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Could anyone please suggest a software process suitable to the work our team?
We are a team of 6 developers (mostly juniors).
We are supporting the ordering system for an online book store (similar to Amazon books).
The system is already online and functioning.
Most of the work is task based. Sometimes there is a bug that needs immediate fixing or a new module that needs to be added to the system.
Most of the time each developer is working on a separate module of bug which it's estimated time could range from few hours to few days.
Our customers (the management department) are located in another country (we are being outsourced) so requirements take a long time to verify or discuss.
You can view us mainly as a team of freelancers each waiting for a task to be handed to him. Sometimes if a big module is required 2 or 3 developers start working together on it, but that's when things starts going bad as we lack a well defined software process to adhere too.
Notes:
The Waterfall model clearly fails in our case as our team is responsible for gathering the requirements, designing, coding and testing everything.
We tried adopting Agile practices, but it was a complete failure mainly because of points 4, 5 & 6. There is no iteration or prototypes in our work.
So We are looking for a software process that can help us organize our work and provide an acceptable output.
You say you're mainly Juniors. So, learn to walk before you try to run. I suggest you try a staged delivery model. And I also suggest you try reading this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Software-Project-Survival-Guide-Practices/dp/1572316217
I suggest using TFS Express, it's free and have Agile management tool, it's still beta, but Microsoft give a "Go Live" Tag so you can work with it and upgrade your work when RTM release
You can download it from here
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/11/en-us/downloads#tfs-express
I would Strongly Suggest RUP(Rational Unified Process)
Reason being
Concurrent Phases can go on with part of team doing some phase whereas other developers working on a different thing
You will follow RUP increments where some developer who finds solutions to bugs can move to next increment with a part of team still working on previous increment
its highly adaptive and flexible and will help you a lot with different threads going on within project
Previously it was Closed source although IBM donated it to Open source in 2005 and
here's a great presentation that will surely help you understand it better
http://www.perftestplus.com/resources/rupfordummies_ppt.pdf
Hope it helps!!
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Please recommend a scrum/agile project management tool. First, it should be able to be installed or deployed on my local computer. Additionally, it should be free, no need for complete unlimited usage, just that it can support 5 users and some scrum project functions, such as "kanban".
I found some answers of other questions like mine. Some of the tools which have been recommended are too old, so please recommend newer tools for me. And if it has a nice look that would be better, something like scrumwise or targetprocess.
Must haves:
local applications
free
kanban
I would suggest using Eylean board as it is the most visual scrum board compared to the competitors. And according to scrum you need to have a visible and transparent process inside your team. Also this software allows mixing other methodologies as well.
It is free of charge for personal use.
Given that you're wanting a local application, I'm assuming that your team is all located in the same place.
If so, I'd advise against using tools. As the agile manifesto says: "We value Individuals and Interactions over processes and tools". I'd urge you to consider co-locating your team(s), improving communication, using cards, physical boards and information radiators.
Hope that helps.
Try Yodiz, you can have up to 3 free users and it's one of the most intuitive with amazing UX. Every month they add more features to their platform. A few of the important features they have are following.
Collaboration Tools (Chat, Discussion, in-line comments)
Board, they have slick boards to manage your user stories and tasks.
User story management is as easy as it gets. Awesome backlog with priority and filtering
features.
Import/Export data to or from Jira, Pivotal and many other systems.
Three (3) free users with full features.
Report, they have detailed reporting, that makes progress and time tracking so easy.
Over all it's great tool. It's worth to give it a try.
http://www.simple-kanban.com
This seems like it meets your requirements. There are other possibilities if you will accept a hosted solution rather than a local install.
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I am looking for some kind of solution to take care of development scheduling for web applications. How does the big guys in the industry handle this?
Is it all about SVN and bug trackers for them?
I'm not doing web develoment myself, but I assume that the approach for web development is exactly the same as for other big developments (which my team IS doing). In that case, the following tips might help:
Use version management (SVN, ...)
Be agile (this is also resembled by the following points)
Make a mixed team (developers, testers, designer, functional responsibles, ...) that all work as an integrated team on the same subject. Make sure the whole team communicates.
Make everyone responsible for the whole project. Never blame individuals if things go wrong.
Be sure the whole team knows the status of the project: where are we, what should still be done, ... Make everything visual by sticking graphs and sheets to your office wall.
Keep the time between 'raised questions or raised problems' and the answer or solution short. E.g. if a bug is found, log it immediately and try to solve it as soon as possible.
Develop incrementally. Don't develop for several months and then start testing, but make sure you have a working copy every day.
Split development/design/... tasks in smaller tasks that can be developed incrementally (see previous point) and in a minimal amount of time (a day or a few days).
Automate tests as much as possible.
Use continuous integration (where the tests are run at every commit in the version management system)
As a manager, support your team.
Focus
Shield the people of the team from all kind of problems not directly related to the project (e.g. PC problems, printer problems, ...). Choose a 'scrum manager' that solves all these annoying problems for the team.
Demonstrate the results at regular intervals to your customer, your boss, ...
Give a reception if an important milestone is reached.
There are probably many more tips. Therefore, read a good book about managing software development. There is probably no essential difference between web development and other software develoments.
