Bryan Ekman, on 08 October 2013 - 10:09 AM, said:
A note on development phases.
- In design 1 – A twinkle in our eyes, we are still brain storming.
- In design 2 – Feature brief has been presented to stake holders for vetting.
- In design 3 – Design has been approved and is being broken down into user stories.
- Ready for development – Design complete, waiting for resources to be assigned.
- In development – Resources assigned and actively working on feature.
- Ready for internal test – Feature is complete and ready to be tested by QA.
- Ready for public test – Feature has past basic internal testing parameters and is ready for public testing.
In case anyone who doesn't understand programming is wondering this is what is called Agile Development. The normal process for working on an item would look as follows:
Let's take the following item: Inner Sphere Campaign Map
Given the above information it ends up looking like the following:
Design 1: We need a Campaign Map
Design 1: We will need loyalty section of screen
Design 1: We will need Planetary information
Design 1: We will need current Faction locations
Design 1: We will need ...... (about 50 other items)
Design 2:Create Short story in item like JIRA that says Create Mock-up of Screen (this gets assigned to UI specialist) Level of Effort: 8-16 hours
Design 2:After review of the Mock-up by the users, UI Specialist will need to go back in and tweak until business users are satisfied. (This is where having a UI specialist is very important on time to get right.) Level of Effort: 8 to 24 hours
Design 3: Break all 50+ items into parts that read as follows:
- As a Developer, I would like to create a map that allows the user to see current status of the Inner Sphere. (LoE: 8hrs)
- As a Developer, I would like to create a set of bars that shows the users current Loyalty levels with the Factions of the Inner Sphere. (LoE: 6hours)
Note: the Level of Effort is normally determined by the group of programmers as a whole, It is a rough estimate that the programmers will try to complete. Most programmers allocate 6 hours a day on programming. The closer you are to phase 1 the more time you get stuck in meetings. Meetings slow up programming for programmers.
Ready for Development: Well, this is were all stories are put into JIRA and prioritized. The programmers at this point as a group either work the queue for 2 weeks or their is a block allocated that they attempt to work for 2 weeks. The prioritizing happens normally by the Senior programmers and Managers.
In Development: Hey, the programmer has picked up the story and is working it. They will log work as they can and do the programming on that story. They have 2 weeks to get as many stories as possible done.
Ready for internal test: The programmer has finished the item and has put it on the test server. QA testers or other programmers will play with the item to see if it actually does what they want it to do. The programmer working on the project will fix any bugs or unexpected features.
Ready for internal test: Toss to test server see if the players break it. Fix any bugs.
So, what your seeing is the following:
1 week of planning
2 weeks of programming
1 week of internal testing
Tossed to Public Test Realm until is ready