Sunday, October 25, 2009

Scrum Tools | XPlanner-Plus | Review + Development Plan

XPlanner-Plus implements core functionality for agile project management.

XPlanner-Plus views a project according to iterations, user stories, and tasks. As prescribed by the Agile paradigm, any XPlanner-Plus-managed project is planned and tracked according to a successive series of iterations. Each iteration consists of a start date, an end date, and a collection of user stories with tasks inside.

Development plan:
Features development.

- Develop Customizable Dashboard;
- Installation for Windows;
- Create additional fields: "Story Points", "Business Value", "Versions/Release planning";
- customizable list of values (statuses for stories, tasks);
- drag and drop stories;
- Product Backlog;
- Advanced search with Filters;
- set of properties, which allow to configure the behavior of XPlanner+;
- button "Redraw charts" for admin, as now charts are updating only once a day. (developed)

Technical development.

- remove Struts Spring plugin (done)
- improve build script to support several configurations
- upgrade dependencies (in progress)
- upgrade to use Hibernate annotations and migration to Hibernate 3.



To be continued...


Friday, October 23, 2009

JUST DO IT



Being motivated is a wonderful state of your being. In that state your body leverages huge amounts of energy. Your emotional field is totally balanced, physically you’re able to climb the Everest and mentally you understand the whole Universe in a split of a second. I know you know the feeling. The good news is that you can re-create this state pretty much whenever you want. Here are 33 tips to help you get and stay motivated.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

feedback that made my whole day

this feedback I read in a usuall feature request from Tortureduck:

I am working on a daily base with Xplanner+ and have to say it is at this point more stable than Xplanner ever was, and it is much more stylish, a real eyecatcher.

Thank you Manfred (Tortureduck)!!!
PS: here it it: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2883120&group_id=272681&atid=1159185

Thursday, October 15, 2009

regenerate burn down charts in XPlanner Plus

XPlanner had burn down charts generated once a day. Now, they can be generated as often as you like. Link "Regenerate burn down charts" is added. You may check how it works on Xplanner+ DEMO.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Remember: you are evaluated.....

Most people can spot a disorganized person very quickly indeed. Just a couple of e-mails unanswered, calls not returned, deadlines missed, details unchecked, appointments delayed, and the person is marked down as unreliable.

Would you want to work with someone who is constantly letting you down? Would you want to do business with them? It’s a lightning judgment, and it can be very hard to reverse.

Remember: YOU are being judged just as quickly. Every time you leave an e-mail unanswered, don’t return a call, miss a deadline, don’t check details, or are late for an appointment, you are being marked down as unreliable. You are losing business, losing trust, even losing friends.

Friday, October 9, 2009

XPlanner Plus Documentation for beginners

it's the first documentation for beginners for XPlanner Plus:
http://xplanner-plus.sourceforge.net/documentation/

But the interface is so intuitive, so I don't think you will need it.

It will be constantly updated, so you may check it for new features from time to time.

here is an installation how to guide.
Thank you Manfred for writing it!

and here is XPlanner plus development blog.
Thank you Max for tech info about XPlanner+

Sunday, October 4, 2009

What is the best, open source Scrum tool available today?

If you are looking for a good Open Source Scrum tool, have a look at XPlanner Plus. May be it's currently not the best one, because it lacks some modern features:
  • releases or roadmap.
  • task board/dashboard view.
  • story points.
  • ajax based usability features.
still it's good enough. XPlanner+ is web based and has fancy design. XPlanner’s UI is straightforward and intuitive. Xplanner has built-in reports and charts.

As now, XPlanner+ is in the process of intensive development, I know XPlanner's weaknesses will be fixed.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Stay hungry, stay foolish.



Steve Jobs : “…
Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle…”

articles about XPlanner. (XPlanner+)

I will provide here, some articles, characterizing XPlanner as a cool tool for Scrum.

http://borisgloger.com/2008/08/06/scrum-tools-xplanner-review/

http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-08-2005/jw-0815-xplanner.html?page=1

http://www.scribd.com/doc/16042039/Xplanner-a-Tool-for-Agile

As you know, XPlanner-Plus is based on XPlanner. That's why these articles are also about us!

Friday, October 2, 2009

xplanner+. the story begins...

the beginning...

being a team leader, I was given a task, to find an appropriate project management tool for our team. (team of web designers and web developers, with an ad-hoc development and very tight deadlines.)

I investigated a lot of project planning and tracking tools, and came across XPlanner. It's open sourse and completely free. I fell in love with XPlanner. It was so easy to use and easy to understand, but still there was one big problem: design of interface was not attractive and not user friendly.

I found like-minded person, and since that time, the development of XPlanner-plus was started.

If you are interested, just take a look on DEMO.

If you have no idea about how to use XPlanner+, you may read an available documentation for bedinners: http://xplanner-plus.sourceforge.net/documentation/

Now I can't live a day without XPlanner+ development. It's my new hobby, where I am a jack-of-all-trades, of course after my senior Java developer. I am so proud, we finished redesign and fixed some bugs.

And today I came across this article about XPlanner plus:
http://www.fairtec.at/de/it-blog-mainmenu-16/143-xplanner-plus, it flattered me. It's so nice to understand, your work is valued.