Project presentation

[Pat AfterMoon]

Hi there,

I work as a freelance developer in the software embedded industry, and
I'm also a game developer for my spare time. I would like to
experiment an agile approaches for my new game project starting these
days.

Firstly, I am completely new to Scrum. The project is a game prototype
I plan to develop from July to December 2009 at an average 10 hours
per week. The project is basic and doable, the tools are chosen and
most of the art content is already acquired.

I have firstly written a user manual which explain most of the
elements. I have written a first draft of product backlog and sketched
the 3 first sprint of 2 weeks. I'm currently running the first sprint.

I would like to discuss along the progress of this project with the
Solo Scrum group. Feel free to post any comment or criticism
particularly on the Scrum / Agile solo aspect.

I have used a free tool called IceScrum2 for managing the product
backlog and the sprint. The project files and PDF reports are
available on the web page.

Here is a link on the project web page:
http://tinyurl.com/nogemb

[Peter Bell]

Looks like an interesting project - please do keep us posted.

Best Wishes,
Peter

[Pat AfterMoon]

Thank you for the wishes Peter.

I’ve finished the first sprint and it’s time for a little
retrospective.

I found writing a product backlog and using the sprint concept very
useful. But I think I have missed something during the sprint. Even in
solo, the concept of daily scrum meeting should probably be used, and
adapted like I’ve read on some comments: “a time to reflect on what
was previously done, what will be currently done, and what is holding
on the back.”
In short, my first sprint was composed of 2 product backlog items. The
first item was splinted in 3 tasks and the second in 2 tasks. The work
was done in 7 sessions of roughly 3 to 4 hours.

Unfortunately, while working on the third task I have started to work
on related features that were not clearly planned for this sprint and
should have been better defined and developed on later sprint. And for
the worse, I have encountered some unexpected technical difficulties.
The task initially estimated to 2 ideal man hours has finally taken 15
hours with a mitigated result. I could probably say I was overwhelmed
by a bad habit of cow-boy coding ;)

Finally the sprint has ended with only half of the tasks done. I think
this sprint has highlighted two of the main risk of this software
project: The first is to develop unplanned “fun” features and break
the planning. It’s a classic use case for hobbyist game developers.
The second risk was highlighted by the technical difficulties I’ve
encountered. I must try to reduce the number of features that are not
already covered by tutorials or templates provided with the tools I’ve
choose. My limited skills with these newly acquired tools (Unity3D)
forces me to focus on essential features to get my prototype done in
time.

So, I have redefined the second sprint for including the task that was
not done in the first. I have stopped to use IceScrum2 and decided to
use some spreadsheets and my white board (simpler is better). I will
try to take 5 or 10 minutes before each session to reflect on what was
done, will be done …etc. And I will whip myself to avoid cow-boy
attitude :D

This second sprint should end July 31. A 4 pages PDF file is available
on my website with updated features, product backlog, sprint backlog
#1 and #2.

http://tinyurl.com/nogemb

[Pat AfterMoon]

Just an update before I go on holidays: the second sprint has ended 2
days ago and was a lot better than the first.
I have updated my website with the sprint backlog and a sort of
burning down chart. The next sprint should take place from August 15
to the end of the month.

Happy summer ;)

http://tinyurl.com/nogemb

[Pat AfterMoon]

Another update, I’ve just finished the 3rd sprint.
I think I have definitively adopted the sprint backlog. Until the next
sprint begins, I will update my product backlog and try to produce a
release backlog for the coming 4 months.
There is an aspect of the Scrum method that I would like to try for my
development; it is a sort of sprint review meeting. I think I could
provide a demo at the end of the next sprint. It could be a video, or
directly a release of the application in its current state. I would
like to organize a sort of development chat with some end users. I
think an online event like that could help to compensate the fact that
the Scrum master and the product owner are assumed by the same people,
me.
All in all, the experience will probably be interesting, and it will
compensate the lack of feedback get in this group ;)

And I have decided to communicate more openly about the development
progression, the new permanent url of the website is:
http://www.aftermoon.net/myproject2009/