Comparison with Other Approaches


There are approaches similar to Gold Cards, which we considered when devising the scheme.

The fact that a developer generally works alone on a Gold Card naturally prompts comparison with a developer acting as a "Lone Ranger." The term Lone Ranger was coined to describe the role of a developer who has no partner in an odd-numbered team. The Lone Ranger carries out tasks that are usually administrative and that the team has identified as needing doing but not requiring a partner for example, tasks such as checking for development tool and API updates or answering support questions. In contrast, Gold Card work is chosen by a developer.

Study groups are an excellent way of spreading knowledge in a team [Kerievsky2001]. In study groups, developers optionally meet to discuss important technical topics. Gold Cards and study groups are not mutually exclusive; however, study groups do not address the issues of innovation and individual recognition that motivated the introduction of Gold Cards. Although study groups are ideal for a team starting out with XP, we would introduce Gold Cards as a practice when indications of religious guilt are encountered.

Some teams do experimental and administrative tasks in the morning and pair program in the afternoon [Deursen2001]. Gold Cards do not allow as much time for such activities but do allow a developer to work for a whole day of their choice. This means that on a day when a developer really wants to explore something in detail, they have enough uninterrupted time to tackle a significant task. In our opinion Gold Cards are a much easier practice to sell to management. Furthermore, they do not impose a time slot that could correspond to the most productive time of day. We also envisage that the half-day approach would need much more careful monitoring to prevent the adverse effects of code ownership.

At a company that two of the authors worked for (OTI),[3] developers were allowed to work on self-directed tasks on Friday afternoons. Although this is a simple scheme, there was no explicit mechanism for feedback from the results of the work undertaken, which reduced its benefits. In practice, Friday afternoons were not always available for self-directed tasks because of pressures to finish work before the end of a week, or simply because the inspiration for an idea had been lost by the time Friday arrived. Feedback from our team has indicated that the ability to pursue an idea when it is hot is important and very satisfying.

[3] See http://www.oti.com.



Extreme Programming Perspectives
Extreme Programming Perspectives
ISBN: 0201770059
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 445

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