Does anyone have any particular XP project management tools they can recommend? Reading through docs and actually using a tool are not the same thing :)
Re:How about a...
Ovid on 2004-12-13T23:00:21
Tried that. I couldn't find the "undo" button.
:) Re:How about a...
jplindstrom on 2004-12-14T14:38:56
Actually, I've heard of whiteboard add-ons that capture the pen movement into vector files so that you can store your sketches more easily.
And this product for photographing whiteboard contents looks interesting:
http://www.polyvision.com/products/wbp.asp
Did anyone try any of those things?Re:How about a...
lachoy on 2004-12-14T14:47:00
Actually I just posted about this elsewhere here. Summary: it rocks!
You should test constantly and integrate continuously, whether you are using JUnit and Ant, prove and Make, Aegis, or scratch paper and a fleet of hamsters.
You should be in constant contact with your customer, whether he is on site with the developers, teleconferences twice daily, video chats on demand, or retains a psychic to transfer thoughts through subspace telepathy.
If you read between the lines in the XP literature, it's not about using software, as much as figuring out what works, and doing it consistently, constantly and cheaply. Whiteboards, 3x5 cards, and a meeting room with no chairs are probably more important to an XP project than any piece of project management software. This isn't a glib answer; project management software does not make a project succeed -- people make a project succeed. Find all of the impediments to successful delivery, and remove them one by one, whether that involves 3x5 cards, a build server, better chairs or a better programming language.
That said, the only XP project management software I've ever wanted is something to paint pretty graphs to make regularly updated progress charts. And you can figure out what your project needs and write those CGI scripts yourself, instead of focusing overmuch on Microsoft Project.
Re:The Spirit of XP
Ovid on 2004-12-14T19:34:51
Microsoft Project style tools are precisely what I am trying to avoid. However, there are still benefits to a good XP project management tool.
- It's easy for me to misplace a 3x5 card. Not so easy for the computer.
- It's tough for me to restore an entire paper-managed project from backup.
- If someone else wants to see what I'm working on, they can glance at my online cards rather than bug me.
- If I want to know what I'm working on and I don't have cards handy, I can glance online.
The primary benefit of XP is how it lowers the cost of information. A good tool can lower those costs even further. A bad tool, however, can raise those costs significantly and hurt XP style practices, hence my desire for find a good tool.
Re:The Spirit of XP
ziggy on 2004-12-14T20:19:24
Understood.But moving away from 3x5 cards for these use cases seems rather, um, heavyweight. Reading what problems you want to solve, the one word that comes to mind is photocopier.
If you've got a good 3x5 card process at the moment, making photocopies of what you're doing this week takes about a minute, and has very little impact on your workflow. Added cost to the team, maybe $5/year. Added cost to adopt some software automation? Well, depends on how long it takes you to retool your workflow.
If, on the odd chance, you're in face to face contact with everyone on your team on a regular basis, use a scanner. Same principle, and you can keep it online.
