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William C. Wake

William C. Wake is an independent software consultant, coach, and trainer. His interests include agile methods, impossible objects, and games and simulations for teaching. He's been using Java since 1.0.2. Bill is the author of the 'Refactoring Workbook' and 'Extreme Programming Explored.' His web home is at http://www.xp123.com.

 

Articles

Measured Smells
In this excerpt from his book Refactoring Workbook, author William C. Wake provides examples of the easy to detect code smells of comments, long method, large class, and long parameter list.

Weblogs

ScrumGathering '07
The last ScrumGathering was held in Portland, OR, May 7-11.

On Tuesday, Mike Cohn and I taught a course centered around a series of case studies. Wednesday and Thursday were Open Space sessions...

Stories for SideReel.com
William Pietri provided a list of the user stories his team used in creating sidereel....
Schools of Software Testing
I ran across an interesting talk by Brett Pettichord: "Schools of Software Testing": http://www.io.com/%7Ewazmo/papers/four_schools....
CFP - Tabletop 2007
Call For Participation

The Second IEEE International Workshop on Horizontal Interactive Human-Computer System (Tabletop2007)

Newport, Rhode Island, USA, October 10-12, 2007. Held in...

Project portfolios and agile
Project management from a portfolio or stage-gate perspective (including how agile development fits in): "Rockets,...
Leadership Reading List
Tom Mellor, Alan Shalloway, Bob Schatz, and I put together a reading list on leadership, available on the ScrumAlliance web site.
Using actuals with estimates - an experiment
I work with a group that's been estimating in pair hours for a while. We'll describe a story, everybody will write their estimate on a card, somebody collects the estimates, and we make an overall...
Set-Based Concurrent Engineering
Just a pointer to an article I created, exploring lean product development and how set-based concurrent engineering relates to software.
ScrumGathering '06, Open Space
The fall ScrumGathering is in Minneapolis, MN, this week. I'm here for the two-day open space and the trainer's meeting. Groups are using http://...
Alistair Cockburn article on improving bottlenecks
"Two Case Studies Motivating Efficiency as a "Spendable" Quantity", by...
IEEE Software issue on Test-Driven Development
IEEE Software is going to have a special issue on test-driven development. Here's the call for papers: www.computer.org/...
NASAGA '06 conference, day 4 of 4
Keynote: Spontaneous Brilliance, by Kat Koppett

Kat described aspects of improv, and how it can be used to create an environment where brilliance emerges.

The first rule - celebrating...

NASAGA '06 conference, day 3 of 4
I know I said "day 3 of 4", but I actually need to add a couple more things about day 2.
In addition to his keynote speech, Bernie DeKoven was recognized for his contributions with the Ifill-...
NASAGA '06 conference, day 2 of 4
NASAGA conference
Keynote: From Flint to Fireworks, by Dave Chalk

Dave Chalk described his own learning disabilities, and yet he became Air Canada'...

NASAGA '06 conference, day 1 of 4
NASAGA - the North American Simulation and Games Association - is a group consisting mostly of trainers and facilitators who use games and simulations in their...
Latest Communications of the ACM
Communications of the ACM, October 2006

This issue has a few articles on global software development. Some touch on agile softare. One of the articles was a little odd, implying you needed...

Trends in Agile
Diana Larsen just published her analysis of trends in Agile software. (It's on the extremeprogramming yahoo...
Extreme Test Makeover at Agile '06
Brian Marick and I hosted "Extreme Test Makeover," where people could bring their laptops with code and tests, and have an experienced tester/programmer review them. Observations by participants:...
What I hope to learn at Agile '06
The Agile conference is in a couple days. I thought I'd articulate what I want to learn and see, in hopes of helping make that happen:)
  • Extreme Test...
Design Patterns in Java - Adapter
Steve Metsker's and my recent book, Design Patterns in Java, has had a sample chapter posted at InformIT:...
Example-Based Specifications - workshop at Agile 2006
Brian Marick and I are leading workshop DS11 on "...
Design Patterns in Java
Steve Metsker and I have co-written Design Patterns in Java, available from Addison-Wesley. This is a workbook-style book,...
Smell to Refactoring Cheat Sheet
Joshua Kerievsky has made available Industrial Logic's "Smell to Refactoring Cheat Sheet." (...
Problem-Solving and Teams
John Roth pointed out this blurb (Science Daily article) on problem-solving and team-size. It shows collaborative groups of...
Origins '06
The Origins game conference is June 29th - July 2, 2006, in Columbus, Ohio. There's almost nothing in the way of electronic games, but there are many...
Extreme Test Makeover
Brian Marick and I are co-hosting a session, "Extreme Test Makeover," at the Agile Conference, currently scheduled for Monday, July 24.

The idea is that you...

In Memory - Dr. Sallie Henry
Dr. Sallie Henry died March 7, 2006.

She came to the Computer Science department at the University of Wisconsin - LaCrosse, in 1979. Her energy and enthusiasm were a real boost. She encouraged...

Agile adoption
Interesting article in the SD Times - "agile software development processes are in use at 14 percent of North American and European...
Origins of the cubicle
Tom Peters' blog points to a ...
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
Somebody at MIT was nice enough to make available the videos for lectures on Structure and Interpretation of Computer...