[p2pu-dev] [feedback needed] Development work-flow discussion (deadlines vs. priorities)

[Jessica Ledbetter]

Yes, as Philipp said, this is a tough one :) I inserted my personal thoughts
below. I'm totally willing to chat about this on skype or IRC too.

On Thu, Oct 6, 2011 at 1:56 PM, zuzel.vp <zuzel.vp at gmail.com> wrote:

<snip>

Yes, the past couple of months have been quite different from April-ish :)

Overall, I believe that we should make the milestones/deadlines based on
priority. That way if the unexpected happens, we still have the priority to
fall back on if we can't get everything done by the deadline. However, some
things require deadlines and they should be such.


List of pros and cons (please add the ones you can think when you reply)
>
> Pros of Development by Deadlines:
>
> * Easy for interested partners or users to plan projects and marketing
> to start after the dealine.
> *
>
>
Able to schedule development time as well. We had talked about having a
deadline for course creation spurring one to create instead of putting it
off. I figure it's the same for getting commits in -- not for staff, of
course. Plus we know when the busy times will be so can plan vacations :)


> Cons of Development by Deadlines:
> * Hard to notice how an individual deadline affects the completion of
> other developmen todos.
> * Features not associated with a dealine do not get scheduled for
> development.
> *
>
>
+1 to both and another +3 to features not associated with a deadline not
getting scheduled for development.

Setting deadlines based on what we think we can accomplish is great except
when unexpected mental blocks (Hi, my name is Jessica) or random surprises
happen.



> Pros of Development by Priorities:
> * Easier for developers to organize their time working toward periodic
> releases and use a tracker.
> *
>
>

I personally need to figure out how to use the tracker to break up the huge
chunks of work to do so that we get finished tickets but also a "This is in
place so that I can build on it next milestone" type thing too.


> Cons of Development by Priorities:
> * Restricts users/partners to make use of the features available at
> p2pu at the moment and only provide desired features as feedback.
> * Does not solves the subjective aspect of what features are more
> important.
> *
>
>
I feel like the deadlines and priorities are tied together though. If we
have a deadline of getting Feature X out by November, then we have to
prioritize the pieces that get out for it. We had a lot of deadline driven
items recently because of School of Ed starting at a certain time and
Webmaking 101 going live at a certain time and also the start/end time of
contractors.

Also, we tend to sprint together in a way, and I don't mean just
programmers. I feel like a calendar (deadlines I guess) helps us all
coordinate.

So, even though I tend to go a priority-style with customer buy-in, I still
feel we need deadlines to help stakeholders know when things are coming (and
to be ready when they need them), and figure out when everything will
happen. I remember one dev meeting when 3? 4? large things all were due at
the same time and we had a month to do them. For that, I'd go the priority
route cause there aren't enough energy drinks or time.

As far as prioritizing things, we have a bunch of big items like badges and
analytics and challenges, but also a lot of other very important things. I
think we all realize how important they are but just don't have the
resources to get them done. Maybe we can do a big bug focus like we did in
May or June where a milestone was just for papercut-like bugs. Might help
get volunteers back in the game too?


-- 
Jessica Ledbetter
http://jessicaledbetter.com
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