Digital Notecards for Iterative Planning
One of the features central to the practice of Extreme Programming is
story-based planning. In story-based planning, the intended users of
the software create typical scenarios they would encounter while using
it, and the developers create tasks or requirements they code in order
to satisfy those scenario. There are usually two methods used to
capture and record these discussions: paper notecards and project
management software, each one possessing their own affordances. Paper
notecards are easily portable, have global visibility, and are limited
in size and in the amount of information it can carry. Software
solutions such as Rally and Version One allow for multiple visualization
of information, easy iteration planning, and easier ability to update
and append information associated with a task.
This project is an attempt to combine the affordances of paper notecards
and project management software by creating "digital notecards" through
digital pen and paper technology. By applying the digital pen
technology to notecards, XP developers can create, modify, and discard
story and task cards quickly and efficiently without having to be
conscious of the technology. In addition, by having the information
also available in a digital form, developers will have the power to
manipulate the information as they see fit.
For my project, I first intend to create a working prototype allowing
for digital pens to capture information on a notecard. The prototype
should allow the programmers to take the digital representation of the
card and be able to capture and manipulate the information contained on
it. The XP programmers should be able to view the information in layout
similar to a card and be able to manipulate it in certain ways that
extends beyond what is capable of normal cards (i.e. being able to draw
associative links between the two and begin able to collapse multiple
cards into one card.) This is not meant to replace the need for physical
cards, but is meant to augment them with additional capabilities. In
addition, the information on the cards should be able to be easily
imported into any existing project management software program to allow
for information appendage and status updating.
I also intend to conduct user testing to evaluate the effectiveness and
appropriateness of my design. Ideally, I would like to deploy a working
prototype into an XP team and allow them to use the software to evaluate
it. However, given that XP is not a popular practice, meaning that
there would be a lack of available test subjects, and that the time
frame might be too short, I do not know how feasible this method of
evaluation is. As a secondary plan for evaluation, I could conduct some
user studies on university students using different user scenarios.
While I would have a plethora of subjects available, they will not be
from my target group and the effectiveness of performing user testing
for ubiquitous computing method might not be a strong metric. As a
deliverable, I intend to submit this project as a Work in Progress
submission to the CHI 2006 conference.