Thursday, November 09, 2006

A true story

Week One:

2006

I changed my department. I have a desk and a Laptop borrowed from my previous job. Time to get to work. I shared with the team how automated test (Nunit) works. I heard one person resisting the change. “Ya, Ok – this works if you have formulas but our thing is different ….”

Then I showed them the continuous build (Cruise control) - One developer got it working on his machine day after. There's hope.

Week Two and Three:

It seems that DRY “Don’t repeat yourself” principle is violated big time here. Smell like copy and paste everywhere. There are many screens doing the same thing and rules are scattered all over the code.

It doesn't take long to identify the communication problems. Business people are saying something today and want it tomorrow. However, they aren’t talking much with developers. I’ve picked up a lot of information about the project and people just by talking to them. Stand Up meeting sounds like a good start.

The good news is that my boss is very supportive. The dev managers saying "our business people never show up in the meetings." Well, I hope this time is different. I start building a good relationship with the users. My boss schedules a series of stand up meetings in the morning at his office. The good news is that business people are showing up and liking it. The room is covered with index cards. However the stand ups are taking more than 10 minutes. I reminded everyone to be aware of this overrunning meeting and started raising a red flag when people go beyond 1 minute talk. It isn’t perfect but at least business and developers are talking.

Week Four:

Comming soon....

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