Is Continuous Adoption in Software Engineering Achievable and Desirable?

Is Continuous Adoption in SE
Achievable and Desirable?
Gail C. Murphy 
University of British Columbia 
Tasktop Technologies Inc.
@gail_murphy

Start thinking about multiple paths
to impact(s) in
research and practice
4

Overview
5
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
How is research
influencing the
practice of
software
engineering?

OverviewContinuous
Integration
Vignette
Innovation
Adoption
in
Practice
5
How is
innovation
occurring
in the practice
of software
engineering?

Innovation
Adoption
in
Practice
6
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Overview

Innovation
Adoption
in
Practice
7
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Continuous
Integration
Vignette
The Mylar/
Tasktop Story
A story about
paths to impacts
in research and
practice

TIMELINE
2004 Mylar
Information Overload
8

TIMELINE
2004 Mylar
Information Overload
Mylar 
 
See only what you’re working
8

TIMELINE
9
2007 Tasktop
Mik Kersten
Rob Elves
3 Co-founders
Gail Murphy
Shawn  
Minto
Leo Dos
Santos
2 Staff
2004 Mylar

TIMELINE
10
2016 Tasktop
2004 Mylar

TIMELINE
11
2004 Mylar
2016 Tasktop
Neelan Choksi 
(President/COO since 2010)
Staff

Mylar Highlights: 2004-2007
2004
2004
2005
2005
2005-06
2007
Mylar invention & innovation
1st industrial trial at IBM Toronto
1st academic publication
EclipseCon/Field Study/Eclipse project
Company discussions; biz competitions
Mik’s Ph.D. Friday; incorporate Monday

2004
2004
2005
2005
2005-06
2007
IBM 
Trial

2004
2004
2005
2005
2005-06
2007
IBM 
Trial
Publication

2004
2004
2005
2005
2005-06
2007
IBM 
Trial
Publication
Robustness
&
community
building

2004
2004
2005
2005
2005-06
2007
Mik’s Ph.D. Friday; incorporated Monday
IBM 
Trial
Publication

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Mylar becomes Eclipse Mylyn
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Dev - Enterprise sales
Tasktop Sync
$11M Series A funding
Tasktop Data & Gateway capabilities
Mylyn/Tasktop Highlights: 2007-2016

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Eclipse Mylyn

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Eclipse Mylyn
Various innovations

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Series A funding
Eclipse Mylyn
Various innovations

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Series A funding
Eclipse Mylyn
Various innovations
Users thought
Tasktop/Mylyn
had deleted their
code!

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Series A funding
Eclipse Mylyn
Various innovations
Users thought
Tasktop/Mylyn
had deleted their
code!
Solution was to add one line
instruction

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Eclipse Mylyn
Various innovationsVarious
inventions

2007
2008
2009
2011
2014
2015-16
Tasktop Dev
Tasktop Sync
Eclipse Mylyn
Various innovationsVarious
inventions
Continual
innovation &
incremental
validation

Robustness
&
community
building

Robustness
&
community
building
Continual
innovation &
incremental
validation

Innovation
Adoption
in
Practice
23
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Innovation
in
Practice
A story about
paths to impacts
in practice
from practice

Continuous Integration
Problem: Slow discovery of integration problems
slows development and delivery
Shared
Repository
Thanks to https://
www.thoughtworks.com/continuous-
integration
Automated
Fast Builds
Self-testing
Builds
Everyone
commits
to baseline
each day
Automate
Deployment
Build
every commit
on
integration
machine
24

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Buildbot,
Travis CI,
Django-Jerkins...
Various 
innovations
Many tools evolving in

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Various 
innovations
Practice is not still
Practice is always
innovating

Innovation
Adoption
in
Practice
27
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Adoption
of
Innovations
How are
innovations
generally
adopted in
practice?

4
financial,
insurance,
retail
e-commerce
Interviews of Technology Leaders
1 2
cloud
28
SME

SME
Fortune
100
IPO
Technology Adoption Curve
Innovators
Early Adopters Late Majority
Laggards

Interview about
Innovation Adoption
Process and philosophy
Factors
Awareness and spread

Process and Philosophy 
for Innovation Adoption
Managed but
Individual
Add to Value
Stream
Cost-effective in
Environment

Factors Affecting Innovation Adoption
Open before
Closed
People and
Technology
Credibility
& Momentum
Developer
Happiness

Hacker News, Reddit, 
Peers, Meetups/
Conferences,  
“Work Out Loud”, Surveys, 
Papers (non-SE)
Tech talks, Dev days,
Team Comparisons 
Spread

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Adoption of Innovations in Practice is…
frequent
of impactful  
technologies
when possible

Innovation
Adoption
in
Practice
35
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Adoption
of
Innovations
How are
innovations
generally
adopted in
practice?

