[xmlWiki-developers] things to chew on before tomorrow night

[Arnaldo C. <ar...@mi...>]

All,
    I had a good conversation with Andrew (our assigned TA) about our =
progress.  He made a few points that I thought were worth repeating to =
the group (Andrew, I know you're on this mailing list, so feel free to =
object if I get some of this wrong or add if I leave something important =
out):
    -He mentioned that he didn't think that the user story estimates on =
the course Wiki were the right way to go for an XP project.  He =
mentioned that estimating user story lengths (in his mind) would =
typically take no more than 30 minutes in a chat session.
    -His thoughts on Jim's "What's different on our project?"  "Why =
don't we just use open source code?" musings:
        -If we were working for a company, and not students in a course, =
we probably would use the open source.
        -But, we're students, so it might be better for us not to, just =
for the learning experience
        -Arnaldo's unsolicited thoughts:  Why not compromise, and use =
some of what they have, or at least be familiar with it?
    -He said that at this point, we are behind.  We probably should have =
started coding a couple of weeks ago.

    Also, I have a standard I'd like to suggest that you may or may not =
agree with.  Let me know if you disagree:
    I've been intentionally sending out a meeting agenda on the day of =
the meeting, and encouraging anyone who has agenda items to email me in =
advance.  What I noticed on Monday was that no one sent any discussion =
topics before the meeting, but we all (self included) had things on our =
mind that we wanted to talk about once we got to the meeting.  Problem =
was, we didn't stay on any one topic, and didn't really get anywhere.  =
What I'm suggesting is this:
    a) If there's something you really want to talk about and you know =
it in advance, email it to me and I'll put it on the agenda.
    b) If you think of something important to add after I've already =
sent the agenda, please mention it in the meeting and we'll put it in =
queue behind the last agenda item listed for that meeting.
    I think this will help us stay on track better than we did on =
Monday.

    I'll send out an agenda tomorrow.  (Right now, it's looking pretty =
similar to last meeting's agenda, with the addition of discussing the =
possibility of Open Source, and discussing what we can do to catch up.)
--Arnaldo