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Going Agile? Process First, Then Tool...
Situation: You're Shopping for Agile PM Tools...  TargetProcess offers an Agile Project Management software package called TP v.2 . Version 1.7 won the 16th annual Jolt Productivity Award. Software to manage Agile projects tends to focus more on results and less on time and tasks. We recently spoke with Michael Dubakov, the Founder of TargetProcess, who gave us a little more insight into what makes TP v.2 special. Here are his responses to our questions. Q. Do your naming conventions and tool functions align with any particular flavor of Agile? How important is the concept of "stories" within the tool?
TargetProcess terminology is primarily Extreme Programming based, however in the upcoming release (early May) we will add custom terms. It will be possible to create your own terminology in TargetProcess to support any in-house agile process. Moreover, it will be possible to create unique terminology for each department inside the company if required. TargetProcess is agile-focused for sure. It may be used with almost any agile process, but will not work perfectly with waterfall. It is designed to solve exact problems in agile environment and not follow a one-process-fits-all approach.
A User Story translates to “Requirement” in traditional PM language. There are two types of requirements in TP: Feature and User Story. A feature is conceptually larger and it may consist of several user stories. A User story is a key thing in TargetProcess as well as in real life. In fact user stories are an attempt to describe “people needs”, and those needs are why software is created. They are the most important thing in any project regardless project type, size or methodology.
Q. Can you describe the process of scope management using TP v.2?
We manage scope using the Release Planning / Iteration Planning areas. The release planning area allows you to create a product roadmap and balance effort for all releases, while the iteration planning area powers the creation and balancing of iterations. The Release Burn Down chart show how is the release going. It provides insight into whether it is possible to add more stories/features in the release or if there is a need to reduce release scope and drop some stories to meet the deadline.
Q. Is TP v.2 particularly good for projects of any particular size, industry, or type? What makes it unique among Agile PM software packages?
In general TP works best for very experienced agile teams. We feel it works perfectly for distributed teams as well. "We do not recommend using ANY agile PM tool when changing your overall development approach from waterfall to agile, since it may shift focus from people and process to tool itself. The process change should be made first. Then the a tool can be introduced to make that process work more effectively." If team feels the need for a replacement for manual tools (whiteboards/excel/cards/etc.), then TargetProcess may be a perfect choice.
TargetProcess is used in small companies with several developers and in quite large departments with up to 300 people. Project fit is a matter of agile process, not a tool. Any agile focused team may use TargetProcess. Teams using waterfall approaches likely will not benefit from TP usage.
Simplicity, integrity and productivity are what make Target Process unique. TP is simple in comparison with other APM tools. The user interface is AJAX based and very responsive. It provides many productivity tools like screenshot capture, a bug submission utility or integration with Subversion that saves a lot of time from the developer’s perspective. (TP automatically changes the state of user stories or bugs, add comments and spent time from a single commit message). Our customers love the interface. Most are happy with the tool and that is the best indicator that we’re headed in the right direction. |
Posted on: April 09, 2007 04:21 PM
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Going Postal
Situation: You Want a Better Way to Send Out Snail Mail... Postful is a new service that allows you to send actual letters through email. For just under a buck you can send a single page document to someone's physical mailbox. Why would you do this? Well the pitch goes something like this:- For recipients who do not have email, it's easier than putting together a letter. - For those who need to track all correspondence, this application lets you track everything from your computer. |
Posted on: April 07, 2007 11:34 PM
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Leave me Alone...
Categories:
Time Killers
Categories: Time Killers
Situation: You HATE Social Networks... I think half of my offline friends feel this way. Enjoy Isolator. |
Posted on: April 07, 2007 10:16 PM
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Messaging for the Highly Scheduled PM
Situation: You Schedule Time to Return Messages OR Want Mobile Team Alerts Everyone has their own way of dealing with the tremendous volume of messages we receive every day. Many succumb to a demand-driven lifestyle, constantly checking voicemail, email, etc. - and responding as soon as they come in. Others like to shut out the noise and focus on the task in front of them until a particular time of day that they allocate to returning messages. Got Voice is a free service for those in that last group. The service grabs voice messages off of your cell phone and drops them into your email (you actually play back the voice recording). That way you can go through everything at once.Perhaps a more useful feature of the service allows you to create voice mail groups. This means you can send a voice mail to your entire team without their phones ever ringing. Like a text message (SMS), but easier on both ends. You get rid of the awkward typing thing and take a step out of the process by sending to the group vs. checking off each person on the list. Think about any situation where you would normally send an email out, but need EVERYONE to get it right away vs. when they read their email. It could really come in handy in certain situations. |
Posted on: April 07, 2007 04:39 PM
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Instant Cartography
| Situation: Your Distributed Team Needs Location-Specific Guidance |
Posted on: April 07, 2007 09:16 AM
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