Ivan Sanchez

Many people tried different ways to define what “done” means in a software project (as you can see here, here and here). My experience, however, is making me believe that the problem may be in the word itself. Saying something is “done” always creates different expectations depending on who we’re talking to. And having to create a specific definition for a word means it will only be valid for the people who agree on it, and as long as they remember it.

The solution? Well, maybe we should simply be using a different word(s). For instance, my gut feeling is that “ready” could probably do a better job. The main reason is that it invites further questions (“ready for what?”), whereas done ceases the communication (“if it’s done, let’s move on.”).

On October I’ll have another great reason to travel: running a coding dojo at the Latin-American Conference on Agile Development Methodologies (or simply Ágiles2009). And if having an event like that in back in Brazil wasn’t good enough, the conference will be in Florianópolis, the city where I studied and used to work before moving to London. How cool is that?

For this session, it seems like once more the challenge will be how to prepare a session for more people than we’re used to. So Victor Hugo and I still have to come up with something special for this occasion.

Anyway, If you’re lucky enough to be around at the conference, please don’t hesitate and come say hi