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I'm a relatively new developer (two years experience, coming from an apprenticeship) and in my workplace we've only ever had one developer working on a project at a time.
We keep our projects in Microsoft Visual Source Safe and check out files as required, and checking back in when we're done.
However, I've been doing some thinking lately and I'm unsure how we'd work on the same project at the same time? Almost everything has dependencies on some core code and certain base classes. Is there anywhere I can go to read up on concurrent development, or are there any 'techniques' I should be researching?
How do team work on projects together? For background information I'm a .NET developer working mostly with VB.NET and webforms, but am moving onto C# MVC.
Edit
I think what I'm really asking here is about the techniques that should be employed as opposed to the software. I've been tinkering with Git a little and can see the benefits of the system over VSS. I was looking more for help with techniques on a project level that can be employed with concurrent development;
Should the development of two sections be completed then merged, or should it be more closely worked on together?
Are there any proven techniques or best practices when it comes to reviewing changes or discussing the next move?
Are there any books or articles I can read on how to produce a project as a team more efficiently etc?
Given you are using a Microsoft Stack, does it not make more sense to update yourself and use TFSOnline as an example. Its far better than its predecessor and everything is fully integrated into your toolset (assuming you use Visual Studio). There are loads of tools out there but everything I use is free inside a MSDN subscription and it plays nicely together. I am not saying others aren't ahead of the game but it makes more sense given what you are doing. Was very surprised to see SourceSafe stil being used.
I never used Visual Source Safe, but most chances are a different source control tool called Git (http://git-scm.com/) will make the concurrency better.
As the project will grow, you will probably have less collisions - just because there are more files to work on.
Try to push back the code more often. No more than 1/day - and hopefully sooner.
Use some kind of SCM(source code management) Wiki,
You can use some kind of program to help you, today the most popular program to this is GIT Wiki Git, but have many others. Do some research and find out what is better for you.
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Currently I'm working alone on a small project for University and I wondered: Does it make sense to apply methodologies (XP, Scrum) or parts of it? If only for experience? Or does it produce too much "overhead"? And if it does, which one would fit best?
Methodologies give the approach to tackling a development, to me it would still be applicable if there was one or 100 people on the project. The only difference as you being the sole developer would take on multiple roles within the development.
It's certainly an interesting idea to be able to sprint towards getting a set of goals done in a certain time. It might add some motivation to hitting a deadline, and preventing feature-bloat.
As any skill, project management side of development improves with practice, so I'd say it's worth trying out.
Worth noting that XP and Scrum are development methodologies not project management methodologies.
Development methodologies (such as XP and Scrum) govern areas such as requirements gathering, development techniques, testing and release.
Project management methodologies (such as PRINCE2) cover elements such as scheduling and planning, risk and issue management, project scoping and business case management.
But the accepted answer is right regardless. Unless you're the only person who will ever see the software, input into it, code on it or interact with it in any way at all, methodologies of both sorts will absolutely have something to offer and should be looked at. Even if you are the only person they can still be useful.
Some of this depends on where you intend to go with your work: you're working alone today, but are you planning (or at least hoping) to build something big enough that you will need help? If so, then it is good to get some practices in place upfront - not so much that it will slow you down, but something that you can build on when you create your team.
A colleague of mine, who has left architecting high-volume trading systems to build software for the iPod and iPad, has done some thinking about this now that he is a team of 1. You might find it helpful:
link text
If you are working alone, then pair programming may be a bit of a challenge. :) At the same time, having a story board and moving cards may be useful for others to see if they are connected to your project,e.g. end-users or project managers. My suggestion is to read up on various approaches and if it seems like it may work, do a trial and see how if it makes things better or not.
I have worked on projects by myself and you definitely need to play multiple roles. I'm a better developer now than before I worked on my own, and definitely I can integrate to any development team working with XP and Scrum since I made sure than when I worked by myself I would do the best practices XP and Scrum suggests.
The only thing you couldn't apply is pair programming. Besides that everything is possible playing multiple roles, it will enhance your development for sure.
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I am going to be starting a new job in a few weeks where I will be responsible for both the maintenance and development of a couple of existing web applications and the development of new web applications.
As I will be the only developer on the project and the previous developer was more of a hobbyist, no formal project management or planning techniques have been followed. Additionally no bug tracking has been used or if anything has been recorded its just been notes on paper.
I would therefore like to introduce a better system to help resolve some of the issues and help ensure things run more smoothly. I intend to develop using an agile process (likely scrum) and would therefore like to know what all-in-one solutions people could recommend for me to look into further. I am looking for something which will provide at minimum:
Project Planning
Defining new features
Time estimating
Ability to organise tasks by priority
Project Management
Tracking active tasks
Reporting
Bug Tracking
I would also like to let other staff easily submit new bugs in the applications which they find or customers report. Additionally support for them to add new stories / high level tasks would be of use so they can note down other new requirments/features and I can then work with them to outline more detailed tasks and estimates.
