launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[Jonathan Lange <jml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I've been thinking a bit about how we can achieve three[1] things:
 * avoid reworking features
 * avoid working on silly features
 * make our features so good that we have annoying fanboys queueing
outside our retail outlets on release day

Ultimately, it's not going to happen unless we all refuse to make
anything short of excellent. However, maybe some structure can help.
In particular, I think a little structure around the area of defining
features will go a long way toward achieving those three goals.

By a coincidence that I can only explain by appealing to astrology,
I've written three documents to help with this.

1. https://dev.launchpad.net/ReadyToCode

It's a very short list. I'm proposing that before we begin work on
_anything at all_, we run through this checklist: bugs, refactoring,
features, whatever. It might be a useful thing to use for
pre-implementation calls.

2. https://dev.launchpad.net/LaunchpadEnhancementProposalProcess

If getting ready to code is actually non-trivial, then you might want
to use this to help get there. I've tried hard to keep it as simple as
possible.

It's worth noting that the LEP is *absolutely not* the place where
implementation design happens. It's where we collect requirements. I
only grudgingly included the "UI mockup" section.

In the process, I suggest that we use blueprints for keeping track of
these proposals. I think it's time we started eating our own dogfood
again.[2]

3. https://dev.launchpad.net/LaunchpadEnhancementProposalTemplate

This is a template for 2. Should be quite straightforward.

Finally, I said this earlier in an email with smaller circulation, but
it bears repeating:

"""
I really, really believe that big design up front is a wasteful
practice that produces crappy software and unhappy developers. I would
only be happy with these things becoming a part of our process if they
were iterative and if the documents do not become ends in themselves.
"""

With that in mind, I want to know your thoughts on the whole thing.

Expect a follow-up email "soon" with notes and questions on the
nitty-gritty of actually using blueprints.

jml

[1] Also, selfishly, I want to make the role of the Product Strategist
a bit clearer.
[2] Also, again selfishly, I want an excuse to code on Launchpad.