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Currently we use Trac to manage all of our tickets (bugs, enhancements, and new projects). It lacks a nice ability to map out the projects, releases and do time estimations. Is there a good scrum project management system that would integrate with Trac to use the tickets we are already making?
Instead of looking for something that could integrate with Trac, maybe you could use a Trac based solution. Trac has some plugins for Scrum but I'd suggest to check out Agilo which is a nice Scrum oriented and polished version of Trac. This might be one of the best options in your case.
would i be incorrect to assert that you should go through http://trac-hacks.org first and then elaborate here what, if anything, you didn't like about the plugins you found there? otherwise it's not possible to really say what is the best approach, when it is unknown whether you've scanned through the easiest paths.
I work at a company that has completely embraced agile in our engineering organization, but we've done just fine using Jira for our issue management, even though it doesn't have any specific scrum features. Our product manager keeps user stories (fleshed out with acceptance criteria) in his own organized backlog. When the team picks them up for a sprint, he creates a Jira case and we put the case number on our board, along with all of the tasks (which aren't in Jira).
When bugs or feature requests come up (reported by customer support, netops, etc.), the PM prioritizes them just like any other user story. If they're of an immediate nature, he'll put them straight onto the board, but he's hesitant to do so, knowing that's really a redirection of resources. We leave some slack in our sprints to allow for such things, but if things get to hairy, we let him know that we'll have to drop a story, or not do the bugs.
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The company is growing and we're starting to implement more and more complex software designs. I feel a need for some tracking software... I just don't know if it exists.
I currently maintain a Google Doc Folder (shared by our 3 developers) with a well-organized doc for each module. A doc is also created per major upgrade to a module or modules. For all other "tracking"... we have interal forums.
I want the following:
I want get an immediate printout of all Project_01 features or bug fixes on a particular project with the option to hide or show developer comments that have been implemented in the last X number of days.
This clearly suggests a web-based system where developers enter issues, bugs, and features with appropriate tagging. Entries should be commentable, taggable, dated, editable and reporting should be based upon tags, dates, developers, projects, etc.
I figure I'm going to be perceived as naive by the grizzled veterans floating around here, though I've been running this business for 4 years (so I've been around). I don't think we have the resources to absorb the overhead of implementing something like CMMI... but then again, I don't really know what's best.
My personal evolution to using Google Docs per Application Module + internal phpbb forums for everything else has been pretty nice compared to the way we started out (marker boards, Microsoft Word docs). I just feel like I can go a long ways towards exceeding client expectations if I had the ability to track features/bugs/issues better with superior on-demand reporting.
Thoughts?
Update: Went with MediaWiki integrated with Mantis
Take a look at fogbugz. It looks like it meets all your requirements.
Also, take a look at this other SO question: Free/Cheap Task/Bug Management software
I've good experiences with mantis. http://www.mantisbt.org
Yes, FogBugz and Trac are recommended.
I hope it helps.
I find this comparison of issue tracking systems either interesting or overwhelming.
I think with 3 developers, in the same building, you probably can get by without software tools. But, adopting something now, before you're so big/complex that you can't survive without it may save a lot of future pain.
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For an in house software project, what type of system I could use to centralize all the online team members discussion?
For our software development effort, currently our questions and answers are all scattered over emails.
Its hard to track ideas, questions, and answers etc.
What do you guys use? How do you manage such a situation?
Could a wiki be used for some thing like this? And if so, how could I get started? I have not done this before.
Our discussions could have sensitive information for the company as well so how could I address security?
In terms of technology, I would definitely go for a wiki (and Twiki is certainly not a bad choice). If it's installed on your company's intranet then there is no issue in terms of security.
One thing to keep in mind about a wiki is that it requires some work to keep it maintained; it's easy (and sometimes tempting) for everyone in the team to constantly just add pages without taking any linking of pages or structure into account. The moral here: a wiki is a very helpful tool for helping in communication, but it doesn't come for free.
However, depending on the kinds of communication/discussion that you're talking about: definitely watch out that online communication isn't replacing face-to-face communication. Depending on the interpersonal skills of the members of the team, it can some times be too easy for some people to shift to e-mail/wiki/forum use instead of verbal communication. Even having daily stand-up meetings (a la SCRUM) can be very useful in ensuring that everyone knows what is going on in the team instead of relying on electronic communication.
I'd suggest redmine
It has a forum and wiki per project, as you seem to need, and a lot more features very usefull when dealing with a project that requires several members to participate. And its opensource!
The only "issue" is that it was written using Ruby on Rails.
I would say Twiki, its an open source enterprise wiki.
Needs sometime to get used to it, but once you are, you will find opening new pages and topics very easy and quick.
One of the advantages IMO is its hosted on your own server
TWiki® - the Open Source Enterprise Wiki and Web 2.0 Application Platform
My own distributed team has experienced a similar problem, and we've solved it in the following way.
Day-to-day we run a continuous group chat (Campfire is an option). Announcements, questions, and answers can happen in chat, and it's recorded. You can search past transcripts as needed. This is simple and lightweight.
We also use a wiki for more permanent content. Sometimes material that starts in chat migrates to the wiki. The advantage of a structured wiki is that it makes it easier to onboard new team members and maintain specific content like team norms (like Subversion's HACKING doc).
The benefit is that we keep fast and lightweight chat for transient questions and so on, but we still have the wiki to hold content once it's deemed important.