Development Concepts

The software factory focuses on simple development concepts. Use source control, and continually integrate what you build so that you know it works. You should also run tests on your code to ensure that it works as expected and meets the needs of the client. Further details about why these practices work can be found at the Agile Bibliography Wiki.

Use git for source control to keep our code under control and be easy to share with others on the team

Use pair programming where possible to maintain quality over the code and to aid learning between team members.

Use ant for building Java applications

Use testing during development should keep your project focused so that you don't spend too long adding features and options, which have not been asked for, and ensure that your code keeps doing what it is supposed to as you add new parts of code to your project. In other words, it means that you can easily see whether your new code has broken your old code as you continue to write new code. Using TDD with pair programming means you speed up your development, because you increase the thinking time of the coding.Similarly, you can check that your code doesn't break the latest version of the code from the version control system. This page at InfoQ has a list of tutorials, presentations and other ideas.

Use continuous integration with Java or with Ruby on Rails to know it builds as it should from as early on as possible