Bob La Quey wrote: > I must say I like this. In some real sense the Work In Progress > in the construction of any software is "decisions". Now since > decisions require "questions" I suggest it may be more useful > to characterize the "questions." > > Cockburn has broken his model of the software manufacturing > process down into the following elements: > 1) Sponsors > 2) Business Analysts > 3) UI Designers > 4) Programmers > 5) Database Designers > 6) Testers > > Not a bad decomposition. So what are the "questions" > each group must pose to the other in order to generate > "decisions?" > > BobLQ > > BTW. If this post by Jim generates a coherrent thread someone > might edit it and post it as a commnet at Cockburn's blog.
It's probably inadvertent that you left off _users_ in his first group (Sponsors and Users), but that's a good excuse to expound, eh? A relatively tight feedback loop with users (or users' representatives) is an important part of the model -- and of any of the _agile_ relatives, I guess. It's a big part of what makes the release early, release often idea work. I would remark that his grouping seems to reflect an ongoing project. I wonder whether it's possible (or useful) to characterize the elements that contribute to a project in its conceptual stage? Re your question about the "questions", I can think of one (which perhaps underlies everything else): what is the goal? what is it supposed to do or provide? why? Pardon me if that seems trivial, but I think there have been many cases where participants labor under different assumed answers to those questions, simply because no one ever bothered to state and explain the desired end-point. A second general question (area) that comes to mind is what are the most important constraints and the non-negotiable features or behavior. It seems that there must be lots & lots of other questions, but these above may be worth starting with. Any comments? Others to be added? substituted? Rewordings? Regards, ..jim -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-lpsg