So far I have looked at a number of systems including:
FogBugz - Seems great for bug reporting but would need something else for project planning / management
Agile Buddy - This is probably the best solution I have found so far
Trac
Smart Sheets
Pivotal Tracker
However, as I have not actually used any of these systems myself I do not know what ones would be best or whether there is a better solution out there??? So any recommendations you can provide would be much appreciated.
Actually, FogBugz does project management as well. It will even try to learn how accurate time estimates for features are from each user, and give you estimated milestone completion times accordingly, with probabilities of finishing at various dates. I've used it for the bug tracking, and really liked it, but I've also read enough about its project management features to know that it has them, and they're pretty good.
FogBugz feature list
When I was working as a solitary developer, I picked up a copy of Planning Extreme Programming and bought a pack of 3x5 cards and a plastic box for them. I used those in the Planning Game and stuck the ones I was working on on my wall. My boss could walk by and see what I was working on. This worked well and cost little.
We're currently using Zen at work - it's a web-based Kanban board for planning. This is nice when your stakeholders aren't co-located or if priorities/requirements change frequently.
You can enter bugs as user stories with either system, or you could use a separate defect-tracking system.
I'd question if Scrum is suitable for a one-developer shop. It's targeted towards project management. I'd rather not have a stand-up meeting with myself. ;) XP (minus pair programming) works fine for a solitary developer.
For a one-man show, you don't need any tools to speak of.
Tools -- generally -- are for coordination.
If it's just you, what -- precisely -- are you coordinating?
If you want to make things visible, a pair of simple internally-focused web pages built from static content will do.
Bugs.
Burndown for Features.
That's about it. Use the simplest tools you can possibly use. I recommend using docutils to generate the HTML from plain, simple text.
Don't go tool-happy until you have a large enough team that simple text doesn't work any more.
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My old system involved using Microsoft FrontPage and a frame page. The top frame contained a (tree) list of the tasks and sub-tasks I'd need to do, while the bottom frame contained any useful project information, notes, etc. I'd invariably need to jot down. I used bookmarks in the page to mark major tasks while highlighting current tasks with bold and marking off finished ones with italic. I would use a third frame for navigating between bookmarks via. a Table of Contents of hyperlinks linking to them. It was pretty clumsy, but it worked nicely.
Obviously, I want to upgrade now. Any good ideas on how to get a new system in place that can do something similar to my old one (without the crudeness/clumsiness)? That is, a formal piece of software for that purpose?
ToDoList is pretty good. Cons: Windows-only.
We use FogBugz, and it's worked out brilliantly for us. Far better than JIRA, easy to use, friendly, powerful. Highly recommend it.
It has a built-in wiki for notes.
(Really easy to use!)
It has a bug tracking system that is
second to none.
You can even make your software
submit its error reports to FogBugz,
and it will automatically generate a
case with relevant information in it.
This feature is called Scout.
You can create releases and all file
cases, features, bugs, whatever by
release, priority, etc. the power is
all there.
And best of all, you can host it on
your own server or have them host it
for you. Nifty system.
Works on just about any OS and browser.
Unlike most web applications, it's snappy!
We are using Jira for task lists, version planning and time management. And Google sites for internal documentation and related things. In general most Wiki system will be good for the documentation and todo (e.g. Confluence).
TFS : Team Foundation System
Full source control & work item tracking all integrated with Visual Studio.
If you use Visual Studio, and work in a windows environment, I recommend this.
If you don't use Visual Studio I recommend you do ;)
You can also setup project portals etc. that display activity, reports, all that jazz.
Basecamp from 37signals is a great tool to keep track of your tasks and projects.
I use fogbugz s&s edition
I think that an Issue Tracking System may suite your needs, there are plenty alternatives from OpenSource to Commercial...
You can setup and use ASP.NET Time Tracker Starter Kit. It also allows you to extend it.
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So, at my current job we're usually 1-3 developers, 1-2 art directors and 1 project manager on each project, with the smallest ones just being one of each and the larger ones being three developers and two art directors.
I'm looking for a software, combination of softwares or some type of service that will allow us to manage our projects individually, it's important that we're able to manage several projects at once within one system/piece of software (without going through a too complicated setup process for each project) since we usually have 2-3 ongoing projects in parallel.
We need to be able to integrate with SVN, Track bugs/features/request, Put up milestones and some type of agile management a´la SCRUM would be nice.
Preferably it should be able to run on Windows (without to much hassle, ever tried to put up Apache+Python+Svn+Trac on the same Windows 2003 server and get them all to run together? not fun.) since we mostly do .NET development and most of our servers run Windows 2003.
Since you seem to have a maximum of six people working in a single room - I'd give serious consideration to not using software at all.
