The Use of Documentation

Documentation! It’s what we do.

People approaching Agile software development for the first time often ask about what documents are required.  When I ask developers what annoys them most about other peoples’ code, I frequently get the answer that it’s not documented well.  And I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people express the opinion that Agile software development is undisciplined because you “don’t do any documentation.”

Why is documentation so important to us? Read More

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Categories: Individuals and Interactions Tools and Techniques

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Je suis fatigué.

I’ve been on the go quite a bit the last couple months, and my posting here (or lack thereof) bears witness to that.  I’ve had lots of thoughts too share, but little time and energy to put them into words.

These hurried times included a trip to France, and one of the highlights was visiting the Paris Coding Dojo, the origin of the term.  What an enjoyable evening!  No trip to Paris would be complete without it.  (Well, maybe that’s not true for everyone.)

The short version of the story is that the coding dojo takes a little bit of time to thoughtfully examine our craft and the way we practice it.  The comments made during the dojo were a reflection of the importance that small nuances have in the pursuit of effective programming.  I advise everyone in the software development community to find ways to hone their craft outside of the daily grind of delivering work.

And many thanks to the participants of the Paris Coding Dojo for conducting the meeting principally in English for my benefit.

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Categories: Tools and Techniques

Normally, I’d relish a mention on InfoQ

This article on InfoQ bothers me.  It seems to draw only from Dave Nicolette’s blog post [now lost due to the defacement of his old blog] and the subsequent comments.  Dave’s post is similar, in my mind, to a trip report that someone might give to an organization after a class or conference.  He goes into some detail about what happened at the first ever Certified Scrum Developer course, and muses about what he learned.  The bulk of the comments are an interchange between Dave and Tobias Mayer where, it appears to me, Tobias doesn’t think that the course comes up to the standard of the CSM course.  This is, of course, based on Dave’s description, as Tobias wasn’t present at the course.

The InfoQ article mentions me by name, but doesn’t mention other participants other than Dave.  It also misquotes Dave [now edited without any indication of doing so], and implies that the learnings that Dave got out of our retrospective conversation after the course was a list agreed upon by both of us.  There was apparently no fact checking done on this article.  Certainly no one spoke with Ron Jeffries or with me about it.  I find the article misleading enough that I need to respond.

I had planned to write about the course, but this isn’t the article I’d planned. Read More

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Categories: Individuals and Interactions

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The Importance of Detailed Planning

I recently wrote on The Importance of Precise Estimates.  This is a related topic.

Mark Levison called my attention to an article by Michael Hugos subtitled ‘Agile projects require more planning and coordinating than waterfall projects‘ on CIO.com.  In this article he advocates answering the question, “Has the scope of any project task changed?” at every daily standup.  He uses this information to update a detailed Gantt chart to provide to senior management.  In Michael’s words,

It also gives senior managers who are not on the project (but who are still ultimately responsible for what happens) the information they need to feel comfortable. And that saves project team members from being distracted by endless management questions and misplaced advice (and nothing kills agility faster than endless management questions and misplaced advice”¦).

Michael, in LOLspeak, “Ur doin it wrong.” Read More

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Categories: Individuals and Interactions Tools and Techniques

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3 Legs to Running an Agile Transition

A while back, I wrote 3 Legs to Standing Up an Agile Project from the perspective of an Agile team just getting started. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the same sort of thing, but from the perspective of a coach or an executive that wants to transform the organization. At first glance, this seems no different. Further reflection, however, reveals that this is less about “how to work in an Agile fashion” and more about “how to introduce change in the way people work.” The earlier post was a description what an Agile project needs. This one is a recipe for creating what an Agile project needs. Read More

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Categories: Individuals and Interactions Responding to Change

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Building sand castles on a rising tide

Grabbing a handful of wet, saturated sand, I let it dribble through my finger tips.  I watch each drop pile on top of the previous, draining away the water and leaving a new building block of solid sand.  Too much water and the previous drip will be washed away.  Too little and the sand cracks and refuses to hold together.  I watch the sand grow, getting into a rhythm that ensures just the right amount of water, without thought.

My thoughts are not on the mechanics of building a drip castle with sand.  Instead, I’m thinking of the spire that I’m building.  Can I build these two spires toward each other and form an arch?  Can I make this slender spire taller?

Frequently I fail and a part of the castle slides down, becoming part of the landscape again.  Or becoming a foundation for a new part of the castle.  No matter.  It’s the building of the castle that brings me joy–not the owning of it.  For I will never own it.  The sea soon comes and takes it away.

Last weekend, I drove six hours down to Floyd, Virginia for a Code Retreat organized by Gustin Prudner and led by Corey Haines.  There, I joined thirty-some people working in pairs and threes on Conway’s Game of Life for forty-five minutes at a time.  Then, Corey would call time, and we would wash away all traces of what we’d built.

Does that sound like a waste of time?

Read More

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Categories: Tools and Techniques

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Projecting into the Future

In my recent posting on estimation precision, I briefly mentioned how you can estimate when certain features will be done, or estimate what features will be done by a given date, using a burn-up chart.  Some people don’t find this an obvious and easy thing to do.  Let me explain in more detail.

I’ll start with the assumption that you have a list of features you want to add to an application.  Some of the things you want to add may not be properly called features–they might be bug fixes, for example.  And the application might be brand-new, with zero functionality so far.  That’s OK, we can handle cases like that.  Let’s walk through how I do this… Read More

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The Importance of Precise Estimates

We’ve got a rather old bathroom scale.Borg-Ericson scale, circa 1950 I’ve found advertisements for this model ranging from 1949 to 1954.  My wife inherited it from her mother.  When we first got it, we set the “zero” weight to three pounds to give the “correct” weight.  Now it’s set closer to five pounds when nothing is on it.

The readings it gives are a little inconsistent.  When you bounce lightly up and down, you may get a different reading.  (I tend to take the smallest number I can get.) Read More

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Categories: Tools and Techniques

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Some of the smartest people I know…

Some of the smartest people I know are ranting that certification doesn’t prove the person is worthy.  Well, of course it doesn’t.  No certification does that.

It only says you’ve met the requirements for the certificate.

Of course, they really know that.  So I don’t know why they’re making such a fuss.

A number of them have made public statements that they discriminate against people who hold certifications.  That really saddens me. Read More

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Categories: Individuals and Interactions

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