71 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
71 lines
3.7 KiB
HTML
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<html>
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<title>Schedule Rationale</title>
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<body>
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<h1>Schedule Rationale</h1>
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Below is an informal discussion of the rationale behind the Interface Kit team's
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behemoth schedule. Various details may not reflect the current form of the schedule,
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but the basic gist is what's really important here.
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<br>
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<hr>
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<p>
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First, let me head off the suggestion that we formally split into 3 or 4 stand-alone
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projects: the Interface Kit, Application Kit and app_server are completely
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dependent on one another in a way that no other set of system components is. Each
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without the others can accomplish almost *nothing*; I think the existence of Integration
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highlights this fact.
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</p><p>
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Each milestone listed has a number of tasks associated with it; these need to be listed
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and the time for each estimated. These tasks should be as fine grained as possible.
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Taking BView as an example, I would expect each method on BView to have its own entry
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under milestones 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 with entries added as necessary to milestones 18 to
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22. "Why so detailed?" you say. I'm glad you asked. ;)
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</p><p>
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First off, the finer the schedule's granularity, the more realistic estimate you have for
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the project as a whole. Asked to implement BView, one might be tempted to say "Oh, about
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3 weeks," whereas an estimate of the time needed for each method might yield a total of
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two to three times that. While the more realistic overall estimate may be more depressing
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initially, being able to hit goals on or near the estimated date is much better for
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morale in the long run than constantly being behind because all the estimates were too
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low. Trust me on this, I've worked on *way* too many projects that went south because of
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scheduling that was too broad -- usually because the project manager doesn't want to
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"distress" the client by making them pay for the time to schedule correctly. Or design
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correctly, but that's a different rant. =)
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</p><p>
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Second, a fine-grained schedule helps to ensure that nothing gets missed. You might
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think it would be hard to forget to implement a BView method, but if you don't expressly
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schedule for that method, there will be no interface, use case or technical specifications
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or unit tests to fail because the method isn't doing anything. In fact, we might not
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notice the missing functionality until some app that uses it dies a horrible death and
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we have to figure out why.
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</p><p>
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Third, it helps us figure out what functionality is dependent on what -- which helps us
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schedule our tasks in a logical sequence.
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</p><p>
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Fourth, it makes it much easier for someone that doesn't have a lot of time available or
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much experience to pick something that they can tackle and know that they will be making
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a meaningful contribution. It also makes it easier for us to keep track of who is doing
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what on large items like BView: instead of saying "there's a bunch of stuff on BView
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that needs doing," we can say "BView::StrokeEllipse() needs to be implemented" and know
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that a specific person is responsible for that deliverable.
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</p><p>
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Fifth, as daunting as a detailed schedule looks like out of the gate, tasks are getting
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completed *constantly* and it's very satisfying to see progress get made on a regular
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basis. Ideally, one would like to be able to check on the progress each week and find
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several items completed since the last time it was checked.
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</p>
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<hr>
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<!-- The obligatory SourceForge plug -->
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<center>
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<small>The OpenBeOS project is hosted by:</small><br><br>
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<a href="http://sourceforge.net">
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<img src="http://sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=33869&type=1" width="88" height="31" border="0" alt="SourceForge Logo">
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</a>
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<p>
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<small>Copyright © 2001-2002
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<a href="http://www.openbeos.org">OpenBeOS</a> Project</small>
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</center>
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</body>
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</html>
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