Use index cards or a planning tool to plan iterations?

When I first started doing extreme programming back in 2000 we used index cards to plan iterations and a spreadsheet for tracking. After a while, we became frustrated with the overhead the spreadsheet introduced, and moved to an agile planning and tracking tool. As part of this transition, the use of index cards fell away. With hindsight, we used the spreadsheet incorrectly. We should've tracked our effort on the planning board and simply plugged the latest 'work remaining' figures into the spreadsheet every day to produce the required Big Visible Charts, such as the burndown chart.

The first planning tool I started using was XPlanner (now hosted at Codehaus). It was nice and simple but I didn't like the charts, so I moved to Versionone. I started to ask myself do agile planning tools fit in an informative workspace?

So, in a recent project we've been experimenting with index cards to facilitate planning and a tool for tracking and producing charts. I prefer to use index cards for planning because they facilitate conversation and feed the whole dynamic generated in the planning meeting. Playing with priorities by ordering the cards on a table or on the floor is a simple yet effective way to visualise potential options for iteration or release content.

The main problem we've experienced with using both index cards and a tracking tool is that you have duplication - a story exists on a card and in the tool. This duplication bugs me. Also, we've only been entering stories and their estimates into the tool for the current iteration. This allows us to track the work remaining in the iteration in the tool which automatically generates an iteration burndown chart for us. We couldn't be bothered to enter the other 100 odd unplanned stories in the product backlog that are already on index cards. A bad consequence of this is that the tool can't generate a product backlog burndown chart for us. So I'm creating this manually, in a spreadsheet.

In a nutshell, it's gotten messy and I'm now thinking we should be using one or the other, index cards or a planning and tracking tool. The trouble is, which one? Some people on the team love their tools and want to continue to use Versionone, while others want to use index cards and a planning board.

At XPDAY5, I had a few conversations with experienced agile people who had different opinions about the use of index cards versus a planning tool. So, I had the idea for a future conference session based on the BBC's Question Time programme. A moderator will elicit questions from the audience to drive a panel debate on the use of index cards versus planning tools to plan iterations. The panel will comprise agile experts and proponents of both methods.

Personally, I would like to witness this session to hear what other people are doing and what they are thinking. I also believe this would be an informative session for newcomers to agile.


Tags: agile, agile planning, big visible chart, burndown chart, informative workspace

posted by Simon Baker @ permalink
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