So when you say "minimize the latency of validating features" do you mean that you want to reduce the time between building something and getting feedback from your users? Can you elaborate on this point? What is latency-oriented engineering?
I think you have it right. Latency-oriented engineering is a style of development that minimizes the time through the entire loop from idea to learning to feedback from real users to learning based on that feedback to the next idea. What you do to achieve this is very different when you have a bare idea and no customers or when you have a million daily users. The goals is the same--minimize the loop.
How do I apply the theory of latency-oriented engineering to the following real world problem? I have an idea for a book that might be called “Simple Code". It presents a decision-language to help software engineers make good design decisions. My idea is in the very beginning stages (4 days in) so it is vague; but it would incorporate XP theories and practices, especially TDD. The set of rules in the decision-language might be similar to rules in a game. I’m not sure if this “idea” of mine is a book at all. It might be a web-based tool for searching "reliable" sources or it might simply be a new language. The project is going to be my first attempt at merging my art with my software engineering skills. Whatever form it takes, it will be inspired by art, nature, and minimalism. If it's a book, it will be small enough to read in bed.
How would I use latency-oriented engineering to minimize the loop from idea to learning to feedback from real users?
How much of this project do I have to imagine/articulate/build in order to get feedback from real users?
How do I get that feedback?
Also, how do I justify the expense, i.e. the time needed to complete one loop, to my investors (my husband)?
God damn, dude. You broke it down. Very nicely said. A couple questions. Do you think that you might do “Selenium”-like testing on older, legacy systems? What type of testing would you do for brand-new systems? And what type of testing would you do for the mature, but green and healthy, kind of system?
I think Selenium and other related tools are what he is talking about when he says "integration" testing. I'm a Ruby/Rails guy, so I use Cucumber/Steak+Capybara for my integration testing.
I can't believe I came across this post. I have been fascinated by a podcast interview with Kent Beck, the creator of TDD. I've been listening to it for two days. The interviewer asks Kent Beck: Is there a time in a start up's life where TDD is inappropriate? Kent Beck responds: Yes. There is a time when you are trying to generate a lot of ideas. You need to think of a lot of ideas so that you can find a good one. In order to do that, you have to work fast- many of the things you build, just won't work out. (Or rather, you lose interest in them) During this phase of a project TDD can slow you down. Those are his words, not mine. Although… keep listening. Kent has quite a bit more to say on the topic.
