We are a group of Java developers committed to agile development processes. Our core group is made of some of the staff from JavaRanch - possibly the largest Java site on the net!

Our mission is to create a work environment that builds on the foundations of optimized communication within the JavaRanch staff. Optimized communication plus greater knowledge leads to higher development velocity. Which leads to faster delivery and lower development costs for our clients.

Our processes for version control, continuous integration, bug tracking, testing, team communication and client communication are all in place.

Give us access to a knowledgeable visionary on your end, and we will implement that vision on our end. You will always see something running within the first week of development, and something new nearly every following day of development.

1) Business Needs

Developers in some organizations have no concept of business needs. Using the lastest buzzword technologies or "design by resume" drives too many development decisions.

A piece of code that could take one developer two hours to write, could take two months by an equally experienced developer that thinks in terms of "what if" instead of business needs.

The number one priority of CodeWranglers is to think in terms of business needs.

2) Development Velocity

Verifiable progress is made by every developer, every day.

Team velocity is more important than individual velocity.

3) Quality

Here at CodeWranglers, quality is priority three!

Many organizations chant that "quality is priority one!" - and sometimes it turns out that their marketing material has several things in the number one slot. Do they really understand what quality means in software development? Do their developers? Do they understand the cost to benefit ratios with different types of quality? Is it practical to use the same level of quality for generating a report as for systems where lives are at stake?

That last 1% in quality can sometimes triple development time and we recognize that this is usually not acceptable. When these cases present themselves, we immediately present this decision to the client.

Sacrificing 10% in quality usually compounds into other problems that can also triple development time. Again, not acceptable.

4) Communication

Communication must be short and sweet.

Developers in some organizations spend more than half of their time in meetings or with e-mail. Every CodeWrangler developer spends approximately 80% to 90% of their billable hours developing. Of the remaining time, half is spent with daily planning/coordination/communication and the rest is spent with collaborative architecture and design.

Client Processes Come First!

• The list below represents what we are familiar with and how we do things unless otherwise required. Most clients are far more concerned about results than process.
• We are happy to run the server based collaborative software on our own servers at no extra charge.

Agile Software Development Process (manifesto)

• Mostly XP. Some Scrum.
• In this process, the liaison between the client and CodeWranglers is referred to as "The Project Owner". It is best if this person is an employee of the client with good domain knowledge. CodeWranglers can fill this role, but our experience is that good domain knowledge and intimate knowledge of the client stakeholders is a major benefit to the project overall (timeline, quality and cost)!
• The Project Owner will participate in creating "stories" that will be used to help developers understand the product/vision. CodeWranglers can help with this process if needed.
• The Project Owner will participate in release planning meetings. These meetings take four to eight hours once every three months. In this meeting, all of the developers on the team are given an understanding of what will be developed over the next three months. Stories are given time estimates. Stories over 40 hours are broken up into smaller stories.
• The Project Owner will manage priorities for stories.
• The Project Owner will participate in iteration planning meetings. These meetings take two to four hours once every two weeks. In this meeting all of the developers on the team get a fresh understanding of what will be developed over the next two weeks. Stories are broken into tasks 8 hours in length or less. Each developer will then take responsibility for a set of tasks.
• The Project Owner will participate in daily "standup" meetings. These meeting take 10 to 20 minutes. In this meeting each developer will spend 30 to 90 seconds sharing what tasks they worked on since the last standup and 30 to 90 seconds on which tasks they intend to work on before the next standup.
• The Project Owner is expected to be readily available for developer questions.
• The Project Owner will exercise the application under development several times per day and verify that progress and quality are satisfactory.
• These interactions typically take about 10 to 20 hours per week for a client employee.

Continuous Integration

• With each code checkin, cruise control will compile all of the source, run all unit tests, perform a deployment and run all functional tests. A web report is generated each time cruise control is run.
• For any problems,the development team is notified. The Project Owner can also be notified.

Extensive Unit Testing

• We differentiate between unit tests and functional tests. See Evil Unit Tests.

Collaborative Planning

• We use a web based product called Extreme Planner.
• The client will be able to monitor which tasks are completed and which are currently being worked on at any given moment. Each CodeWranglers developer will update the information in this application several times per day.
• The Project Owner will use this tool to help convey business needs and priorities to the development team.

Development Standards

• The JavaRanch Style Guide
• The JavaRanch Project Standards (ant targets, directory structure, etc.)

Client developers are welcome to participate in our processes.

A Job Shop

Give us access to a knowledgeable visionary on your end, and we will implement that vision on our end.

We'll sign a contract for time and materials.

A team lead will meet with your "Project Owner" (visionary) to discuss the project and pull together the stories.

A team is formed (either entirely of CodeWranglers, or a mix of CodeWranglers and your staff) and work begins.

Agile Process Coaching

We can help introduce agile process to your organization. For any given project, we start off with 20% to 40% of the staff on the project being your engineers. After six weeks, we can shift that to 60%. As time passes you can choose a rate to use more and more of your own staff. You can then use your new agile-savvy staff to use this same technique on other projects within your company.

First, we are mighty particular ...

The first CodeWranglers came from the JavaRanch staff. To be selected as a JavaRanch staff member, you have to be recognized as somebody who generously helps others and has the mystical ability to smooth out awkward situations. So we think that the secret to our success is somehow rooted in the sincere desire to help other people. Maybe each CodeWrangler has a powerful interest in propelling the other developers on any given team more than themselves. As a result, the team always has an excellent velocity.

All CodeWranglers are subcontractors working from home

To be a CodeWrangler, you must have:

• high speed internet (not satellite internet)
• phone headset (either a US land line or good skype access)
• a computer capable of running IntelliJ, an app server, a database and VNC smoothly at the same time
• 1600x1200 resolution

The next step

Send your resume to

and it will sit in a queue until we have a need for more developers. When we hit a need, we will contact you.

Thanks!

If you are interested in any of the services that CodeWranglers offers, please send e-mail to:

Thanks!