Method Review and Discussion, Iteration Plan

Day: 17-Aug-2011
Meeting time: 11:00am- 2:50pm
Venue: Sheppard Library S223

After the successful delivery of our walking skeleton it was imperative we started to now work our way into Crystal clear and try to understand the terminologies and the process not forgetting some of the strategies and techniques suggested by the author.
We begun the day with a presentation and discussion on the general idea behind Crystal Clear led by Edward.
In the discussion we looked at the:

Properties, Strategies, Techniques and Work Products or the Crystal Clear method.

7 Properties have been described by the author

• FREQUENT DELIVERY
• REFLECTIVE IMPROVEMENT
• OSMOTIC COMMUNICATION
• PERSONAL SAFETY
• FOCUS
• EASY ACCESS TO EXPERT USERS
• TECHNICAL ENV’T WITH AUTOMATED TESTS, CONFIGURATION MGT AND FREQUENT INTEGRATION

We discussed the first 3 which the author mentions as the core of all crystal flavors.
Under Frequent delivery we discussed the terms Integration,  Iteration, Release, User Viewings and the difference between an Increment, and Delivery and a Iteration. From our discussions we concluded an tiny bits of increment form part of an iteration.

We also touched on what the author means when he makes mention of Strategies such as Exploratory 360 degrees which we have been practicing unknowingly in a smaller scale. other strategies are:

• Early Victory: How to attack problems: Worst thing first or Easiest Thing first, Business Value 
• Walking Skeleton:  Tiny implementation of the system 
• Incremental Architecture:  Changing design and architecture iteratively
• Information Radiators

Techniques we may be looking at are:

• Methodology Shaping:
• Reflection Workshop: 
• Blitz Planning:
• Daily Stand-ups
• Side-by-side programming
• Burn Chats

The process cycle was also discussed to understand the structure of the whole project according to crystal clear, what constitutes an Delivery , Iteration, Integration, and an Episode

Process Cycle showing Project, Iteraion, Day, Intergation cycles (Alistar Cockburn)

Finally the Work Products discussion revealed some roles and and documentation expected by each role. These roles were something some team members were already implicitly doing so it was quite clear who had which role 

The Sponsor : We identified as Steve

Co-ordinator: Edward

Business Expert: Sara
Lead Designers : Aylin, Edward

Designer and Programmers:  Aylin, Durand, with all inclusive programming

Tester: Sara

Writer: Durand

Breakdown of results from Method review

The Second Half of the Meeting we held a Reflective Workshop for the first time following the Keep/Try Reflective workshop. Making use of colored stickers we all came up with things we do we should keep, problems we having and things we should try 

The Final part of the Meeting was to discuss the changes requested by user and do an Iteration Plan. After a long debate and arguments about user interface and what the user meant on his requests we finally settled on the changes requested, grouped then into tasks and assigned tasks to two sub-teams who will perform side side programming in order to come up with an integration.

Changes Requested by User

Changes separated into tasks based on user interfaces

ITERATION 2 – TASKS BREAKDOWN

USER INTEFACE	MODIFICATION TASK	ASSIGNED TO
Main Page	·        Modify menu structure        ·        Include Add site link        ·        Customer search link	Edward and Sara
Create Customer Page	·        Create site together with     customer        ·        Prompt user to confirm creation of customer        ·        Work on Sorting - customer codes and site codes	Edward and Sara
Customer Details Page	·        Remove Edit /Select from Grid view        ·        Include Details View	Durand and Aylin
Search Customer Page	·        Customer Search on code and name	Durand and Aylin
Add Site Page	·        Create site for existing customer        ·        Add Correspondence site among customer sites	Durand and Aylin

Next meeting: Tue , 23-Aug-2011