DevelopmentProcess/Construction
Contents |
Distribution of work to teams
Scheduled ERP development inside Openbravo is handled by Scrum teams guided by their product owners. They are grouped into different product areas, a list of teams can be found with their tracking spreadsheets here
Each of the teams works their way through stories requested from them at their own pace, starting with the most important ones.
Development approach
Each user story is to be completed in the “done is done” logic of Scrum, so it must cover all aspects of functionality, including documentation and testing. This way we can release chunks of functionality as they are completed, which greatly simplifies the launch phase
So the regular sequence of work is:
- Transform feature requests into user stories and acceptance criteria, supported by Functional Specifications using the Style guide
- Design solution to the user story requested and write technical specifications
- Write documentation for the designed solution using the Documentation Style Guide
- Write test plan for the designed solution to make sure the given acceptance criteria are met
- Implement solution using Test Driven Development and Unit testing
- Define test cases in TestLink which must also cover the acceptance criteria
- Test solution according to test plan
As changes to the plan occur and problems are found, parts of this sequence repeat.
Development is done using agile methodologies
Collateral Development
As part of the Construction Phase, a number of collaterals need to be produced in order to make available all the information required for a successful deployment to the Community.
In particular, the following documentation needs to be updated:
- On line help
- User Documentation
- Functional Documentation
- Installation Guide
- ER Diagrams
Additionally, the following software artifacts need to be developed:
- Upgrade documentation and tools: documentation and scripts that allow users of the previous release to move to the current one. The tools needs to be developed before the completion of the Alpha cycle in order to allow existing customers to start the beta cycle.
Finally, the following dissemination artifacts need to be developed:
- Demo scripts for the most important new functionality
- Demo recordings (viewlets) of the most important new functionality (optional)
- The datasheet must be updated
The final iteration of collateral development must be complete before beta can be released.
Development cut-off before launch
Two criteria are defining the behavior preceding the launch phase:
- Release defining features
- Development cut-off date
Release defining features have been decided during the feature request scheduling and may still be added during
Development continues to contribute features to a new release at least until the release defining features have been completed sufficiently.
Then at a set cut-off date, all features completed until this point move into the launch process while the ongoing development continues in PI for later releases. The cut-off date is 6 months before the desired release date, leaving a safe amount of time for the launch process.
If during the approach of the cut-off-date it becomes clear that a release defining feature cannot be completed in time, the responsible Product Owner must flag this at the earliest possible point. It then needs to be decided whether the launch date has to move or the feature needs to be cut back.