Friday, January 30, 2015

Practical Scrum Training (6) Discussion of Product Backlog (continued)

Let's consider the product backlog item related to the editing of data. Just this one more and then we'll jump straight into ordering the product backlog.

In order to correct the information about a person in the family tree as a family tree user, I want to be able to edit the data of a person I choose.

I didn't like this item from the start, because it seemed to me rather complicated to develop. When I think about it now, it doesn't seem that complicated. But for the purpose of training, I need to ask a question: can we do anything smaller, break it into smaller parts or do any other trick to achieve something similar quicker than if we were to develop it as is.

As always, there is something we can do. The aim here is correct data. If we add a new item that introduces deletion of people from the tree, it will be possible to delete a person with incorrect data and then add same person again, this time with good data. Maybe a little awkward to the user, but if we desperately wanted to deliver the "correction" functionality quickly, then maybe we could get away with this approach and deliver real editing functionality one iteration later.

But there's a catch: if we delete a person and add them again, then the "new" person will have a new, unique identifier and the identifier of the deleted person may be spread in several other records (children).

It may be a good point for the training to suggest the deceitful solution with deletions and see when the trainees are able to spot this problem. At planning? Maybe during the development? Maybe someone writing a test for it will be able to spot it quickest?

After thinking about all of this, I conclude that deletions are important (but are not good substitutes for editions) and they deserve to be a product backlog item on their own.

This is how I would order the product backlog item now:

  • In order to correct the information about a person in the family tree as a family tree user, I want to be able to edit the data of a person I choose
  • In order to make corrections in the family tree as a family tree user, I want to be able to delete a person from the tree
  • In order to add new people to the family tree efficienty as a family tree user, I want to be asked if I want to add another person right after I added the last one
  • In order for the family tree to be easier to read as a family tree user, I want the graphical representation of the tree to alternately use one of two different colors for each generation
  • In order for the family tree to be easier to read as a family tree user, I want the graphical representation of the tree to rotate colors of generations from a predefined set of colors
  • In order to maintain integrity of family tree data as a family tree user, I want the identifiers of the parents checked (natural numbers, identifiers are optional) and blocked from being entered if invalid
  • In order to maintain integrity of family tree data as a family tree user, I want the identifiers of the parents checked to be existing identifiers of people already existing in the tree and blocked from being entered if that is not the case
  • In order to disallow non-logical connections in the family tree as a family tree user, I want to be blocked from pointing a person as their own parent
  • In order to disallow non-logical connections in the family tree as a family tree user, I want to be blocked from pointing the same person as both mother and father of someone
  • In order to distinguish the gender of a person in the family tree as a family tree user, I want to be able to assign gender attribute to each person
  • In order to maintain the data about births and deaths in the family as a family tree user, I want to be able to assign birth and death dates to each person
Is this the only good order possible? Of course not. This is only how I see it and I did not consult this with anybody (customer, potential user). Also, once the items are estimated, the order of development may slightly change when the development team estimates what can be done in each iteration.

That's it. The next post will outline how I imagine the training should be conducted.

See also