Re: Practice: Weekly Cycle

Andrew McDonagh wrote:

 > What we have seen is that when we have 'many smaller' stories per iteration,
 > rather than the usual 'few larger', we are more likely to finish them within
 > the iteration. I can almost guarantee that the 5 day estimated stories are
 > worked upon right up to the last minute before release, and usually there's
 > some code smells left untreated.
 >
 > Currently there's some discussion within the team of whether we should have
 > a refactoring iteration to address these code smells. As the coach I'm
 > trying to show how we can address these issues without resorting to this.

Here's an idea:

In your iteration retrospective, briefly visit each story, and
ask if the story was "comfortably completed," where "comfort"
means it wasn't rushed at the end of the iteration, minimal
code smells were left un-addressed, there was sufficient time
for Customer review and feedback, etc.  Keep track of the
answers vs. story size over time.  Post these results on a BVC.

If your hunch is correct, the larger stories should score low
on the comfortably complete scale, and the small ones higher.

If the team doesn't know how to answer "comfortably complete,"
or can't agree on the criteria, that's another issue to visit.

Regards,
Paul
-----
Paul Hodgetts -- CEO, Principal Consultant
phodgetts-5PSskdmeComukZHgTAicrQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx -- (714) 577-5795

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