Okay, so I have a backlog item like -- Derive the universe, use back of paper as necessary -- Well, not that bad. But say your backlog item is a very large...
1726
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 1, 2003 5:28 pm
... I'd break it up, make it smaller. One advantage to this is that lots of the subparts (make sure universe supports life) are much more important, and some...
1727
Joseph Pelrine
josephpelrine
Aug 1, 2003 5:35 pm
... Wow. Quite elegantly expressed, Ron. Very moving. Of course, those were ideal programming days - he wasn't disturbed by meetings or phone calls... Cheers ...
1728
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 1, 2003 6:53 pm
... Yes, but he had a lot on his mind. Everything, in fact ... Ron Jeffries www.XProgramming.com Do, or do not. There is no try. --Yoda...
1729
Deb
debhart9
Aug 2, 2003 2:14 pm
... back ... lots of the ... important, and ... Yes, absolutely. Break it up AND choose slim sprint goals. When the users are asked to rank the more granular...
1730
Boris Gloger
borisgloger
Aug 2, 2003 3:04 pm
... I fully agree - the only problem is if you have a customer - like marketing who thinks that the IT people must deliver what she wants - that you as a IT...
1731
Bryan Zarnett
bryan_zarnett
Aug 2, 2003 4:09 pm
... In selecting the important functionality, what is important to the client at that moment might not actually be the most important component for the...
1732
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 2, 2003 5:14 pm
... Even with such a customer, if you get them into the Scrum or XP cycle, they can see the impact of their decisions, the costs at a micro level, and all but...
1733
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 2, 2003 5:14 pm
... Maybe we don't need to question their view. Maybe we just need to help them see the options and let them make the business decisions. That is, after all,...
1734
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 2, 2003 5:15 pm
... I can, actually. Experience teaches whether we want it to or not. It's just more painful. ;-> Ron Jeffries www.XProgramming.com Hope is not a strategy. --...
1735
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 2, 2003 5:16 pm
... How can this possibly be true? Whose project is it? Is it not the client's project? Then how can it be that the things most important to the client are not...
1736
Ken Schwaber
kschwaber
Aug 2, 2003 5:23 pm
I worked with a one-year fixed budget project. The department head was delighted with the functionality. The IT management felt that she had unwisely spent the...
1737
Ed Schweppe
ed_schweppe
Aug 2, 2003 5:45 pm
... Kinda depends on whose budget the fixed budget came from, doesn't it? -- Edmund Schweppe -- schweppe@... -- http://schweppe.home.tiac.net The opinions...
1738
Brad Cox
bradjcox
Aug 2, 2003 6:04 pm
... Nicely put, Ron! OTOH I'm in the middle of a government paper on precisely central planning vs distributed market-based development for military simulation...
1739
Bryan Zarnett
bryan_zarnett
Aug 2, 2003 11:01 pm
... Let me change "client" to business owner with the client being the business division of the corporation and the business owner being a duly appointed...
1740
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 3, 2003 12:28 am
... Isn't it the client's job to know what's important? If not, why is s/he designated as the client? Of course we should all advice -- but why have a decision...
1741
Bryan Zarnett
bryan_zarnett
Aug 3, 2003 2:00 pm
... Yes. I have found though, with some of the companies and individuals I have dealt with, that the individual in charge of promoting the businesses...
1742
Deb
debhart9
Aug 3, 2003 2:19 pm
... people ... I think we (IT) need to stop TELLING customers what they want, and actively engage them in telling us what *they* want. We need to become...
1743
Deb
debhart9
Aug 3, 2003 2:30 pm
... was ... had ... the best ... Ah yes. The "who is the Customer?" question. I wonder if this is not one of the biggest roadblocks to Scrum success - not...
1744
Steven Gordon
sfman2k
Aug 3, 2003 2:52 pm
All good points. Ken's story could also be interpretted as delivering what the customer really needed in the short term even though it was contrary to the...
1745
Bryan Zarnett
bryan_zarnett
Aug 3, 2003 2:58 pm
... Why should this be specific to Scrum? It's a general problem in IT. I don't think the issue is a real customer. What is a real customer? Crappy word...
1746
Bryan Zarnett
bryan_zarnett
Aug 3, 2003 3:04 pm
... I feel customer is a poorly chosen word because the customer can have such a wide definition. In a Online-banking System who is the customer? I personally...
1747
Michael Ben-David
michaelbd_2000
Aug 3, 2003 3:23 pm
I agree Bryan, Deb, maybe if you went after the real end USER audience (there might be multiple) you might have discovered the political scene in time to keep ...
1748
Deb
debhart9
Aug 7, 2003 2:14 pm
... have ... customer? ... business ... Actually, this is exactly the problem I ran into on another project - the BA standing in for some "general public" led...
1749
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 7, 2003 2:20 pm
... Surely there is no higher calling. ;-> Ron Jeffries www.XProgramming.com Adapt, improvise, overcome. --Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway (Heartbreak Ridge)...
1750
Brad Appleton
bradapp1
Aug 7, 2003 3:22 pm
... This seems to be a recurring problem. A related problem is when the end-users are a completely separate set of people than the folks paying for the...
1751
The Morsicatos
morsicato@...
Aug 7, 2003 4:43 pm
In order to steer the ship, the business "expert" must have a clear understanding of who the users are and what relationship they have to the ongoing success...
1752
Ron Jeffries
RonaldEJeffries
Aug 7, 2003 4:46 pm
... The locutions goal donors / gold owners entered the XP community, I think, through me. I lifted it from the well-known "jiggler", III. He was the first...
1753
Brad Appleton
bradapp1
Aug 7, 2003 5:33 pm
... So if the two appear noticeably different, then it would seem that should be an "alignment smell" of some kind requiring refactoring of something other...
1754
Brian Marick
marick@...
Aug 7, 2003 5:34 pm
It's a commonplace that security requires some sort of carefully-vetted design up front and that, therefore, projects where security is important should not...
