Saturday, September 19, 2015

Ah, those requirements!


We may not know much about the requirements; our backlog may be slight; but we do know this about that:
1st requirements paradox:
  • Requirements must be stable for reliable results
  • However, the requirements always change
2nd requirements paradox:
  • We don't want requirements to change
  • However,  because  requirements  change  ....  is  a known risk, we try to provoke requirements change as early as possible

So writes Niels Malotaux in an interesting 16 page paper describing his version of Agile, titled: "Evolutionary Project Management Methods: how to deliver quality on time in software development and system engineering projects".

Here's what Malotaux calls "Magic Words"
'

•   Focus
Developers tend to be easily distracted by many im-
portant or interesting things. Some things may even
really  be  important,  however,  not  at  this  moment.

•   Priority
Defining  priorities  and  only  working  on  the  highest
priorities guides us to doing the most important things
first.

•   Synchronise [sic]
Every  project  interfaces  with  the  world  outside  the
project.  Active  synchronisation [sic]  is  needed  to  make
sure that planned dates can be kept.

•   Why
This  word  forces  us  to  define  the  reason  why  we
should do something, allowing us to check whether it
is the right thing to do.

•   Dates are sacred
In most projects, dates are fluid. Sacred dates means
that if you agree on a date, you stick to your word.

•   Done
To make estimation, planning and tracking possible,
we must finish tasks completely. Not 100% finished is
not done. This is to overcome the “If 90% is done we
continue with the other 90%” syndrome.\

•   Bug, debug 
A bug is a small creature, autonomously creeping into
your  product,  causing  trouble,  and  you  cannot  do
anything about it. Wrong. People make mistakes and
thus  cause  defects.  The  words  bug  and  debug  are
dirty words and should be erased from our dictionary.


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