[Python-Dev] Fwd: survey about the use of agile practices

[Nick Coghlan]

Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> Guido van Rossum wrote:
> 
>> Even apart from the website that Samuele found, the content sounded
>> genuine. Just not something I feel like dealing with (too many
>> surveys).
> 
> from what I can tell, it was blasted to everyone with a sourceforge 
> account, which indicates that they're don't really care what projects
> or persons they get information from.  even if it's a genuine survey, 
> it's crap science.

I was going to respond to the survey (I try to help out that kind of 
research when I can), but far too many of my responses would have been 
of the "it depends on what you mean by term X" variety (e.g. what's the 
dividing line between a unit test and an acceptance test? Does the fact 
that essentially all Python developers are also Python users count as 
users being involved in project management? Is refactoring still 
explicit when you're doing it specifically to make something else you 
want to do easier?).

The biggest single flaw I found is that the survey assumes the reader is 
familiar with the Agile Manifesto's particular brand of KoolAid, without 
providing any context or links to additional information.

Given the flaws in the survey itself, I don't see how anything 
meaningful could be extracted from the responses (and collating emailed 
survey responses manually is going to be one heckuva task).

Cheers,
Nick.

P.S. <tinfoil hat> The *real* title of the thesis: An Investigation into 
the Response of Open Source Developers to Flawed Research Surveys 
</tinfoil hat> };>


-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
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             http://www.boredomandlaziness.org