whose work is it anyway?

Whose work is it anyway?IWMW, Manchester, 6th July 2005

The problem...

• Where to start it?

• How to get it done?

• Who should do it?

• How to make sure it works?

• What is ‘it’ anyway?

The problem...

• Where to start it?

• How to get it done?

• Who should do it?

• How to make sure it works?

• What is ‘it’ anyway?

The solution?

The solution?

• To be determined

Some thoughts...

• Preparation

• Problem definition

• Resourcing

• Progress

• Completion

Preparation

What you need to know before you begin

• Who is responsible for the project?

• Do you have a project leader?

• What’s the reason for the job?

• Internal development?

• Third-party deployment?

• Bid-related?

About internal development...

Some suggestions

• Solve the smallest possible problem. Incrementally.

• Have the smallest possible team managing it (preferably one person).

About bids...

Writing bids

• Does the awarding body have special requirements?

• Be aware of all the issues

• Get vendors / developers / technical advisors involved before submission

Defining the job

• Scope

• Timescale

• Budget

• Requirements

• Users

• External factors

Problem definitionHow to efficiently specify your work

Specifications

• Should you be writing technical specs?

• What’s the design methodology?

• Monolithic / waterfall?

• Agile?

• Hit ‘n’ hope?

Specifications

• ... or should you be trying to define the problem?

• ... or what you want to happen?

Specifications, the XP way

• User stories

• Provided by you

• ...often with help from the developer

• ...or an analyst

• ...or marketing

ResourcingHow to pick developers

Criteria for selection

• Internal or external?

• Contractor, employee, service, company?

• Reputation, price, competence ...

• The Google effect

• The community effect

Selection process

• Have a formal process defined in advance

• Meet with them

• Is an RFI/RFP/RFQ stage appropriate?

Criteria and questions

• What is their background?

• What similar work have they done?

• What work are they doing at the moment?

• What are their methodologies?

• What is their normal daily rate?

Liaison

• How to keep internal and external resources talking?

• Introduce them to each other early on

• Ask for policies/methodologies from both

• Establish clear communications channels

• Make conversation a default, not a decision

ProgressHow to check on and measure progress

Be involved

• Release early, release often

• Test in context

• Check documentation

• Measurable objectives: what are they?

• feature-based? time-based?

Getting what you want

• Change management

• Issue and bug tracking

• Iterations

CompletionHow to sign off and quantify achievements

Signing off

• Have clear exit criteria defined at the start

• Signing-off as continuous process

• Do external evaluations early