Convincing that group about mock objects hasn’t gone so well yet. I showed them your example of mocking out the database in the login code. They didn’t see the value. I finally got them to understand that if each successive layer in an app is tested then the next layer only needs to test its own behavior—not everything beneath (e.g., the database). I’ll keep trying on them but for now I can’t convince them that they’re headed for trouble as the time it takes to run their unit tests gets very lengthy. Ugh.

I’ve added XPlanner to my “check it out” list and will get to it as soon as I can. I never use index cards as my teams always seem to be distributed. I’ve actually never got the appeal to them when I’ve got a perfectly fine computer in front of me.

--Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: John Goodsen [mailto:jgoodsen <at> radsoft.com]
Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 11:48 AM
To: scrumdevelopment <at> yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [scrumdevelopment] Maintaining Product Backlog estimates

(Hi Mike - how's your mock injection going?

Yes - we use XPlanner for distributed teams - I think there is a Oracle
user out there somewhere.  It's not as handy as index cards but
when your customer is somewhere else or part of the team is
somewhere else, it really helps close the gap well:

It's easy to setup and get running if you have a Tomcat server
up and running...

http://xplanner.sourceforge.net

--
John Goodsen           RADSoft / Rapid Software Delivery Specialists
jgoodsen <at> radsoft.com             eXtreme Java Internet Consultants
http://www.radsoft.com           Toll Free: 866-RADSOFT (723-7638)


Mike Cohn wrote:
> I read it's homepage and was very intrigued but since I've already got
> Oracle and SQL Server all over my machines I didn't have time to install
> another database and check it out.
>
>
>
> I track things mostly via Excel spreadsheet but am currently configuring
> a defect tracker (TestTrack from Seapine) to track my sprints for me.
>
>
>
> Have you used XPlanner? How good is it?
>
>
>
> --Mike
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Goodsen [mailto:jgoodsen <at> radsoft.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 10:56 AM
> To: scrumdevelopment <at> yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [scrumdevelopment] Maintaining Product Backlog estimates
>
>
>
> I'm curious - Is anyone using XPlanner to help manage distributed
> SCRUM teams?