> Constant integration and regression runs are also invaluable - ACT has
> had this bit implemented on a nightly basis for years.  The result, in
> terms of being able to respond to customer requirements, is beyond
> anything I've seen in 25 years in the sw business.

Same experience in the BNP Paribas Equity Derivative Research Team. We
do constant integreation and regression runs as well. Our software is
critical to our business, and our responsiveness and professionalism
is highly appreciated by our internal users. Having been an ACTer, the
main difference is that we have a team 80% composed of young people
with no formal software background (mainly financial mathematics) all
working in a 300KSLOC software project - hopefully not as structurally
complex as GNAT, many thanks to Ada and GNAT error messages! Also
we're more in the 48 seconds support business than the 48 hours one
due to our activity :).

We have no unit testing, but our regression testing technology is
quite advanced, so this compensates in practice.  Any change, new
feature and bug fix, must have a regression test when it is commited.

We do follow in practice a lot of what is advocated in the XP books,
at least what I qualify as plain common sense :).

--
Laurent Guerby <[log in to unmask]>