Iteration Planning


In the following quote, Ron Jeffries takes Kent Beck s Zen-like lead and adds further simplicity into XP by dropping task cards (as distinct from index cards for user stories) from the process:

I don t use task cards any more, ever. The team might want to use some cards to write down notes about things they think need to be done. For anything that can be done in an evening, I m not seeing why I d need task cards.
Frankly I wish I had never written about them. [10]

Despite this change of heart (tucked away as it is on the Extreme Programming message forum on Yahoo Groups), many XP teams continue to faithfully use task cards to help with iteration planning.

Iteration planning operates at a finer level of granularity than release planning. It involves breaking stories down into the aforementioned tasks, allocating tasks to programmers (rather, getting the programmers to sign up for the tasks they re interested in), and estimating the tasks (rather, getting the programmers to estimate the tasks they ve signed up for).

The estimates are in perfect days ”that is, the number of days it would take to complete each task if everything goes right and there are no distractions, no snack food mishaps, and so on.

The total estimated perfect days for all the tasks in an iteration might not add up to the same number of perfect days for the stories. This is because the stories were estimated before they had been broken down into tasks, and almost certainly before the tasks had been allocated to programmers.

Note that (as the quote from Ron Jeffries suggests) many teams don t estimate tasks anymore. Instead, they base their estimates on the higher-level stories ”they see task cards as unnecessary bookkeeping and have found story cards to be sufficient.

start sidebar
SATIRE WARNING
When Change Is Free

Loretta returns from a shopping trip to the new year sales at the local galleria, excited by the number of bargains she found. She finds JoJo at the snacking table and proceeds to tell him enthusiastically about her day. These shoes were like half-price, and this lip gloss was reduced, and this top was like buy ten get one half-price, so . . . just think about all the hundreds of dollars I ve just saved! So I was halfway back here when I thought about it, and . . . seeing as I ve saved all that money, I can go back tomorrow and find even more amazing bargains just like these!

At that point, the on-site customer walks up to the table, hugely excited. Guys! he shouts, I had no idea change was so free! With all the time that we ve saved by not writing down any requirements or design, I can afford to keep changing my mind over and over again! XP is just like a trip to the new year sales!

JoJo, finishing his snack, adds, Those potato chips were reduced fat ”so I can afford to eat another bag! Gosh, I love you guys . . .

end sidebar
 

[10] Ron Jeffries posting on the Yahoo group Extreme Programming, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/extremeprogramming/message/70299, subject: [XP] If you have time, could you comment on this..., March 1, 2003.




Extreme Programming Refactored
Extreme Programming Refactored: The Case Against XP
ISBN: 1590590961
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 156

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net