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SonarQube in Action: Target audience?

 
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Patroklos,
In another thread, you wrote, "Maybe a new book about SonarQube, only for developers will be more suitable to host such guidelines." From what I can see in the Table of Contents, I thought this was a book for developers.

I know the quote's out of context, so I'm wondering if you meant a book for people developing plug-ins for for SonarQube, or working on SonarQube itself?

If that's not the case, then what groups, or roles, other than developers is the book targeting?

Thanks,
Burk
 
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These are great questions, Burk. I believe Patroklos did mean a second book for people who wat to extend SonarQube. As to the target of the current book, we had many discussions on that - both between the two of us and with the Manning staff.

We really hoped that this book would be accessible to everyone on the development team (coders, testers, project mgmt) as well as to some lower levels of management. I'm really hoping a few VP's and maybe even C-level folks read at least the first chapter to get the jist and either push the ideas down or use it to understand what's being pushed up.
 
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Hi Burk

Ann covered me already. What I meant is to write a book for developers that want to extend SonarQube, write plugins, use its web services etc.
SonarQube in action, actually targets all kind of development team members : Developers, Testers, Team Leaders, Technical and non-technical managers, architects, Quality assurance guys or whoever interacts with one or another way with the project's quality.
 
Burk Hufnagel
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G. Ann Campbell wrote:These are great questions, Burk. I believe Patroklos did mean a second book for people who wat to extend SonarQube. As to the target of the current book, we had many discussions on that - both between the two of us and with the Manning staff.

We really hoped that this book would be accessible to everyone on the development team (coders, testers, project mgmt) as well as to some lower levels of management. I'm really hoping a few VP's and maybe even C-level folks read at least the first chapter to get the jist and either push the ideas down or use it to understand what's being pushed up.


Ann,
Thanks for responding. Your answer got me thinking about how SonarQube would be useful to all those different roles. I can see how developers and testers would benefit, but I'm wondering about project managers - are there plugins for burn down charts, or BDD results so you can see how much of the work for the next release is completed? If not, then I don't know what a project manager would get from SonarQube - can you shed some light on the topic?

Thanks again,
Burk
 
Burk Hufnagel
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Patroklos Papapetrou wrote:Hi Burk

Ann covered me already. What I meant is to write a book for developers that want to extend SonarQube, write plugins, use its web services etc.
SonarQube in action, actually targets all kind of development team members : Developers, Testers, Team Leaders, Technical and non-technical managers, architects, Quality assurance guys or whoever interacts with one or another way with the project's quality.


Patroklos,
Until the next book comes out, are there references or resources you would recommend for someone interested in writing a plugin for SonarQube? I've got an idea but I don't know where to get started.

Thanks,
Burk
 
Patroklos Papapetrou
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There is a whole chapter in SonarQube in action that guides developers step-by-step on how to create a SonarQube plugin from the scratch.
Another good reference is SonarSource's online documentation : http://docs.codehaus.org/display/SONAR/Extension+Guide

And finally what I prefer to do ( after reading SonarQube in Action last chapter ) fork some existing plugins and see how they do it
 
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Patroklos Papapetrou wrote:There is a whole chapter in SonarQube in action that guides developers step-by-step on how to create a SonarQube plugin from the scratch.
Another good reference is SonarSource's online documentation : http://docs.codehaus.org/display/SONAR/Extension+Guide

And finally what I prefer to do ( after reading SonarQube in Action last chapter ) fork some existing plugins and see how they do it


Wow. Thanks for the information and good ideas. I appreciate them.

I don't know how I missed seeing that chapter 16 is titled "Writing your own plugin".

I took a quick look at the online docs and it looks like there's a lot of Extension points that a plugin could use. Are they all explained in "SonaQube in Action"?

Thanks,
Burk
 
G. Ann Campbell
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Burk,

There are some plugins that would probably appeal to PM's such as the Green Pepper plugin, plus the Jira (and the like) integration. But what I really intended/meant/hoped was that PM's would see software quality as a deliverable for each release. Just like the monitor the bug list & the features list & the burn down, IMO they should also monitor project quality. Keeping quality high means reducing the likelyhood of introducing new bugs and also means you'll be able to maintain your pace of development long-term.

I've been on projects before that started out fast - delivering lots of features very quickly - but eventually ground to a halt under the weight of the technical debt. A good PM should IMO help keep that from happening by making sure that the foundations of good software quality are laid and maintained, and allocate time in the schedule to make up any lost ground in that area.



Ann
 
Patroklos Papapetrou
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I took a quick look at the online docs and it looks like there's a lot of Extension points that a plugin could use. Are they all explained in "SonaQube in Action"?



No unfortunately we had time and space (pages) only for some of them. But I'm pretty sure that you'll get the general idea of how SonarQube's plugin system works and of course it will get you started faster.
 
Burk Hufnagel
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G. Ann Campbell wrote:Burk,

There are some plugins that would probably appeal to PM's such as the Green Pepper plugin, plus the Jira (and the like) integration. But what I really intended/meant/hoped was that PM's would see software quality as a deliverable for each release. Just like the monitor the bug list & the features list & the burn down, IMO they should also monitor project quality. Keeping quality high means reducing the likelyhood of introducing new bugs and also means you'll be able to maintain your pace of development long-term.

I've been on projects before that started out fast - delivering lots of features very quickly - but eventually ground to a halt under the weight of the technical debt. A good PM should IMO help keep that from happening by making sure that the foundations of good software quality are laid and maintained, and allocate time in the schedule to make up any lost ground in that area.



Ann


Ann,
Most of the PMs I know tend to be more interested in delivered functionality whereas architects and team leads tend to also worry about code quality. Perhaps using SonarQube will make code quality more visible/comprehensible to the PMs. I'll have to wait and see,

Thanks for the clarification.
Burk
 
Burk Hufnagel
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Patroklos Papapetrou wrote:No unfortunately we had time and space (pages) only for some of them. But I'm pretty sure that you'll get the general idea of how SonarQube's plugin system works and of course it will get you started faster.


Bummer - I took a quick look at the JavaDocs and the ones I saw don't explain what the Extension point is for or when it is called. I'll do some more Googling in hopes of finding an article.

Thanks anyway,
Burk
 
G. Ann Campbell
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Burk,

Re PM's: I think the good ones are always interested in quality, but without something like SonarQube they have no way of seeing it except for the bug report rate. It's our job as professionals to
a) communicate that internal code quality (which is what SonarQube shows) impacts both that bug report rate and how quickly and effectively changes can be made
b) develop the relationship with the PM that makes him/her believe us

Re extension points: I agree with you that the documentation for the API doesn't exactly welcome you in. In my experience, the best thing to do is check out the code of a plugin that does something similar to what you're after and join the SonarQube developer mailing list.


Ann
 
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