm<.

All attendees at the workshop will have to pay the workshop registration fee. A discounted fee will be offered for those also attending the UML 2000 conference.

Deliverables

The session will be organised in such a way as to produce documented results, which will be made publicly available. Writeup will be delegated to some of the participants: you are invited to bring along your own computing machinery.

Format

Format, issues, and example problems may be discussed at the website discussion forum in advance of the workshop.

We will spend the day in a number of timeboxed cycles of presentation of issues and discussion by participants.

We will begin by considering what modeling is for, and how it can fit into various software development scenarios. We will also consider what it is not good for!

For the purposes of focussing discussion, the organisers will introduce a small selection of commercial projects; workshop groups will play the role of methodologists and architects for the projects.

In the morning, we will focus on coming to a common understanding of the issues. While many of us (including the organisers) may have different views about the best answers, we should first explore the problems we're trying to address. In the afternoon, we can move towards discussion of specific syntheses.

Important Dates and Deadlines

July 15, 2000	Deadline for Application to be submitted to Alan Cameron Wills and Marko Boger (alan@trireme.com,boger@informatik.uni-hamburg.de).
July 31, 2000	Notification of acceptance
October 2-3, 2000	Workshops and tutorials
October 4-6, 2000	UML 2000 Main Conference

Organizers

Marko Boger has been research assistent for over four years at RWTH Aachen and the University of Hamburg. He is author of the book Java in Distributed Systems (in german, to appear in engl.) and chief developer in the open-source UML-tool project ArgoUML. As member of the organisation committees of the conferences Trends in Electronic Commerce (TrEC´98) and Communication in Distributed Systems (KiVS 2000) he has experiences in organizing and leading conference events. He has held numerous courses and tutorials in highschool and industry. His main areas of interest are software engineering and programming for distributed systems, e-Commerce and internet technology.
Marko Boger and Frank Wienberg are authors of the Extreme Modeling synthesis.

Alan Cameron Wills is joint author of the UML-based Catalysis approach to software development. He is a consultant based in Europe, and over the past decade has assisted clients in a wide range of application areas. He is a principal consultant with Trireme International Ltd, whose consultants introduce clients to a variety of new methods of software development. Alan has organised workshops and tutorials in many conferences since 1990.

Links

Wiki pages< for this workshop

eXtreme Programming< - for more information on XP

eXtreme Modeling - a web site explaining XM

OCL< - a reference and link collection maintained by Jos Warmer, inventor of OCL.

UML 2000 Conference< in York

XP 2000 Conference< in Cagliari

Hamburg University< - more about Marko Boger

Trireme Ltd.< - more about Alan Cameron Wills