TDD on One Page

This drawing is part of a Leanpub book: https://leanpub.com/agileplanet. If you like it, you might want to have a look at the book, too.

References:

• "Test Driven Development by Example" - Kent Beck
• "The Pragmatics of TDD" - a blog post by Robert C. Martin (Uncle Bob)
• Wikipedia on Test Driven Development

Lean on One Page

This drawing is part of a Leanpub book: https://leanpub.com/agileplanet. If you like it, you might want to have a look at the book, too.

References:

• "Implementing Lean Software Development" - The Poppendiecks
• "Leading Lean Software Development" - The Poppendiecks
• Presentation on Lean Software Development Principles - John P. Vajda
• Lean on Wikipedia

eXtreme Programming on One Page

This drawing is part of a Leanpub book: https://leanpub.com/agileplanet. If you like it, you might want to have a look at the book, too.

Resources:

• "eXtreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change" -  Kent Beck, Cynthia Andres
• http://www.extremeprogramming.org/
• Wikipedia on eXtreme Programming

Lean Startup Experiment - Day 2

The second day of our lean startup experiment is over now. What did we accomplish? What did we learn?

What did we accomplish? 

The first thing we did this morning was to reprioritize our product backlog. We then managed to sketch some (seventeen!) paper prototypes and chose the one we liked best in fifteen minutes. Afterwards we kicked the complete technology stack we wanted to use yesterday and set up a new one. But still we managed to get a first UI prototype online this evening. You can find it here: http://thatsmykid.de/

First UI live prototype of ThatsMyKid

Key learnings:

• The prioritization of a product backlog in a lean startup project is stable for at most half a day...
• Do not start lean startup experiments if it is 35 degrees celsius outside - can be quite demotivating :-(
• The open working environment at Coworking Space Nuremberg is really cool and enjoyable.
• The new technology stack (Meteor, JQuery, JavaScript) is really good for rapid prototyping.
• Having an hourly status (review) meeting before commiting code helped us a lot to stay focused and avoid trouble.
• Technology is waste (it takes a LOT of time - even if you are not an expert with it)
• Driving three different technological approaches to our first prototype was a good idea, since we learned very fastly, which one would fit our project.
• No design is the best design (at least almost none :-)
• If you have your first UI prototype this is REALLY motivating!

This day started out very frustrating but had an amazing turning point when we first saw our UI prototype in the first review working. The deeper we dive into technology and minimal feature set, the more obvious it becomes, how massively complex a simple application must be. We are optimistic to learn a lot during the next three days and are glad that we love our design so much.

Lean Startup Experiment - Day 1

At this moment the first day of our lean startup experiment is at an end. What did we accomplish today? Essentially, we "proved" our hypothesis, that there might be some interest in an application as we imagine it. Additionally we got some valuable feedback for our app based on the paper prototype we constructed in the morning.

Paper prototype of ThatsMyKid

Sven showing our valuable feedback vom passers-by

Key learnings for today:

• The paper prototype massively helped us to show people, what our idea of the app is. The feedback for our prototype was very helpful and good. Having something to present and touch is an invaluable advantage!
• Feedback from potential future customers can be very motivating. Get feedback from customers as fast as possible!
• Establishing a backlog - even for a product you have a relatively clear vision of - is hard. It is hard work to focus on the key features of your product!
• The last step today was setting up the infrastructure to build a first prototype, which was very time consuming. We didn't expect it to be that hard. Even if many Google services (which our technology stack depends heavily upon) are really easy and convenient to use.

Preliminary ThatsMyKid logo

A lot is done. But there is still more to do...

We are now keen to see, what we will be able to deliver after the second day of our little lean startup experiment. Stay in touch!