Scrum! Solo-style…

To stay on track, or at least remember where I left off, I’ve decided to employ a modified Scrum Methodology for my Facebook Application.

Because I am the Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Scrum Team all rolled up in one I don’t have a traditional Product Backlog or Sprint Backlogs. I’m still using the Excel Spreadsheet model albeit modified for my purposes; I’m actually using NeoOffice since I plan to do all of the development on my MacBook.

So in my workbook I have 5 tabs: Project Data Sheet, Sprint 1-4.  On the Project Data Sheet I’ve listed details about the application I want to write, technology details, questions I need answered, links to online resources.  I also listed the Sprint Themes.  Because my application has only one function, right now, I decided to lay out my Sprints such that my application is iteratively built.

For each Sprint tab I have a place to enter my tasks and my estimates.  I also have a place that displays the total remaining hours for the Sprint.  Plus I added a section that contains links to online resources – I particularly like that because it helps document my application.  However, what I don’t have is a burndown chart or a set number of days for my Sprint.  I’m the only one working on the application and not in a full-time fashion.  I’m not really concerned with my velocity since I know it will vary from day-to-day, week-to-week.  What I am interested in is what tasks and how much time remain for a given Sprint.

I’ll try to post some screen snaps since I now have a new tool: Snapz Pro X.

P.S. The daily stand-ups are a trip – I’ve had to reprimand myself several times for no progress.

Cheers!

Update: Here are two screen snaps:

Kicking off FaceBook Application project…

Over the next few weeks I’ll be working on my Rails-based FaceBook Application.  Yes, I said Rails.  I’ll be releasing details as soon as I decide how and where to do this.  Might be this site.  Might be my PBWiki site: Ka-Blam! [The PBWiki sites might be disappearing too].  I decided I had better get organized and get motivated if I’m going to do Rails/Seaside development; the application is small enough, complex enough to be interesting and will be fun to port to Seaside.

I plan to document my entire progress, no detail too small.  However for my project plan I’m not sure where I’m going to document/track my ad-hoc Product and Sprint Backlogs.  Right now I’m tracking them in a NeoOffice Spreadsheet, works quite well too.

The MB will be my primary development machine.  Should be interesting – already ran into two problems: 1) busted ssh and 2) busted mongrel.  I know, I know – Google’s my friend.  I already have those items in Sprint 1.

So today is Day 1 of Sprint 1…

Cheers!
 

Travel Light; Travel Fast!

I’m getting rid of the blogs I no longer use: the blogger ones (look for them in Google’s cache).

I have this one and I have a Tumblr blog (melriffe.tumblr.com). A good house cleaning is long overdue. Look for updates on this blog.

Cheers!

Check out my About page…

Two things: 1) please subscribe to my FeedBurner feed and 2) please check out my About page.

I’ve started to tweak my blog; you know move stuff around, modularize, etc. I’ve also started putting content on my About page – right now it’s more like a preview of how the page will look; I’m using the blog’s CSS file so the CV will look like a set of blog entries.  Provide feedback please.

Cheers! 

Flame on…

I’m going to use my Tumblr log to make unilateral statements meant to engage and enrage.

Wish me luck!

And without further adieu: http://melriffe.tumblr.com/ 

Cheers! 

Mel Riffe in 2008 – Living Large and in charge…

So what do I have planned for myself, career-wise, in 2008? Smalltalk and Seaside.

I’m going for the Gold and not settling for anything less. Once I get my About page filled in with some content you’ll notice that the first five years of my career was spent writing Smalltalk applications – most fun I’ve ever had in my career. I want to experience that again. And I believe the time is now.

Admittedly I still like Rails and Ruby. However, why should I settle for Ruby when I could be working in Smalltalk? In fact it is my Smalltalk experience that allows me to be productive in Ruby; many of the ideas and concepts are directly influenced by Smalltalk (or so it seems to me)

So while I’ll continue to look at and play with Ruby and Rails, I’ll be focusing my energy (and more of it as the year moves on) towards Seaside and Smalltalk.

Wish me luck. Cheers!