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Great comments, I agree 100%..
Carlosian wrote: Maybe these guys haven't been on a project that failed due to being delivered late, and they have to learn the hard way.
Their previous project took 4 years to fail and cost around £25 million. Odd how they haven't learned anything from that! Even odder that they weren't all kicked out..
Ah, I see you have the machine that goes ping. This is my favorite. You see we lease it back from the company we sold it to and that way it comes under the monthly current budget and not the capital account.
modified 31-Aug-21 21:01pm.
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The bad news: You are probably toast.
The good news: You know this now, not on the ship date.
Agile is not a magic wand, you still need engineering skill.
However, Agile processes are designed to expose problems. It worked.
Given lots of test effort and still shipping bugs it sounds like a competence problem.
How to deal with that is up to you and your organization.
Sorry I can't be more specific as I have not hit that particular problem.
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Maybe you've got a few things the wrong way around.
Are you asking too much of the team in too short a space of time?
If this sprint and the one prior is only delivering 40 points instead of the anticipated 160, then perhaps that is too much. Even if you didn't do unit testing and just went straight to system testing would the 160 be realistic?
Remember to apply S.M.A.R.T. objectives for your team. That might help keep things focused. You're probably doing this anyway, but direct your team to complete the most critical changes in a sprint first, so the least critical changes can roll over. If you're delivering the important stuff then perhaps your management will overlook the shortfalls in delivery. At least for a while.
Take another look at the project plan/road-map. Has enough time been allocated to testing? I'd say a rule of thumb would be 1 hour of dev should have 1 hour of testing. Even better to have 2 hours of testing. You could consider the act of maintaining unit tests goes into part of the testing time. Maybe that is the difference between 160 and 40 points - there is a whole bunch of time for unit test development that isn't accounted for. You may be able to justify an extension to the development based on actual performance and gaps in the project plan.
If the subject of extending the team comes up in that context, definitely go for more testers, or more developers dedicated to supporting the testers and/or unit tests. Testers and junior devs tend to be cheaper so you could get more bang for your buck there.
As you've pointed out in your post, a lot of time can be sunk into testing one way or another. Even if you didn't use unit testing & CI there would still be a test team that is likely to not inherently have the skills necessary to reset systems, write scripts and generate test data. Inadvertently the testers could be a drag on your dev team, so make sure they have access to dev skills. Even if that means assigning a developer specifically to that role. To put it another way, sacrifice one dev to testing so everyone else can get on with their jobs!
If this still doesn't get the delivery you want, then don't be afraid to ditch the unit testing entirely. Your team will hate it. Maybe it will bite you in the arse later; but later is for those that survive the deadline. However, if you do, then make double sure that your system testing is giving you good coverage.
Finally, my old PM used to say that the first thing he did with a failing team was to reduce (not increase) headcount. I think there's been some studies on this, but basically those that are left behind tend to have tighter communication channels with each other, where they don't spend time having large meetings or email discussions. For whatever reasons, it's an opportunity to trim out team members that aren't a good fit for the team in that particular project environment (high-pressure & short lead times). I think it was about 5 devs to be optimal, but be careful to do some more reading on this subject.
That's it. All in my opinion. Take it or leave it as you see fit. And Good Luck!
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So, we have a Secret Santa thing going on at work through Elfster[^].
This is my wish list: [^]
For some reason the file has gone missing: here is the list:
REI gift card
Time machine - prefer TARDIS
Phased plasma cannon in the 40 watt range
Working Starship with warp drive
I can't imagine I'll get my first pick...
What did you ask for?
modified 9-Dec-16 13:51pm.
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I can't imagine you'll get any of those unless Santa is real... please, please let him be real!
If so, can I get a ride in your Tardis?
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Forogar wrote: If so, can I get a ride in your Tardis?
I told you next Tuesday that I'd pick you up last Thursday and you weren't there!
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Few (if any) of the items on my wish list fall in under the KSS category.
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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This www.codeproject.com page can’t be found
No webpage was found for the web address: https://www.codeproject.com/script/Membership/Uploads/46383/Untitled.png
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Odd. Seems to be a bit flaky! Wait, it's gone! How bizarre!
Here is what I asked for:
REI gift card
Time machine - prefer TARDIS
Phased plasma cannon in the 40 watt range
Working Starship with warp drive
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That's a pretty weedy plasma cannon - you sure it wasn't 40 Gigawatt you wanted?
40 watt is the JML / Lidl / Walmart Black Friday of plasma cannons.
And isn't the Tardis usually full of hidden daleks?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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OriginalGriff wrote: That's a pretty weedy plasma cannon
If it was good enough for the Terminator...
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Never go clubbing in a new car: the warrantee is void if the seal is broken.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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That would not get my squeal of approval.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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PETA called. They won't this TOTD retracted. It doesn't meet their seal of approval.
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Squeal of approval, if anything.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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Folks harp about that all the time.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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If you keep both eyes open; looks like a goat. Pink goat.
The sh*t I complain about
It's like there ain't a cloud in the sky and it's raining out - Eminem
~! Firewall !~
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If one is served Ziti when they ordered Rotini, can those noodles be considered an im-pasta ?
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Impasta[^]
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant Anonymous
- The problem with quotes on the internet is that you can never tell if they're genuine Winston Churchill, 1944
- I'd just like a chance to prove that money can't make me happy. Me, all the time
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Actually, if it doesn't move around the box under its own power I'm pretty tolerant.
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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So you are not a fundamentalist Pastafari?
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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Orzo one might think. The though did arise, but it pastina few minutes.
Ravings en masse^ |
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"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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When it comes to programming languages, Python is one of the most structured, standardized languages nowadays. I see Java, C#, C++, C and everything like it, but I don't see Python. Why don't we have a Python section on this site? I would love to post articles about it, particularly an article I've been working on about why Python is a superior language.
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