Too detailed project management requirements

[thorbjorn78]

North contains lots of good guidelines for web development, but the project management part is too detailed. I especially have a problem with the "Iterations" chapter. This chapter apparently dictates that a Scrum based project process should be followed. Why? That is not a prerequisite for a successful web development project. There are many alternatives.

[Snugug]

While I agree there are many alternatives to the rough Scrum guidelines I've laid out, the reason they were chosen is because modern web development, especially when developing responsive projects, requires an agile approach and the process used is absolutely a prerequisite for a successful web development project. Having worked in various Agile environments for a while, I've found that LEAN focuses too much on small, quick wins and the overall workflow feels a lot like waterfall, RAD is great for when the team is the product owner or for determining requirements when they are not, and Kanban is good when a team is creating templated system they've built before but not for creating new things.

I'm happy to discuss changes and updates to the process section, but I will not be removing it (especially as it's one of the most common things I get asked when I discuss this). If you have suggestions as to how to improve the section, I'm happy to hear them and we can discuss ways to potentially update the section.

[thorbjorn78]

We are using a process developed through the Kanban method for developing new products, so I don't agree with your views on that, but I guess that is beside the point.

Ideally something like North should to be methodology-neutral when it comes to the project process. Including detailed guidelines for everything from project management to CSS naming conventions seems very ambitious.

As I subscribe to another project management approach than Scrum, I will of course have problems accepting the scrum recommendation. I am sure there are similar objections from other people on other parts of the document. At the very least I would expect a more precise introduction, explaining how one should approach the material. I would accept it as a set of guidelines to be used as a great starting point for people new to product development, or as a set of guidelines where one could cherry pick the parts that one finds useful. It would be harder to accept North as a set of "standards" that everyone should be following. At the moment it comes across as the latter. :)

[Snugug]

The single most common question I get when I discuss responsive web design is about process, so I'm not willing to remove process from the document, but I will update the language to describe this is an effective approach for the Scrum pieces. If you are willing, please write up a section on how Kanban can be used to accomplish the same kind of non-waterfall, iterative development with product owner feedback throughout and we can work on getting that merged in

[sdboyer]

fwiw, i sit twenty feet from @Snugug, and the over-detailed-ness on the project management methodology front is one of the things we...winked at him about from the outset :)

so yeah, +1 to making this less specific.

[thorbjorn78]

@Snugug I saw the adjustments you made, that's better. :) I'll keep the task of writing something about Kanban or custom methodologies in my todo backlog, hopefully I'll get to it sooner or later.

@sdboyer hehe :)