Managers and most other people in business are pretty well accustomed to
attending
training sessions where they are asked to do strange things - fall on the
ground,
walk around in circles, etc. They are willing to do those things because
they believe
they will learn some thing in the process.

Where there is resistance, or I strongly suspect it will be there, I teach
people to
use index cards as a planning exercise and as a metaphor for planning. I
tell them
"You may not be able to do this for your real projects, but lets investigate
the
benefits that would accrue if you /could/ do it" They are generally willing
to
stretch the exercise to larger and larger (imaginary) projects, just to see
what
happens - a very XPish thing indeed. At the end, some of them will use index
cards
directly on real projects - usually the smaller ones that don't involve
getting
anyone else's approval.

For the other people and projects, index cards become a metaphor for a
better
way of doing things. By setting up the index card as a sort of ideal that
cannot
be reached - at least not in the cave of their current environment - they
have
a simple way to seek out improvements within their current planning
approach.
For example, from the cards they may learn
* To be brief
* To identify clear tests for knowing when something is done
* To leave details for discussion later and to make sure the discussion
happens
* To create, change or delete only one requirement at a time

The last seems to be particularly useful. So many non-agile companies
construct
baroque review processes that call for practically everyone to review
practically
everything in a requirements document whenever any single thing changes. For
them,
short of going to XP, learning how to look at one story at a time is one of
the
biggest improvements they can make.

Cards as a metaphor is not nearly as good as real cards, so I don't do it if
there
is actually a chance of using cards themselves. But it's still a useful
approach
and a sneaky way to talk about something that might otherwise get shut down.
It
can even lead to doing the real thing once people start thinking about it.

Charlie


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Rooney [mailto:dave.rooney@...]
> Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 7:07 PM
> To: extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: RE: [XP] Resistance to index cards
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: J. B. Rainsberger [mailto:jbrains@...]
> > Sent: Saturday, August 21, 2004 2:04 AM
> > To: extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [XP] Resistance to index cards
> >
> > <snip />
> >
> > Might this work?
> >
> > Me: I understand that you're worried about our using index cards for
> > this project. I am personally not worried about using them,
> > owing mainly
> > to the success I have had with them on past projects. I would like to
> > propose a compromise: please let us continue to use index cards as
> > usual. At each iteration's planning meeting, we will make
> > copies of all
> > the cards for you, so you can keep track of them in a manner
> > that makes
> > you feel comfortable. Whenever we change a card, we'll let you know.
> > Whenever we tear up a card, we'll let you know. Feel free to have
> > whoever you want maintain this information for you. All I ask is that
> > you let those of us building the software travel as lightly as
> > possible--this will enable us to deliver running, tested
> > features at the
> > highest possible speed, which I imagine is particularly
> > important to you.
> > --
> > J. B. Rainsberger,
> > Diaspar Software Services
> > http://www.diasparsoftware.com :: +1 416 791-8603
> > Let's write software that people understand
>
> See my other response talking about 'bandwidth'. I'm starting to think
> that I should become the local reseller for VersionOne (semi-seriously).
> "That's a pretty big sounding system. It should cost about $10.00 in
> index cards to do the planning. I could also sell you this tool for a
> couple of thousand dollars..." ;)
>
> Dave Rooney
> Mayford Technologies
> http://www.mayford.ca
>
>
>
>
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