In this video we demonstrate (using M6) how teams can link and populate plans by leveraging each other’s work. The demonstration starts from a requirements collection. This collection is linked to a development plan. The development team can populate a release plan with work-items that have links back to the requirements. Next, the testers link and populate their plan from the requirements. Finally, the testers and developers link their plans and work-items. All plans and work artifacts (requirements, work-items, test cases) can be linked giving teams transparency into the status of each others work.

For teams to successfully implement and deliver software, their plans must align, with all members sharing the same vision of the requirements, the development iterations, and the test plans. One of my favorite movie scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl can help illustrate this principle:

When Will and Elizabeth are held captive by the evil ghost-pirate Barbossa aboard the Black Pearl, Will Turner reveals that his blood is the key to freeing Barbossa from his curse. Will demands that Elizabeth be freed or he will shoot himself and fall off the boat, thereby damning Barbossa to live under his curse forever. Barbossa agrees to set Elizabeth free … but by walking her off the plank at gun point.

Will contests Barbossa’s implementation of his requirement (walking Elizabeth off the plank). Will’s requirement was for Barbossa to set Elizabeth free, but Barbossa argues that Will did not specify the details of how she would leave the boat. In Barbossa’s opinion, he is acting on Will’s wish and setting her free from the boat. The tension exists because neither Will nor Barbossa had full transparency into the other’s plan.

I realize that I’ve taken a literary leap with my example, but hopefully it makes the point and was entertaining. For teams to successfully implement and deliver software, their plans must align with all members sharing the same vision of the requirements, the development iterations, and the test plans. Having the ability to leverage and link to each others work enables team members to gain transparency into each others expectations, thus facilitating further conversation and collaboration on the details of the work.

Please, save your teammates from having to walk the plank. What looks like fun in the movies isn’t always fun in real life!  Use the IBM Rational Workbench for Collaborative Lifecycle Management to enable full team transparency with the ability for all team members to ‘specify’ what is needed to successfully deliver your software.

Carolyn Pampino