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what approach to system development do you use

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:17 am
by pleigh
i just want to know how or what approach do you use during the system/software development phase...are you guys using the SCRUM approach? extreme programming?or other approach? :)

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:05 am
by nielsene
I'm moving into TDD; traditionally I've made a lot of use of pre-planning/design and lots of charting on my whiteboard. Normally most of my pre-planning/design work was done while eating dinner (I'm a single computer geek, what can I say).

Currently using an "Increment/Spiral" scheduling tool, new spiral every two weeks. (So full CVS commit/integration every two weeks.) Normally for me two spirals make an increment, each increament is pushed to the beta server and then the live server after a month of testing if it involved new features, otherwise it gets push to live after beta passes the acceptance tests.

I'm only a one-man shop though so the issues are smaller.

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:09 am
by feyd
I think it may help if we defined the various processes, both in name and their process loop. I know personally, I don't know the names of half the stuff I do, it just feels natural. At the very least, it'd be good to link to info on each process, as some of ours users may not even know about which are what. :)

S/W development process

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 9:20 am
by AnarKy
The software development methodology really depends on the
type, complexity, originality, etc. of system being built.

So too does the group structure and dynamics…

The incremental approach does work well, but whatever you are
doing, it is always a good idea to have some design / plan before
any commitments or coding starts. :?

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 10:58 am
by patrikG
moved to General Discussion.

guys, post in the right forum, please :?

Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:15 am
by nielsene
I thought that it was a totally legit question for "The Enterprise"... The OP was asking about project management which IS a business/organization issue as the description of that forum dictates....

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:48 am
by pleigh
nielsene wrote:I thought that it was a totally legit question for "The Enterprise"... The OP was asking about project management which IS a business/organization issue as the description of that forum dictates....
yup...i thought so....anyway,back to the topic....i think i'm wrong about asking the question, it is very general...what i mean to say is that, are you guys working with a group? solo? if group, then my question is in the right track.. :wink:

i think, personally, working with a group can simplify your job, but not all the time, sometimes, you may not like the design of the software, then you tend to change it, but not a good practicve though, because as a team, for me, get through with what is designed, finish it, if changes are needed, wait until the software is finished...but in the middle of the process, i don't think it is right to make some additions(unless it is very much necessary..a. k. a. planB) :) ...this is actually based on my experience when working with a team...additions in the middle of the process can make confusions sometimes..but working solo is another thing and i prefer that sometimes...again, this is my personal opinion.. :D

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 3:09 am
by patrikG
nielsene wrote:I thought that it was a totally legit question for "The Enterprise"... The OP was asking about project management which IS a business/organization issue as the description of that forum dictates....
It looked more like development methodologies to me, hence I moved the post. TDD certainly is not project management. I wasn't familiar with SCRUM and read up on it. In that sense, you are right, it does belong to "The Enterprise" forum.
Wikipedia wrote: Scrum is an agile method for project management, first implemented by a team led by Jeff Sutherland at Easel Corporation in 1993. It has been called a "hyper-productivity tool", and has been documented to dramatically improve productivity in teams previously paralysed by heavier methodologies.

Its intended use is for management of software development projects, and it has been successfully used to "wrap" Extreme Programming and other development methodologies. However, it can theoretically be applied to any context where a group of people need to work together to achieve a common goal - such as setting up a small school, scientific research projects or planning a wedding.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum_%28in_management%29

I've moved the thread back to "The Enterprise".

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 3:42 am
by pleigh
yup...i'm familiar with scrum and i had experience with it, but not now, for my work now is i think focus on solo project(other members of the team are not that cooperative,hehehe)...and i find scrum effective in a sense that you have reason to be late because every morning you have to report what you have done the day before...and in case you are absent, the project manager still has to call you to monitor what you have accomplished....this, i think, to rate it, is effective for me..

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:43 am
by feyd
personally.. I'd rate it as annoying, but that's me. :)

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 7:46 am
by pleigh
hahaha!!when it comes to privacy, yes, pretty annoying... :D

Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:57 am
by nielsene
While I normally work solo, I've been in some groups, most of the time as the project leader. In all cases however, its been a distributed team so the SCRUM system doesn't quite work out. We tried using chatrooms/etc but that didn't really work. Liberal use of email lists, wikis, and sf.net (or similar project management tools) solved a lot of the problems. Expecting daily mini-status reports was kinda like the SCRUM meeting, etc.

THe biggest point was making sure everyone felt that everyone else was making progress... That serverd to motivate everyone to keep working.