ErikLundhsFastXpTeam

ErikLundh was the one with the silly hat at XP2001 which said "Put a SPIN on XP!". Yes, that's him. He's now got himself quite involved in the whole Xp movement, and he generally likes to talk - usually about XP, (although he's keen on that spin stuff too), and the wonderful teams he's coaching.

On the last day of the conference, after most of the delegates had already gone home, there was a group of about 30 of us who relaxed by the pool and talked about our experiences with XP. We were running a "goldfish bowl", where you have all the seats in a circle, with five designated as seats for those who are allowed to talk. Only four of the seats can be occupied at one time, so if you want to say something you go up and take the vacant seat, and someone else has to move back to the circle. You should also give up your place if you find yourself sitting up there with nothing to say.

This system seemed to work really well at keeping us focussed, and letting people indicate when they wanted to say something, without interrupting the discussion. It was also a non-threatening way for you to work out when it was time to change the subject - when the story has gone on just a bit too long and you find yourself flanked by four empty seats ;-)

Anyway, the point is Erik did tell a truly great story too.

One of the teams that Erik was coaching were mid iteration when their boss came to them and told them that there was going to be a very important meeting the following day. The project sponsors were coming to check on progress, and a decision would be made whether to continue based on a demonstration of the system. It was crucial that they be shown a certain feature that wasn't implemented yet, at 6pm the next day, or else the whole project could be shelved!

So, it's mid afternoon, and you have to produce a new feature by 6pm tomorrow. What do you do? Go home at 5pm as usual of course. 40 hour week and all that...

The team turned up bright and fresh the next morning at 9am and ran a short planning game. They divided the new feature into tasks, did the estimations, and signed up for them. The rest of the day was spent pairing and writing tests and integrating exactly as in a usual iteration, but collapsed into one day instead of two weeks. About 4pm, the boss came to them and informed them that the meeting had been brought forward - they needed to be ready at 5.30 instead of 6pm!

The team did not panic, they stuck to the process they knew, and got everything up on the integration machine at 5pm, with just enough spare time to run the acceptance tests and practice the demonstration. At 5.30 they showed the investors the system, and it went without a hitch!

Thanks for that, Erik. You're welcome to tell us stories like that anytime.

(In fact I have heard that he is planning to write up the story properly so that you can get the full details instead of just my ramblings... let us know when you do that, Erik)

-- EmilyBache

Well, I got Kent Beck and most of the other extremos[1] to wear that same silly hat, on camera, at XP2001, didn't I?

We hope to get a paper with the story accepted at TCRE02, a workshop on Time Constrained Requirements Engineering at the RE02 conference later this year.

-- ErikLundh

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