A whiteboard & cork board for each project, plus a whole lot of index cards / stickies can go a long, long way towards meeting the project management needs of one or two small projects.
(Failing that - I've found basecamp a fairly lightweight tool for small projects - although it doesn't do any sort of source control integration. I've also heard good things about the latest FogBugz - but I've had such bad personal experiences of earlier versions I've not tried it yet myself)
http://www.project-open.org/ covers your requirements and is available for Windows. However it is targeted at larger organizations (>20 employees), so that you might find it overkill for a group of 6.
I personally use BaseCamp for my company and have had great luck with it!
Edit oops, I didn't notice the SVN requirement, BaseCamp can help with the other stuff.
You might want to try out Mantis (www.mantisbt.org). It is a little cumbersome at first, but with a little bit of customization, it will work for you. It has SVN integration, and a bunch of other stuff which I haven't used yet... :|... such as Mobile support, Wiki support, etc.
And it's OSS (Open Source Software). Written in PHP, works with MySQL, or PostgreSQL. Just check it out, it's good.
http://www.mantisbt.org/
Atlassian's Jira Studio sounds like exactly what you need. It's hosted, so there's nothing to install.
If you want something that is quick and easy to work with that integrates well with Windows I would suggest Microsoft Office Groove. I have been using it on my current project and it also easily allows you to start new projects and add members.
It is not the best solution in the world, but it is included with Office '07 and it has tools to help with project management, bug reporting, calendar, meeting summaries, etc.
The one major problem I have found with it is that version control is not included by default. From what I understand you have to setup a SharePoint server to have version control in Groove, but I have not done this yet and have been hoping that my backups will work fine.
+1 for starting out with a whiteboard, stickies and whatever other office supplies you can think of. Being able to visualize the state of your project in a big visible wall can be really useful, more so than software-based tracking, IMHO.
You need to make sure the team is committed to keeping it up-to-date, though.
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We have MS Sharepoint -- which isn't all bad for managing a task list. The data's publicly available, people are notified of changes and assignments.
I think that Bugzilla might be a little easier for management and reporting purposes. While there are some nice Open Source Scrum management tools, I've used up a lot of my political capital and can't ask for too much more than what we've got now. Money isn't the object -- obviously -- it's the idea that my team has too many specialized tools.
Will Bugzilla work out as a more general project management tool -- outside the bug fix use cases?
Will I be bitterly disappointed and wish I'd downloaded something else and made my case for a better project management tool?
Bugzilla Is a great bug tracking system. We have tried to use it for other project management tasks and the results are less then stellar. I would recommend finding something designed with your goals in mind.
Try it for yourself.
Get a $15/month account at wush.net and use it yourself for a while (no business relationship besides satisfied customer).
Bugzilla is powerful and has a lot of configuration options, which can be confusing.
I personally used it three years ago on a project I was working on. I had no project manager and I was the developer, so I needed a very-light-overhead systtem. Bugzilla gave me that. I put my main goal as an enhancement "productionalized system" and then I made dependencies to reach that point. I ended up having 160 nodes all dependent on each other. This essentially was a work breakdown structure. I didn't bother with time estimates, and I didn't bother with creating any other kind of project documentation.
A cool advantage was that as I coded, if I noticed something needed to be done, I would just pop it into bugzilla (20 second process once it's set up), tie it as a dependency, and go back to what I was doing.
Whenever I completed a task, I would look at the dependency diagram and find the outermost leaves (bugs that blocked other but weren't themselves blocked), and work at it.
The advantage of this method for me is that if a task had looked simple and had one node associated with it, but when doing the thing itself I realized it was more complex, I would just split it into different subtasks. This took only a minute and absolutely didn't involve a meeting with a project manager.
Other people on the team could track my progress by looking at open bugs, closed bugs sorted by dates, etc. They saw action, they left me alone. When I had external dependecies, I would make a bug, detail the work, and send that person a link via email. They could then see why this was needed by looking at the dependency diagram.
Note that unless previously agreed upon, I did not assign them the bug.
It worked really well and the system was ready one month early.
How will it work with SCRUM? Having only had a cursory glance at scrum I can't tell you. But that was my experience.
Using a dedicated host will allow you three things:
support
easy upgrades (unless you got gurus in-house, bugzilla management ain't easy--for me at least)
users across organizational boundaries.
Note that bugzilla has all sorts of security features, so it's easy to lock-down the users to what they need to see.
My stand-alone solution is DokuWiki + MantisBT + Subversion + Review Board, which can be integrated with relative ease. Hosted alternative is Bitbucket.org. The rationale is you write user stories on Wiki and can reference them specific tasks. Larger bugs can be collaboratively designed and the "wiki" link is provided on the bug report by Mantis. Review board lets you do peer code reviews against svn diff before change is committed.
We've used Trac and Subversion very successfully for several projects.
The main advantage here is being able to tailor reports, some very Scrum specific, to provide information to management.