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Does "spike out a mainframe in two weeks" mean anything? I assume it's meant to be a designer parody of developer talk, but it just seems an odd phrase.

by amouat 13y ago

njharman 13y ago
Spike has specific meaning in agile terminology. Two weeks is more than I'd allocate to a spike, but needs vary and agile's biggest point is adaptability. "Mainframe" I assume refers to UI element and not Big Iron. Seems non-parody, normal enough to me. Although, I did not read it in context.
- amouat 13y ago
  Interesting. I've never run across the term spike before. I was assuming mainframe refers to "big iron". Thanks to you and unwind for the explanation.
unwind 13y ago
This page: http://scaledagileframework.com/spikes/ http://scaledagileframework.com/spikes/ talks about the "spike" term (which I had never heard, but I've not worked with Seriously Formal Agile folks, as far as I know). It's summarized as "Spikes [...] are a special type of Story used to drive out risk and uncertainty in a user story or other project facet". It seems they "drive out risk" by focusing on analysis and research, rather than implementing stuff. I think.
- rmrfrmrf 13y ago
  I prefer this definition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIq9jFdEfZo&t=2m0s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIq9jFdEfZo&t=2m0s
- sanderjd 13y ago
  You don't have to be a "Seriously Formal Agile folk" for a "spike" to be a useful concept. It just means that for a certain feature, you admit that you really don't know how hard it is, so you give yourself some time to get a better sense of it, usually by doing a quick and dirty version of the feature that you may or may not end up using. I'm sure you've done the same thing for years without needing a word for it, but hey, it can be useful to label concepts.
- jdlshore 13y ago
  > It seems they "drive out risk" by focusing on analysis and research, rather than implementing stuff. I think. Actually, spikes (originally called "spike solutions") emphasize implementing as a form of research. You implement the risky thing so that you can learn how it really works in practice. You leave out all your normal production development practices and just focus on the question at hand, then throw it away (or archive it) when you're done. For example, let's say you had a need to send email from your software, but you had never done that before. You might create a series of spike solutions that send a hardcoded email from your server and through a variety of third-party services, then evaluate the results. When you're done, you throw away (or archive) the spikes and rewrite it at production quality in your real codebase. It's sort of like a prototype, but narrowly focused on a specific question.
SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago
A "spike" in agile terminology is a prototype/proof of concept that is deep but not wide. i.e. no need to prototype all the UI screens, but do prototype a ui backed by a service persisting to a DB (for example). deep as in "all the architectural layers and major technologies are in place and proven working". Wide as in "the system can do everything that the user needs"

Does "spike out a mainframe in two weeks" mean anything? I assume it's meant to be a designer parody of developer talk, but it just seems an odd phrase.

by amouat 13y ago

Does "spike out a mainframe in two weeks" mean anything? I assume it's meant to be a designer parody of developer talk, but it just seems an odd phrase.

njharman 13y ago

Spike has specific meaning in agile terminology. Two weeks is more than I'd allocate to a spike, but needs vary and agile's biggest point is adaptability. "Mainframe" I assume refers to UI element and not Big Iron. Seems non-parody, normal enough to me. Although, I did not read it in context.

amouat 13y ago
Interesting. I've never run across the term spike before. I was assuming mainframe refers to "big iron". Thanks to you and unwind for the explanation.

unwind 13y ago

This page: http://scaledagileframework.com/spikes/ http://scaledagileframework.com/spikes/ talks about the "spike" term (which I had never heard, but I've not worked with Seriously Formal Agile folks, as far as I know). It's summarized as "Spikes [...] are a special type of Story used to drive out risk and uncertainty in a user story or other project facet". It seems they "drive out risk" by focusing on analysis and research, rather than implementing stuff. I think.

rmrfrmrf 13y ago
I prefer this definition: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIq9jFdEfZo&t=2m0s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIq9jFdEfZo&t=2m0s
sanderjd 13y ago
You don't have to be a "Seriously Formal Agile folk" for a "spike" to be a useful concept. It just means that for a certain feature, you admit that you really don't know how hard it is, so you give yourself some time to get a better sense of it, usually by doing a quick and dirty version of the feature that you may or may not end up using. I'm sure you've done the same thing for years without needing a word for it, but hey, it can be useful to label concepts.
jdlshore 13y ago
> It seems they "drive out risk" by focusing on analysis and research, rather than implementing stuff. I think. Actually, spikes (originally called "spike solutions") emphasize implementing as a form of research. You implement the risky thing so that you can learn how it really works in practice. You leave out all your normal production development practices and just focus on the question at hand, then throw it away (or archive it) when you're done. For example, let's say you had a need to send email from your software, but you had never done that before. You might create a series of spike solutions that send a hardcoded email from your server and through a variety of third-party services, then evaluate the results. When you're done, you throw away (or archive) the spikes and rewrite it at production quality in your real codebase. It's sort of like a prototype, but narrowly focused on a specific question.

SideburnsOfDoom 13y ago

A "spike" in agile terminology is a prototype/proof of concept that is deep but not wide. i.e. no need to prototype all the UI screens, but do prototype a ui backed by a service persisting to a DB (for example). deep as in "all the architectural layers and major technologies are in place and proven working". Wide as in "the system can do everything that the user needs"