3Q Solutions - Press Releases - 3Q Development Team Attends XP Day

3Q's Software Team Learn Improved Methods of Software Testing at XP Day London Event

DUBLIN Ireland / Dateline / 3Q Solutions, a Dublin based provider of wealth management solutions, recently sent their software team to the 2 nd Annual International XP (extreme programming) Day event in London . The two-day event held on the 1 st and 2 nd of December brought together industry speakers and experts to share their knowledge of XP. For 3Q it presented an opportunity to broaden their knowledge of agile software practices.

3Q's Head of Software Development, Sean Hanly , was on hand with Steve Quinlan, giving their insights into the teams use of XP. The pair demonstrated the 3Q product to show how the system is written and tested at the same time. XP Day attendees were impressed with what they saw and questioned the team about the software and their unique practices. “As we have experienced from our own business, the XP process greatly improves our team's effectiveness and the quality of the software. The conference indicates that more and more companies are using XP as a means of developing”, said Hanly.

The event proved to be an excellent learning experience for the development team who came away with new ideas and insights into the methodology. Since returning they have begun to implement many of the new approaches outlined at the event, such as:

Improved unit testing and communicating with the customer
New ways to look at Agile project management
Continuous integration with CruiseControl

“What we learned at the event was extremely valuable to us and we'll be putting much of it into practice in our own software developing”, said Ray Gallagher , software developer with 3Q. The practices the team plans on incorporating into their daily development are cruise control and a better communication plan when they pair program.

XP Day brings together companies, academics, developers and manager's, who have implemented and are beginning to implement XP into their software development. This is one of the highlights n the agile development community.

XP, an agile development approach is a light weight revolutionary methodology which is used by teams who are developing software in rapidly changing environments. About six years old , the approach is designed to deliver software early and often and focuses on “in-built” quality.