Re: Xtreme Programming / Agile Development and Documentation

[Tony Markos <ajmarkos -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Heidi:

As a Technical Writer, I want as firm of a functional
specification as possible.  And, of course, the most
comprehensive and rigorous functional specs are model
based.

The problem with Xtreme programming is that the
espoused functional specification technique is
something called a User Story.  A User Story is kind
of like a Use Case, but is even more lossey- goosey
(i.e, lacking in built-in integration provisions and
comprehensivness checks)  - and a Use Case is pretty
darn lossey-gossey!  

At least a Use Case is somewhat of a modeling
technique.  A User Story is typically just a few
sentences of text.  (Holly forced, artifical
partitioning Batman!)  

Try tying a bunch of text statements together to come
up with a comprehensive, integrated whole (to serve as
the basis for organizing your docs)!!  The
understanding that a User-Story-based functional
specification is going to give me is going to be very
disjointed.

Solution?  
  
 * Be aware of the issue and be able to explain it to
management.

 * Wait till you have a prototype and document off of
that (vs. planning your work off of pre-prototype
deliverables).

Tony Markos

--- HSC Italian <twins398 -at- hotmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Has anyone else out there worked, as the writer, in
> a development 
> environment that uses the Xtreme Programming / Agile
> method? The developer I 
> work with are using this. I know nothing about it
> and find it useless, which 
> is likely due to my lack of understanding.
> 
> If anyone has been the tech writer for a project
> where the Xtreme 
> programming mehtod was used, and have ANY insight on
> a process for 
> documentation, or how I could learn how to work in
> this environment better, 
> that would be much appreciated.
> 
> TIA,
> 
> Heidi
> 



		
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