9.12.2003

Meeting

We hold our first meeting tomorrow. I'm pretty excited. I've been boning up on XP methodology, primarily from Planning Extreme Programming by Kent Beck and Martin Fowler. I think there's a lot we can use, even if we aren't pair-programming. We can still use stories, short iterations and test-first programming. It should be good.

We'll probably get into Go a bit, maybe play a few games (if I can remember the rules, even). We'll probably also develop stories for the app, and break it into iterations.

XP uses this concept called "ideal days". If I could program all day with no interruptions, an ideal day is how much I could get done. Then it measures your velocity. That is, how many ideal days worth of programming you get done in a given period of time (say, a week). I'm thinking, I might have a velocity of 1 day/week. Or maybe even 1/2, depending on how hard I concentrate.

But it's cool to know that, because that helps you estimate better. It divides the actual effort from the calendar. So, if you know you'll be swamped, or are taking a vacation, or are about to get married, or are bringing on a new guy or contractor, you'll know your velocity will be lower, and you can adjust accordingly.

Also, your ideal days are not the same as mine. And neither is your velocity. Still, I estimate using my ideal days, and you use yours. Actually, you could use any unit you like, as long as it's granular enough and measurable against your velocity.

We'll take a look at all that tomorrow.

I've also looked at audio recording the meeting, but I don't think it'll work. I found a program, but I don't have the battery length to record 2+ hours of conversation, and I don't think the Pancake House has extra outlets. Maybe next time we'll go to Starbucks.

My next move is to draw up a bit of an agenda. Just something to keep us on track and help us not forget anything. We'll see how it turns out.

posted by risser at 15:42

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