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Amanda Cinnamon - Treat Your Code Like the Valuable Software It Is

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Rehgan Avon

2018 Women in Analytics Conference https://www.womeninanalytics.org/ Data analysts create millions of lines of elegant, powerful code every year. However, because software development is not seen as their primary role, best practices of software engineering often fall to the wayside. Many data analysts are self-taught programmers who haven’t been exposed to tools like version control software, unit testing suites, and System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) processes. Popular software engineering concepts such as Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY), design patterns, and modularization can vastly improve the quality and efficiency of analytics projects. This talk will provide a high-level introduction to these topics, and will focus on providing resources for additional learning.

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Treat Your Code Like the Valuable Software It Is Amanda Cinnamon Amanda.cinnamon@daytonanalytics.com
Poll ▪ Who here has lost days or even weeks of productivity trying to track down a bug, recovering lost code, or trying to understand your own code ▪ How many of you consider yourselves software developers?
Introduction ▪ Target audience: analysts who write code ▪ Objective: Basic introduction to principals, tools, and resources
Overview ▪ Tools ▪ Software Testing Frameworks ▪ Version Control ▪ Concepts ▪ Software Development Life Cycle ▪ Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) ▪ Design Patterns ▪ Modularization ▪ Cinnamon Axiom
Why Don’t Analyst Use Software Development Tools? ▪ Lack of training ▪ Imposter syndrome ▪ Requires investment of time and money
Solution ▪ Knowledgeable mentors ▪ Awareness of available resources ▪ Continuous learning ▪ Owning up to role of software developer
Software Development Tools
Coding Problem Problems caused by tiny programming errors appear at the worst time during my analysis and I spend time debugging when I should be doing my “real” job!
Solution: Software Testing ▪ Types of testing: ▪ Unit tests ▪ Verification ▪ Validation ▪ Integration tests ▪ User test
Unit Test Example
V & V Test Example 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 Time Ratio (t/t0 ) DragAreaRatio(c D S/c D S 0 ) WiSS-Generated Generic Chute Drag Area Growth Profiles Ringslot, WiSS Cross, WiSS Solid Flat, WiSS Ringslot, Theory Cross, Theory Solid Flat, Theory 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 C-130J-30 Exit Time Fuselage Station (in. aft) ExitTime(s) WiSS AFI11-231
Data Visualization Validation Source: xkcd.com
Coding Problem I know I fixed this bug already, but it has suddenly reappeared! That must have happened when I copied Joe’s version of the algorithm into my code. Now what was the fix again?
Solution: Version Control Software Source: https://git-scm.com
Software Development Concepts
Problem I don’t really know where I’m going with this code. I just start at line one and hope it does something by the time I get to the last close bracket.
Solution: Software Development Life Cycle
Manifesto for Agile Software Development ▪ Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software ▪ Welcome changing requirements, even in late development ▪ Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months) ▪ Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers ▪ Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted ▪ Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location) ▪ Working software is the primary measure of progress ▪ Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace ▪ Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design ▪ Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential ▪ Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams ▪ Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly
Coding Problem: Can you find the copy/past/modify mistake? These lines are so similar, it seemed easy to just copy/paste and modify the variable names, but I can’t figure out why it doesn’t work!
Solution: Don’t Repeat Yourself
Coding Problem Everyone on the team has already solved this problem in a different way. Mike’s solution crashes all the time, but Joe’s code is slow. Should I write my own algorithm?
Solution: Design Patterns Example: Singleton
Coding Problem I know I’ve written code to do this for another project. It’s in one of these main.cpp files somewhere.
Solution: Modularization Main Physics Model Data Logger Data Visualization RNG
Coding Problem: I did this the brute force way last time because I thought I would never have to do this again
Solution: Cinnamon Axiom You will never do something once.
Summary ▪ Doing things the right way and not taking shortcuts saves time in the long run.
Resources ▪ Software testing ▪ Introduction to Test Driven Development by Kent Beck ▪ Version Control Software ▪ https://git-scm.com/ ▪ Software Development Life Cycle ▪ http://agilemanifesto.org/ ▪ Don’t Repeat Yourself ▪ http://deviq.com/don-t-repeat-yourself/ ▪ Design Patterns ▪ Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object- Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides ▪ Modularization ▪ Domain-Driven Design by Eric Evans Amanda Cinnamon Amanda.cinnamon@daytonanalytics.com www.thedevinstitute.com

