Real World Iterative Database Development
Chris Pitts, Ron Ballard at Agile on the Beach 2019
Incremental delivery is now a fundamental skill for developers. Understanding how to produce working code, small step by small step, is at the very core of successful software development. Yet the area of incremental, well-structured database design often remains misunderstood by the dev team, and is regularly left to an entirely different department to deal with. This session looked at how to incrementally develop a well-factored database structure while coding against realistic, changing requirements.
CHRIS PITTS - BIOGRAPHY
Chris is an independent Agile Coach, Mentor and Developer, and Boss Bear of Thirsty Bear Software.
After a brief foray as an electronics engineer, Chris was seduced by the Dark Side and now has over 15 years of experience in the software industry. In that time he has witnessed the good, the conventional and the downright stupid. This diversity of experience gives him a unique perspective of the industry rooted in sound professional engineering principles, not to mention a severe allergy to corporate stupidity. This allows him to be equally at home cutting code, advising management or coaching teams. Most recently, Chris
has regularly run Scrum Developer courses for various people and has worked with many clients in areas including telecoms, entertainment and manufacturing.
When not coaching or coding, his natural habitats are underwater, on two wheels, or unit testing English real ales. His taste in shirts is also questionable.
RON BALLARD - BIOGRAPHY
Ron Ballard is a database programmer with 45 years experience. In 2005 he led a team that included an Agile Development evangelist, and Ron embraced the Agile methods that, finally, made sense of the development process. Ron had delivered many successful systems before, steering a precarious line between the twin evils of heavyweight methodologies and cowboy development. As the “database guy” on his first agile project. Ron found that he could respond to rapid change and rapid delivery in the development team and started building many database migrations, complete with automated tests. The project was a huge success and Ron has built on these methods in all his projects since.
CHRIS PITTS - BIOGRAPHY
Chris is an independent Agile Coach, Mentor and Developer, and Boss Bear of Thirsty Bear Software.
After a brief foray as an electronics engineer, Chris was seduced by the Dark Side and now has over 15 years of experience in the software industry. In that time he has witnessed the good, the conventional and the downright stupid. This diversity of experience gives him a unique perspective of the industry rooted in sound professional engineering principles, not to mention a severe allergy to corporate stupidity. This allows him to be equally at home cutting code, advising management or coaching teams. Most recently, Chris
has regularly run Scrum Developer courses for various people and has worked with many clients in areas including telecoms, entertainment and manufacturing.
When not coaching or coding, his natural habitats are underwater, on two wheels, or unit testing English real ales. His taste in shirts is also questionable.
RON BALLARD - BIOGRAPHY
Ron Ballard is a database programmer with 45 years experience. In 2005 he led a team that included an Agile Development evangelist, and Ron embraced the Agile methods that, finally, made sense of the development process. Ron had delivered many successful systems before, steering a precarious line between the twin evils of heavyweight methodologies and cowboy development. As the “database guy” on his first agile project. Ron found that he could respond to rapid change and rapid delivery in the development team and started building many database migrations, complete with automated tests. The project was a huge success and Ron has built on these methods in all his projects since.