140-30: Using Extreme Programming Processes in a SAS® Environment

The Food and Drug Administration has mandated that the software development life cycle be used to ensure the quality of software used to report results of clinical trials. This paper examines how one of the newer approaches used in commercial software development, Extreme Programming (XP), can be applied in a SAS® programming environment to improve code quality and save development time. XP delivers quality software by stressing the accurate determination of user requirements and the robustness of the software product. Among the key practices that it brings together are: · High-level planning for next release iteration · Frequent updates of functional software · Simple design · Testing integrated into coding · Refactoring – improving code without changing system output · Pair programming – 2 people code on a single PC · Customer must be on-site and available for feedback · Coding standards In an environment where customer needs seem to be in a constant flux, XP provides a better way to produce quality software than the traditional waterfall approach of gathering requirements and then designing, coding, testing, and maintaining programs. WHAT IS EXTREME PROGRAMMING? Extreme Programming (XP) is one of many new lightweight software development life cycle methodologies (http://www.itstudyguide.com/papers/rwDISS725researchpaper1.htm). These methodologies have evolved from previous failures to produce complex software of acceptable quality in a reasonable amount of time. XP can provide many of the same benefits in a SAS® programming environment that it does for small teams using object-oriented languages for commercial software development. It includes many of the same features as other lightweight processes but its emphasis on testing is unique. XP is defined by values, activities, and practices: