Extreme Excel Graphs

[bcholmes]

I was reading this article about Big Visible Charts on Extreme Programming projects. I like a lot of the things that Ron Jeffries writes, but this article left me a bit uneasy.

I like charts. And graphs. And metrics. (I think I'm responsible for just about every standard graph and metric that's being used in our organization). I like discerning what those charts and graphs tell me.

I have a problem with a number of the things that are said in this article. Especially with the underlying assumption that scribbling a chart on a whiteboard or flipchart is much better than any other approach. Partially because every environment I've ever been in has been starved for whiteboard space. (The best project room I worked in had something like five 3'x5' white boards in it -- it still wasn't enough). Also, my mileage varies hugely on the idea that the excel chart takes longer to create than the whiteboard chart.

Bill Wake comments:

The hand-drawn nature reinforces their ephemerality - they're for the team now. (I don't want a misguided manager thinking they should get a monthly report on the # of integrations.)

I believe that ephemerality is more often a problem than "misguided managers" in the XP environments I'm familiar with. I say this as the person who is, more often than not, the person that is asked to remember on behalf of other project team members and I Just Don't Want To Do It.

No doubt that's part of the force of charts. In general, I guess they're an element like advertising. They show up for everyone, affect everyone in different ways.

For my part, I think that advertising is a great metaphor. Y'know how people learn to tune out advertising? Yeah. It amazes me how quickly people learn to tune out stuff posted on the boards. Ron Jeffries seems to feel that the key answer to that is Big! Big big big! Okay, I can buy that to a certain extent.

(As an aside: one of the things I really like about XP is that it seems to have, as a core value, the idea that People Are. People Are a certain way, and process that start off with People Must generally fail. Instead, XP tries to say, since People Are this way, let's figure out how to design a process that fits. I think that this is a central point to the whole "People Are not going to look at the chart on the web site; any process that says that People Must look at the web site every day is likely to fail". I'm not sure how to reconcile this idea with my dislike for the article's premises.)

I do like the posts over at this Big Visible Chart blog. I especially like this chart.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

For the next Project Room: http://www.mywhiteboards.com/polritiimagd.html -- dry-erase, magnet-supporting wallpaper.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we had that in two of our rooms. Floor to ceiling on a coupl'a walls. The only downside I noticed was that really the only space that was used was from about waist height to about the upper reach of your arm.

[msstacy13.livejournal.com]

"the only space that was used was from about waist height to about the upper reach of your arm."

well, yeah,
but maybe that's the point...