A presentation on what is MVP (minimum viable product) and how it can help hackers survive hackathons. Presented during NodeHack #2

1. MVP
a hackathoner’s best friend

2. Who am I?
• Ruben Tan
• Lead Developer in 40 Square Software
• Node.JS disciple
• Still a Goblin Camp addict

3. What is MVP
• Minimum Viable Product
• The smallest feature set to be released
• YAGNI,YAGNI,YAGNI

4. What Software Engineers Want

5. What Actually Got Built

6. What Usually Happens

7. MVP

8. MVP
• Evolution vs Divine Design
• Usually, your framework™ won’t solve
anybody’s problem
• Imagined features are not features
• Be economic and result oriented

9. MVP Example
01 var express = require(‘express’);
02
03 var server = express.createServer();
04
05 server.configure(function() {
06
07 // Use a simple view engine
08 server.register(‘html’, require(‘ejs’));
09 server.set(‘views’, __dirname + ‘/view’);
10 server.set(‘view engine’, ‘html’);
11
12 // Serve only static files for now
13 server.use(express.static(__dirname + ‘/public’);
14
15 });
16
17 server.get(‘/’, function(req, res) {
18 res.render(‘index.html’);
19 });
20
21 server.listen(1337);

10. MVP Evolve
01 var express = require(‘express’);
02
03 var server = express.createServer();
04 var db = {}; // add a DB here
05
06 server.configure(function() {
07
08 // Use a simple view engine
09 server.register(‘html’, require(‘ejs’));
10 server.set(‘views’, __dirname + ‘/view’);
11 server.set(‘view engine’, ‘html’);
12
13 // Add session support
14 server.use(express.cookieParser());
15 server.use(express.session({ secret : ‘Nodehack’ });
16
17 // Serve only static files for now
18 server.use(express.static(__dirname + ‘/public’);
19
20 });
21
22 server.get(‘/’, function(req, res) {
23 res.render(‘index.html’);
24 });
25
26 server.listen(1337);

11. 01
MVP Refactor
var express = require(‘express’);
02
03 var server = express.createServer();
04 var db = {
05 config : { secret : ‘NodeHack’ }
06 };
07
08 server.configure(function() {
09
10 // Use a simple view engine
11 server.register(‘html’, require(‘ejs’));
12 server.set(‘views’, __dirname + ‘/view’);
13 server.set(‘view engine’, ‘html’);
14
15 // Add session support
16 server.use(express.cookieParser());
17 server.use(express.session({ secret : db.config.secret });
18
19 // Serve only static files for now
20 server.use(express.static(__dirname + ‘/public’);
21
22 });
23
24 server.get(‘/’, function(req, res) {
25 res.render(‘index.html’);
26 });
27
28 server.listen(1337);

12. MVP Future
• Move DB into it’s own module
• Add a connector using the Adapter Pattern
• Move session storage into DB/Cache
• etc etc etc

13. MVP Principles
• Prototype First, Refactor Later
• Use TDD/BDD to simplify refactoring
• Forward engineer only when necessary
• YAGNI,YAGNI,YAGNI

14. process.exit();