This document discusses an approach called "Drunken Stumble" for building software without extensive planning or design. It involves taking small, reflexive steps in the direction that seems most obvious at each point to gradually build up the software. The key aspects of Drunken Stumble are taking sequential, automatic steps with minimal thinking and maximizing action. Mistakes and accidents along the way are accepted. Experience helps determine what seems like the obvious next step. An example project called genapp is discussed that was created using this approach. It provides software deployments across CloudBees using plugins. The document argues that Drunken Stumble can produce great software without needing a perfect design up front and allows the software to fix

1. Building Great Software By Accident
Codemotion, Berlin 2013
Garrett Smith, CloudBees
@gar1t

2. A Cold Night,
A Long Time Ago...

3. Introducing: Drunken Stumble

4. The Lean
Go "That­A­Way"
Aka "Vision", "Goal", "Objective"
Imprecise science
Not design

5. The Stumble
Only ever do the next obvious thing
Steps are sequential, automatic and reflexive
Minimize thinking, maximize acting
Erratic with some mistakes accidents

6. How To Drunken Stumble

7. Knowing Your Limitations

8. Lulz, but srsly

9. It Works!

10. Tuna
"Counter­current exchange" circulatory and respiratory system
Max speed 75 km/h (47 mph) (max manmade submersible 61 km/h)
Depressible dorsal fins

11. Design?

12. Example: genapp

13. genapp
Agent based software deployments across CloudBees
Supports any software stack via plugins (30 and counting)
Easy to aggregate plugins to install complex systems
Easy to build plugins

14. "Design" Decisions
Bash (vs Python, Perl, Ruby, Java, etc.)
Plugins (user space)
Extensions (genapp/core space)
Coordinated Setup

15. "Great" Software?
Not perfect
Not necessarily beautiful
No moral prerogative
Works
Will work better over time

16. Example: Terrible User Messages

17. Wait, What?
#beesapp:deploy-aspike/jetty2-tjavatarget/helloworld-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
Deployingapplicationspike/jetty2(environment:):target/helloworld-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar
Applicationparameters:{containerType=java}
........................uploaded25%
........................uploaded50%
........................uploaded75%
........................uploadcompleted
deployingapplicationtoserver(s)...
May7,20139:39:13AMcom.cloudbees.api.BeesClientapplicationDeployArchive
SEVERE:Invalidapplicationdeploymentresponse:spike/jetty2
com.cloudbees.api.BeesClientException:Server.InternalError-java.lang.IllegalArgumentException:plugin_setup_error:java1Creatingapplicationskeletonat/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51
Copyingapplicationfilesto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/app
Installinggenappjavaagent
Writingconfigurationto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/.genapp/control/config
UsingJAVAat/opt/java7/bin/java
Missingrequiredmetadatajava_class
-plugin_setup_error:java1Creatingapplicationskeletonat/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51
Copyingapplicationfilesto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/app
Installinggenappjavaagent
Writingconfigurationto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/.genapp/control/config
UsingJAVAat/opt/java7/bin/java
Missingrequiredmetadatajava_class
atcom.cloudbees.api.BeesClient.readResponse(BeesClient.java:1121)
atcom.cloudbees.api.BeesClient.applicationDeployArchive(BeesClient.java:638)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.commands.app.ApplicationDeploy.execute(ApplicationDeploy.java:320)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.commands.Command.run(Command.java:180)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.commands.Command.run(Command.java:93)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.Bees.run(Bees.java:142)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.Bees.main(Bees.java:336)
atsun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(NativeMethod)
atsun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
atsun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
atjava.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.boot2.BeesLoader.run(BeesLoader.java:159)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.boot2.BeesLoader.main(BeesLoader.java:62)
atsun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(NativeMethod)
atsun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
atsun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
atjava.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
atcom.cloudbees.sdk.boot.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:64)
ERROR:Server.InternalError-java.lang.IllegalArgumentException:plugin_setup_error:java1Creatingapplicationskeletonat/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51
Copyingapplicationfilesto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/app
Installinggenappjavaagent
Writingconfigurationto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/.genapp/control/config
UsingJAVAat/opt/java7/bin/java
Missingrequiredmetadatajava_class
-plugin_setup_error:java1Creatingapplicationskeletonat/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51
Copyingapplicationfilesto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/app
Installinggenappjavaagent
Writingconfigurationto/var/genapp/apps/c7d53a51/.genapp/control/config
UsingJAVAat/opt/java7/bin/java
Missingrequiredmetadatajava_class

18. Lean: More Signal, Less Noise

19. The Stumble
Identified 4 possible next steps
Nothing obvious initially
My initial "next obvious" turned out to be obviously not
After stress free, open consideration, one step became truly obviously next

20. On Design

21. The Temptation of Design

22. The Problem With Design

23. Design?

24. The Process
Imagine a thing (lean)
Tinker with thing in mind (stumble)
Once you have something good, claim it was your idea (lie)

25. Common Questions

26. Experience
Affects "lean"
Affects "obviousness"
Does not otherwise affect the process
If you don't have a stumble reflex, you ain't goin' nowhere

27. Obvious
Carefully chosen term
Deliberately subjective
Very hard to achieve, especially in groups
Real work
Usually trivial to implement

28. NOT Agile!

29. Drunken Stumble is Suitable

30. In Conclusion
It's more efficient not to design
If your design has flaws, Drunken Stumble will fix them
If your design is perfect, Drunken Stumble will get there anyway

31. Questions?
Twitter: @gar1t
Blog: gar1t.com