Ron Jefferies, Ann Anderson, Chet Hendrickson
Addison-Wesley
Chapters 7-9:
In this set of chapters the author discusses three main issues: small releases, customer defined releases, and iteration planning. The section on small releases didn't really cover much except that as a customer you are allowed to get small releases and see your program working through the whole process and as a programmer you have the right to release small packages to make sure that you get work done on time. The chapter then just goes into a bunch of various examples from when you have a simple situation to a more complex one in which the programmers need to make sure that they have clearly defined stories and make sure that they divide the tasks properly. The next chapter talks about how the group of programmers need to go about planning their releases and making sure that they meet the needs of the customer. This goes beyond just having a good time line and making sure you meet it for your customer but also that you don't over or under-load any programmer and make sure that the program gets out as soon as possible. Essentially this comes down to two main things: first, you need to make sure you write your stories clearly and then practice at comparing stories and seeing if you can accurately determine how long they are going to take. Second, you need to make sure that you get the correct amount of work done each week to make sure that you will release by the date your customer needs the software. These ideas both carry backwards to the idea of iteration estimates and then transition into the ninth chapter which is iteration planning. Iteration planning is the idea of making sure that you arrange all of your stories in such a manner that each programmer is completing the same amount of work each week up until the release date. There are a few different methods to do this but essentially they all come down to the same idea. 1. You plan your user stories 2. You brainstorm engineering tasks 3. you sign up for stories and get to work. If you are a newer programmer you might want to make sure that you get first choice at the items that you feel comfortable doing and then leave whatever is left to the more experienced programmers. As you become more comfortable doing this, you will find what you are able to do in a certain amount of time more accurately. The end of the chapter gives some ideas of different scenarios that might happen when doing this.
This set of chapters for me was actually new information. I think the best part of this is how closely linked chapters either and nine are and how the author suggests that programmers handle them. It also encourages an idea that I love which is make sure everyone is working on the tasks that they want to and not tasks that are assigned. It also allows for newer programmers to make sure that they get the easier tasks and not overload themselves. The only issue that I have with this kind of method is what might take a week for a newer programmer might only take a day or two for a more experienced one. I guess this goes along with the idea of knowing how long things took in the past and then relating them to the situation. It might also help to break chunks of tasks up into weeks. If a newer programmer thinks he can only handle one task that is rated a .5 then someone else might need to work a little extra to help him/her get going. The best thing that I like about these chapters is the amount of freedom that the author gives the group. A LOT of places in these chapters the author reminds us that there is no correct way to do these and simply suggests a good idea and then gives a solid example of how it works. It seems like so much of this method is very rigid and if you do it a different way it might not work out as to how the author sees you handling the situation. Granted all these ideas are really good it is nice to know that if you want to do something slightly different then there is another way and this book isn't the gospel. These techniques are quite awesome none the less and I really do hope companies use these more and more as they prove their worth.
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