Better Software - April 2008 - (Page 29)

PROJeCT WINIFReD In Project Winifred, development cycles were three months long. The incrementally growing software was released to the sales force to use at the end of each business quarter. Their iterative strategy was to have key users visit the project twice each quarter, at about six weeks through the quarter, and Figure 12: Integrating incremental and iterative development again two weeks later. When the users first visited, they were allowed to change absolutely anything about the features being developed, since the system was, after all, for their internal use. On the second visit, only minor corrections were allowed. Winifred was a fixed-price project, and this rule was put into place to balance the needs of user revision and cost containment. The users were shown real, running software (not prototypes), due to the skepticism of the project sponsors toward the contractors. Because it was the real system, it wasn’t completely developed at the time of the first visit—it was perhaps only about two-thirds complete by functionality. Most of the functionality was complete at the time of the second visit. (Note the use of the Mona Lisa strategy!) the work before it gets pushed either out to the users or back into the queue[5]. In contrast to Project Laddie, Project Winifred—a forty-five-person, multitechnology project—successfully incorporated both increments and iterations. I was pleased, recently, to run across an organization using Scrum across the company that applied this exact strategy, but within their one-month sprints. This company showed that they understood the use of both increments and iterations, and were pleased to get the benefit of both. [2] Patton, Jeff. “The Neglected Practice of Iteration.” StickyMinds.com. December 2007. www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S13178_COL_2. [3] Cockburn, Alistair. “Using VW staging to clarify spiral development.” Humans and Technology Technical Report HaT TR 1997.02. alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Using_VW_staging _to_clarify_sprial_development. [4] Cockburn, Alistair. “Unrolling cyclic development processes.” Humans and Technology Technical Report HaT TR 2004.03. alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Unrolling_cyclic _development_processes. [5] Cockburn, Alistair. “Three cards for user rights,” Humans and Technology Technical Report HaT TR 2007.03. alistair.cockburn.us/ The Punch Line Remember: • The word incremental fundamentally means add onto. • The word iterate fundamentally means re-do. index.php/Three_cards_for_user_rights. Sticky Notes For more on the following topic go to www.StickyMinds.com/bettersoftware. n Your process, your feature set, and your product quality all need improvement. Use an incremental staging and scheduling strategy (and reflect between increments!) to improve your process and the feature set. Use the iterative, rework-scheduling strategy to improve the quality. {end} referenCes: [1] Zipser, Karl. “Drawing, Sculpture, and the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.” Links and further reading zipser.nl/michelangelo.html. www.StickyMinds.com APRIL 2008 BETTER SOFTWARE 29 http://www.StickyMinds.com http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S13178_COL_2 http://alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Using_VW_staging_to_clarify_spiral_development http://alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Using_VW_staging_to_clarify_spiral_development http://alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Unrolling_cyclic_development_processes http://alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Unrolling_cyclic_development_processes http://alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Three_cards_for_user_rights http://alistair.cockburn.us/index.php/Three_cards_for_user_rights http://www.StickyMinds.com/bettersoftware http://zipser.nl/michelangelo.html http://www.StickyMinds.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Better Software - April 2008

Better Software - April 2008 Contents Mark Your Calendar Contributions eLightenment Technology Speaking - A Change Would Do You Good Code Craft - A "D" In Programming, Part 1 Test Connection - Learning the Hardware Lessons Management Chronicles - The Art of Persuading Management Cover Story - Incremental and Iterative Development Developers...Start Your Engines Where Do I Go From Here Product Announcements 10 Things You Might Not Know About... The Last Word - Software Quality and the Prisoner's Dilemma Ad Index

Better Software - April 2008

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