We are continually inundated with new tools. Tools that will write code for us (Codesmith, T4, etc etc), tools that tell us when our code has a smell (Resharper) and tools that help us keep lists of things to do (VersionOne, Team Foundation Server and others). I'll be the first to admit that I love tools. Or rather, I should say that I love trying out tools.
Today, I discovered myself telling a team member who wanted to track Stories and Tasks in TFS, that above all else, we need to remember the purpose of a tool. A tool is intended to make a job easier, not harder. By harder, I mean that a tool should help us take less time to accomplish the same goal, or its overhead should equal the additional value it brings to the table.
For the first time in many years, I have completely and unequivocally embraced the art of SIMPLE, namely using just a spreadsheet to manage Product Backlog and a template to print cards out for a Sprint backlog. Feedback I got today was that it was very hard for the team member to know where they were with stories and tasks. They felt that having the tasks in TFS as work items would help them better understand what they were doing. What's concerning me with this statement is that the task board is less than 10 feet from where we sit, all in the same room.
I'd like to believe that the confusion doesn't come from the use of index cards but more from lack of collaboration or something else. How can managing a list in an application make it easier to know what someone has committed to and what they need to accomplish in 9 business days...
I believe that tools serve a valued purpose and tools like TFS are extremely valuable especially for demographically disparate teams however, teams that sit in the same room at the same table don't need the additional overhead. Combine managing the board and TFS work items and it seems to me that it doubles the administrative overhead for very little additional value.
Tim
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