Appena tornato da una fantastica settimana in giro per l’Italia, con tappa finale all’AgileDay di Bologna, ho trovato una busta proveniente dalla città di Prešov, in Slovacchia, con dentro un regalo molto gradito.
Ciò che segue è il racconto del perché di questo regalo. Lo scrivo perché è vita vissuta, e nel mio blog mi piace scrivere quel che mi capita, anche se rischia di essere (anzi sicuramente è) autocelebrativo. Lettore avvisato, mezzo salvato. In più, forse unico motivo valido per leggere quanto segue, è un esempio di collaborazione basata su “user story” e, come potrete vedere, ha dato i suoi frutti :-) .
Dunque, andiamo per ordine. Quando ho incominciato ad appassionarmi alle metodologie agili (User stories, Task e Planning poker), ho iniziato ad usare ScrumDesk, un programma (gratuito fino a 5 utenti) che consente l’uso di Scrum da parte di più utenti remoti.
Avendo la necessità di far installare il medesimo programma presso il cliente, ed essendomi imbattuto in notevoli problemi a mio avviso del tutto evitabili, ho scritto la seguente email:
Hi Dusan,
I’d like to ask you for a feature that IMHO (In My Honest Opinion :-D ) is really needed: “ScrumDesk collaboration invite”.
Let me explain it with a user story:
As the scrum master, I’ve create a project and added some members. Now I’d like to send an invite to one or more of those members, so that they can install the fabulous ScrumDesk program, auto-setup the connection parameters (database setup, name and password setup), so that those members can immediately be “up and running”.
The invite should be a simple email, like this:
--------------------------------------
From <sender>
To John White
Dear Mr. White, this is an invitation to join the ScrumDesk “Magic Wand Project”.
Please, follow these simple steps:
1. Save the attached file “My invite to ScrumDesk.txt” to your document folder (it’s a text file with encoded info needed to help you joining the project)
2. Download ScrumDesk at <hyperlink>
3. Run ScrumDesk
4. Change your password at your will
Best Regards, <sender>
--------------------------------------
When ScrumDesk run, it has to check for the presence of the file “My invite to ScrumDesk.txt”. If the file exist, ScrumDesk must read it and setup the database connection info, the name and password, so that the “Project choice windows” appear. When closing, try to delete the file “My invite to ScrumDesk.txt” so it will not interfere on the next run. If for any reason the file is needed again the joining member can always recover it from the mail attachment. Beware that a joined member that has already changed the password and that try to reuse the invite’s attached file should not be able to connect because the password encoded in the “My invite to ScrumDesk.txt” file is no longer valid. In that case the login windows will appear stating that a wrong name or password has entered. But the Database and Name are already settled correctly, so in any case this scenario is a “better than nothing” situation, isn’t it ?
Why this story is so important?
Because in my experience, every time that I want someone to join my ScrumDesk project, the first time is a nightmare! And I spend lots of time, because:
1. From the web site is not easy to find how to download only the application, in case the database is already settled up (as in my case) and only the client is needed.
2. I really don’t know why, but everybody has some difficulties to connect to the database (not the default demo, but the personalized one, as in my case is <omissis>), maybe because the database connection require the admin name and password, and those are info that really I don’t like to share!
la cosa bella è stata la risposta:
Da: Dusan Kocurek
Inviato: mercoledì 11 novembre 2009 0.28
A: Nicolò Carandini
Oggetto: RE: ScrumDesk feature request
Hi Nicolo,
You must have an access to our backlog :-) as this is the story in the current sprint. Our intent was just to send an email, but your idea with file is much better and simpler. Thank you very much for that, we will definitely implement it.
To download just application there is a link on Download page (between edition buttons). Maybe it should be more visible.
[…]
I would like to offer planning poker cards for your team as kind of compensation for your collaboration. If you are interested in, please send me how many decks do you need and your postal address.
Thank you very much for your great feedback.
Dusan
Sono cose che riempiono il cuore (almeno a me fanno questo effetto). Detto fatto gli ho mandato il mio indirizzo, e questo è quello che ho trovato dentro la lettera:
Ora non mi resta che partecipare ad un progetto con un team, perché se continuo a sviluppare da solo, con chi gioco a poker? :-D
posted @ sabato 21 novembre 2009 21:42