Creating a Forum to Ask Questions and Learn

One of the most important elements for executing Iteration Zero is the Workshop. The Workshop allows the team to see how the software is going to be developed from a process perspective. Additionally, it helps the team become familiar with the technologies, components and patterns implemented and added to the code solution/project. This begins the process of the team becoming immersed into the construction process. Similar to the TD mentioned earlier, I also like to use the phrase “Process Debt”. This is a negative side to process that causes pain and inefficiency that can be partially tested and corrected in Iteration Zero.

As illustrated by the Release Plan, in order for the development and quality teams to be effective in Iteration 1, the Business Analyst(s) should begin creating the Business Rules Documentation (BRD). Iteration Zero provides them with a jump start from both the development team and the quality team; both of which have a dependency.

If needed, the QA team can also have test scripts available for developers to unit test against. While I have seen this work effectively on some projects, I have also witnessed this not really making sense on others. Your call.

Iteration Zero can also be used to identify risky technical aspects of the system. These risky elements should be studied to form a mitigation plan as well as executed in Iteration Zero to learn as much as possible, as early as possible.

Conclusion

Although there are ways to prevent a project catastrophe, most of us have still seen at least one project land in the dumper for a myriad of reasons. While there are elements outside of delivery that can hurt a project, we can focus on this one piece and remove as much negative probability as possible from delivery.

Adding and enforcing Iteration Zero is a great next step to achieving that. Do everything that you can to avoid a death-march up-stream. Your next journey can actually become faster, more predictable and provide much more value to the business and the delivery team by thinking ahead when you plan your next Iteration Zero.

About the Author: David Katauskas

David Katauskas is an accomplished software veteran with deep expertise in application architecture, framework development, system design and development process enhancement.

In his role as Senior Software Architect for a custom software development firm, Geneca, David plays an instrumental role in the adoption and success of Geneca’s unique Getting Predictable^SM best practices. David leads educational workshops on architecture and business/IT alignment and is a member of Geneca’s Architecture Review Panel. To learn more about Geneca, visit www.geneca.com.