Themes

Discussion:

Themes

Jason Nocks

2005-10-08 18:06:34 UTC

Wow, what a little nugget.
At XP Day DC 2005, Bill Wake mentioned themes during his keynote presentation.
There also seemed to me to be a bunch of interesting discussions that touched
on themes during the day. I had read XPe2E and couldn't remember reading
about themes at all. It seemed like such an important concept, I figured I'd
read about it again.

Couldn't find it in the index. Flipped through the book and couldn't find it.
Flipped through much more slowly and finally found it. Don't have the book in
front of me right now, but I believe that it was in the section on Quarterly
Release Cycle.

Themes seems like a simple, yet powerful way to organize concepts for the
team, customer, etc. Thoughts?

Perhaps related to some of the recent discussion on metaphor, etc.

Cheers,
Jason Nocks

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Kent Beck

2005-10-11 22:03:02 UTC

Permalink

Jason,

I'm glad you found the concept of theme helpful. I will make sure it appears
in the index of the next printing.

What are some "themes" that emerge from recent releases of your software?
How might it have helped to make these themes more explicit?

Sincerely yours,

Kent Beck
Three Rivers Institute

-----Original Message-----
Jason Nocks
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 11:07 AM
Subject: [xpe2e] Themes
Wow, what a little nugget.
At XP Day DC 2005, Bill Wake mentioned themes during his
keynote presentation.
There also seemed to me to be a bunch of interesting
discussions that touched
on themes during the day. I had read XPe2E and couldn't
remember reading
about themes at all. It seemed like such an important
concept, I figured I'd
read about it again.
Couldn't find it in the index. Flipped through the book and
couldn't find it.
Flipped through much more slowly and finally found it. Don't
have the book in
front of me right now, but I believe that it was in the
section on Quarterly
Release Cycle.
Themes seems like a simple, yet powerful way to organize
concepts for the
team, customer, etc. Thoughts?
Perhaps related to some of the recent discussion on metaphor, etc.
Cheers,
Jason Nocks
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
--------------------~-->
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Jason Nocks

2005-10-11 23:21:36 UTC

Permalink

Post by Kent Beck
Jason,
I'm glad you found the concept of theme helpful. I will make sure it
appears in the index of the next printing.

Thanks for that comment. Not sure if you intended it in a humorous way, but it
got a good (and much needed) laugh from me. Not a big deal. I was just so
excited to look it up. Then I was surprised that I couldn't find it. So,
when's the third edition coming out? Just kidding.

Post by Kent Beck
What are some "themes" that emerge from recent releases of your software?

Without discussing too many project details, we seem to be gravitating towards
certain clusters of stories. One of our main projects currently involves
viewing a simulated real-world environment. One of the clusters of stories is
a number of stories about viewing the environment looking at it from above
(top-down). So, there was definitely a top-down theme. Another theme was
movement in that environment (including rotation).

One of the interesting things to me is that the themes I'm trying to describe
above just happened. The concept of a "theme" of stories hadn't really
registered with me yet.

Not sure if this is consistent with how other people think about a "theme" of
stories. Seems to make a good deal of sense to me upon reflection. We worked
with the customer to help them focus on what is most important to them. They
actually settled on the collection of stories. I'm just observing what look
like me to be themes that the customer settled on.

In thise case, the customer is driving one theme at a time on the project
mentioned above. It's not difficult to imagine that a customer might want to
cycle through the most impotant story or two from each theme to get a more
comprehensive slice through the system earlier. Just being able to
communicate better with the customer about a "theme" or slice of the system
seems pretty powerful to me. Or, perhaps I'm just too euphoric right now. Or,
perhaps I have a different view. There's probably something else to themes
that I've missed entirely. Thoughts?

Post by Kent Beck
How might it have helped to make these themes more explicit?

Well, for one thing, I think I might have noticed it the first or second time
I read the book :) It's also possible that I just didn't read closely enough.

I hope my long-winded description above gives a better picture of some of the
ways I see "theme" being helpful.

Post by Kent Beck
Sincerely yours,
Kent Beck
Three Rivers Institute

Thanks Kent. I appreciate the discussion.

Oh, by the way. I'm from Philadelphia, and a couple of people from my company
will be in San Diego later this week. Unfortunately, we are just going to
miss your presentation (with the XPSD group?). We're heading up to San Jose
on the 17th.

Cheers,
Jason Nocks

Post by Kent Beck

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