Research
Invention
creation or
design of
something that
has not existed
before
e.g., the
incandescent
lightbulb

Research
Innovation
about the use of
an idea of
method
e.g., iPhone

Research
Invention
creation or
design of
something that
has not existed
before
e.g., the
incandescent
lightbulb
Innovation
about the use of
an idea of
method
e.g., iPhone

Research
Invention
creation or
design of
something that
has not existed
before
e.g., the
incandescent
lightbulb
Innovation
about the use of
an idea of
method
e.g., iPhone
Both “I”s are important

Research
Invention
creation or
design of
something that
has not existed
before
e.g., the
incandescent
lightbulb
Innovation
about the use of
an idea of
method
e.g., iPhone
Innovation builds from
earlier inventions and
innovations

Research
Invention
creation or
design of
something that
has not existed
before
e.g., the
incandescent
lightbulb
Innovation
about the use of
an idea of
method
e.g., iPhone
innovations
Research is the
base

Research
Invention
creation or
design of
something that
has not existed
before
e.g., the
incandescent
lightbulb
Innovation
about the use of
an idea of
method
e.g., iPhone
innovations
Research is the
base
It takes almost as
much creativity to
understand a good
idea as to have it
in the first place.
- Alan Kay

Forrester Research, TechRadar™: Continuous Software Delivery, Q2 2015"

Research
is having
impact
Tech Radar image
removed for
licensing reasons.
Image showed that
static analysis tools,
version management,
etc. from SE research
community have
impact in SE in practice.

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Various 

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Technology Adoption

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Various 
Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Technology Adoption

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Various 
Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Technology Adoption
Practice innovates
continually

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Various 
Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Technology Adoption
Practice innovates
continually
Innovation is required
to take Research into
impact in Practice

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Various 
Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
Technology Adoption
Practice innovates
continually
Innovation is required
to take Research into
impact in Practice
Innovation requires
understanding of
Practice

42
Thanks to…
Mylar + Early Tasktop:
Tasktopians circa 2013
Mik Kersten, Rob Elves, Shawn Minto, Davor Cubranic, Taivo Evard, Nathan Hapke,  
Wesley Coelho, Meghan Allen, Leo Dos Santos, Steffen Pingel
Reid Holmes and my
research group for suffering
through practice
talks: Daniel Almeida, Julius
Davies, Michalis Famelis,
Marc Palyart, Albert
Thompson, Giovanni Viviani

Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Technology
Adoption
in
Practice
43
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Summary

Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Technology
Adoption
in
Practice
43
Impacts 
in 
research
and
practice
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Summary

Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Technology
Adoption
in
Practice
43
Continual
innovation
in and by
practice
Impacts 
in 
research
and
practice
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Summary

Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Technology
Adoption
in
Practice
43
Continual
innovation
in and by
practice
Open  
before
closed
Impacts 
in 
research
and
practice
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Summary

Continuous
Integration
Vignette
Technology
Adoption
in
Practice
43
Continual
innovation
in and by
practice
Open  
before
closed
Impacts 
in 
research
and
practice
Think
about
paths to
impact(s
Mylar
Story
Impact
Model
Summary

I do not want you to leave this talk
thinking…
•Every research project needs impact in
practice 
•Every research project should result in an
open source project 
•It is good enough to transfer people to
Practice 
•Having impact in practice requires creating a
company

45

45
It is happening

45
It is happening
Much more often from practice,
driven by need to solve problems,
not from SE research

Research
Impact
Impact
Practice
 
engage with the practice of software engineering
convey (blog?) results in terms of problems in practice 
create and nurture an open source project
commercialize a technology
collaborate with industrial partner
track results and share the stories 
and more...
Some Actions on the Paths to Impact in Practice

Think about the
paths to impact
in research and
practice for your  
projectsResearch
Impact
Impact
Practice
Challenge: Take at least one of your
projects from research to practice
Gail C. Murphy 
University of British Columbia 
Tasktop Technologies Inc. @gail_murphy

Is Continuous Adoption in Software Engineering Achievable and Desirable?

Is Continuous Adoption in Software Engineering Achievable and Desirable?

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