Today I stopped bothering to update XPlanner. Part of the Agile method is to “do the simplest thing that works.” XPlanner wasn’t really a simple install, but once I adjusted to the user interface it made at least logical sense. The problem is:
- I already track my Scrum projects on white boards with sticky notes.
- I already use 3×5 cards for user stories and tasks.
- I do the time tracking, because time tracking really demotivates developers.
- My developers are all collocated so they can see the white boards at the daily standups.
- Tracking time takes way too many clicks. (I can see why they’re considering a nice friendly Ruby on Rails version with AJAX support)
- The graphs only update once a day and really didn’t work that well for me.
- Excel isn’t so bad.
- It was just slowing me down and duplicating work I was already doing.
So I’ll toss a note to myself to check in on it maybe a year from now or look at a commercial option like Rally if I feel the need again, but for now I’m back to 3×5 cards, white boards and Excel.
We just released our new 0.7beta1 with a nicer installer. At least this will be simpler
For the rest I completely agree with you. XPlanner greatest assets are used when the team is distributed.
I would however welcome your comments on how to manage time better. We also are looking at Release planning and that might be something useful for even collocated teams. I would love to hear how you would envision it working.
Jacques