Comments on: Trailblazer Development Techniques http://robjam.es/2009/07/trailblazer-development-techniques/ Fri, 23 Mar 2012 19:25:05 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Rob James http://robjam.es/2009/07/trailblazer-development-techniques/comment-page-1/#comment-17687 Rob James Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:19:47 +0000 http://robjam.es/?p=201#comment-17687 Unfortunately, that is one area that is difficult to make it pleasurable - the cleanup. But the fact of the matter is THAT work always needs to be done, regardless of methodology. One thing we do, is we will always get the new guy to do that work. Not as an initiation, but as a way to get familiar with the code base, and the way we work. But you run out of new guys :-). Another method is a round-robin technique, where each iteration you have a different developer do that work. Much like how testing is handled. But you are absolutely right, it is important to box your scope. You need to define it and make sure it is not open ended. Leaving it open ended just instills non-disciplined techniques could be used. Unfortunately, that is one area that is difficult to make it pleasurable – the cleanup. But the fact of the matter is THAT work always needs to be done, regardless of methodology.

One thing we do, is we will always get the new guy to do that work. Not as an initiation, but as a way to get familiar with the code base, and the way we work. But you run out of new guys :-) .

Another method is a round-robin technique, where each iteration you have a different developer do that work. Much like how testing is handled.

But you are absolutely right, it is important to box your scope. You need to define it and make sure it is not open ended. Leaving it open ended just instills non-disciplined techniques could be used.

]]> By: Gavingc http://robjam.es/2009/07/trailblazer-development-techniques/comment-page-1/#comment-17686 Gavingc Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:23:43 +0000 http://robjam.es/?p=201#comment-17686 Yeah this really does work well. We just did this with an open source project start (4 people). The energy is high, the vision is still fresh and clear and a lot gets done quickly. But now we are at the cleanup stage motivation and spare time has evaporated leaving just 1 dev (me) to do the tidy up. The biggest mistake was perhaps not capturing the scope in a "what's in, what's out" style ie just draw the boundary line of the scope (since it was all verbal). Try to capture some of the initial energy and ideas in a tool like Trac, write up the milestones/tickets as the group thinks of them. Yeah this really does work well.
We just did this with an open source project start (4 people). The energy is high, the vision is still fresh and clear and a lot gets done quickly. But now we are at the cleanup stage motivation and spare time has evaporated leaving just 1 dev (me) to do the tidy up. The biggest mistake was perhaps not capturing the scope in a “what’s in, what’s out” style ie just draw the boundary line of the scope (since it was all verbal). Try to capture some of the initial energy and ideas in a tool like Trac, write up the milestones/tickets as the group thinks of them.

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