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Amanda Cinnamon - Treat Your Code Like the Valuable Software It Is

  • 1. Treat Your Code Like the Valuable Software It Is Amanda Cinnamon Amanda.cinnamon@daytonanalytics.com
  • 2. Poll ▪ Who here has lost days or even weeks of productivity trying to track down a bug, recovering lost code, or trying to understand your own code ▪ How many of you consider yourselves software developers?
  • 3. Introduction ▪ Target audience: analysts who write code ▪ Objective: Basic introduction to principals, tools, and resources
  • 4. Overview ▪ Tools ▪ Software Testing Frameworks ▪ Version Control ▪ Concepts ▪ Software Development Life Cycle ▪ Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) ▪ Design Patterns ▪ Modularization ▪ Cinnamon Axiom
  • 5. Why Don’t Analyst Use Software Development Tools? ▪ Lack of training ▪ Imposter syndrome ▪ Requires investment of time and money
  • 6. Solution ▪ Knowledgeable mentors ▪ Awareness of available resources ▪ Continuous learning ▪ Owning up to role of software developer
  • 8. Coding Problem Problems caused by tiny programming errors appear at the worst time during my analysis and I spend time debugging when I should be doing my “real” job!
  • 9. Solution: Software Testing ▪ Types of testing: ▪ Unit tests ▪ Verification ▪ Validation ▪ Integration tests ▪ User test
  • 11. V & V Test Example 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0 0.5 1 1.5 Time Ratio (t/t0 ) DragAreaRatio(c D S/c D S 0 ) WiSS-Generated Generic Chute Drag Area Growth Profiles Ringslot, WiSS Cross, WiSS Solid Flat, WiSS Ringslot, Theory Cross, Theory Solid Flat, Theory 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 C-130J-30 Exit Time Fuselage Station (in. aft) ExitTime(s) WiSS AFI11-231
  • 13. Coding Problem I know I fixed this bug already, but it has suddenly reappeared! That must have happened when I copied Joe’s version of the algorithm into my code. Now what was the fix again?
  • 14. Solution: Version Control Software Source: https://git-scm.com
  • 16. Problem I don’t really know where I’m going with this code. I just start at line one and hope it does something by the time I get to the last close bracket.
  • 18. Manifesto for Agile Software Development ▪ Customer satisfaction by early and continuous delivery of valuable software ▪ Welcome changing requirements, even in late development ▪ Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months) ▪ Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers ▪ Projects are built around motivated individuals, who should be trusted ▪ Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication (co-location) ▪ Working software is the primary measure of progress ▪ Sustainable development, able to maintain a constant pace ▪ Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design ▪ Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential ▪ Best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams ▪ Regularly, the team reflects on how to become more effective, and adjusts accordingly
  • 19. Coding Problem: Can you find the copy/past/modify mistake? These lines are so similar, it seemed easy to just copy/paste and modify the variable names, but I can’t figure out why it doesn’t work!
  • 21. Coding Problem Everyone on the team has already solved this problem in a different way. Mike’s solution crashes all the time, but Joe’s code is slow. Should I write my own algorithm?
  • 23. Coding Problem I know I’ve written code to do this for another project. It’s in one of these main.cpp files somewhere.
  • 25. Coding Problem: I did this the brute force way last time because I thought I would never have to do this again
  • 26. Solution: Cinnamon Axiom You will never do something once.
  • 27. Summary ▪ Doing things the right way and not taking shortcuts saves time in the long run.
  • 28. Resources ▪ Software testing ▪ Introduction to Test Driven Development by Kent Beck ▪ Version Control Software ▪ https://git-scm.com/ ▪ Software Development Life Cycle ▪ http://agilemanifesto.org/ ▪ Don’t Repeat Yourself ▪ http://deviq.com/don-t-repeat-yourself/ ▪ Design Patterns ▪ Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object- Oriented Software by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides ▪ Modularization ▪ Domain-Driven Design by Eric Evans Amanda Cinnamon Amanda.cinnamon@daytonanalytics.com www.thedevinstitute.com